Leveraging Thought Leadership

Today's guest on our podcast is Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at 3M. Jayshree works to raise awareness and appreciation of science and how it aids us in our everyday life. Her first book, The Heart of Science: Engineering Footprints, Fingerprints, & Imprints furthers conversation around science advocacy, thought leadership, and inclusive progress. In one of our most fascinating conversations to date, Jayshree shares the process she uses in the lab, and talks about the similarities between that process and the ones great thought leaders use. Through analytical thinking and empathy, she determines what people think about science, where the gaps and barriers are, and ultimately, how to overcome them. One challenge of working in a scientific field is overcoming the stereotype that scientists are elitists; unrelatable and hard to understand. Changing people's perspectives on science is a huge task, and one that Jayshree is tackling on multiple fronts. Today, she talks about how her podcast series, Science Champions, speaks to educators and young students about science - in terms everyone can understand. She was also featured with other scientists in the documentary Not the Science Type, shattering stereotypes and inspiring young women and minorities to get involved in STEM. Jayshree fights "science apathy" by focusing on science's relevance to everyday life. By giving her work a human context, she is able to inspire, inform, and influence those around her to action. Today's chat is a great one, and we hope all of you are inspired to listen in! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leadership needs to identify people's problems, find the gaps, and develop methods to solve those issues. If you are going to advocate with thought leadership, you need to be passionate as well as informed. Mentoring is an important part of thought leadership. Our experience and hindsight can help others avoid or overcome essential challenges.

Is there a difference between activity and productivity? Both make you busy, but only one makes you fulfilled!. Our guest on today's episode is Garland Vance, the co-founder of Advance Leadership, a firm that helps leaders accomplish more and stress less. Garland is also the author of Getting' (un)Busy, a book that takes you through the 5 steps to overcome "busyness" and live with purpose, productivity, and peace. The conversation is an insightful and active one, with Garland sharing how his own "busyness" caused him significant health problems. This sparked his initial research, hoping to discover ways that he (and others) could accomplish more while doing less. He discovered ways to identify and focus on important tasks, and how a positive "ripple effect" could elevate everything else. Garland's business mode, delivering content through coaching and keynote speaking, was upended over the last year by COVID-19. Like many others, he needed to retool his content to reach a virtual audience. Always an innovator, Garland doesn't simply talk for an hour and then disappear; he has found ways to make a 500-person Zoom call feel like a personal learning event, and he knows how to make each guest feel like the center of attention. Garland also talks about the fact that "busyness" doesn't qualify speed or skill. He assesses the 20 best practices of highly productive people, and why they aren't overwhelmed with "busyness" - because they practice habits that make real differences! Combined with the 5 steps in his book, Gettin' (un)Busy, he shares insights and ways you, too, can deconstruct bad habits and design the life you want to live! Three Key Takeaways: Thought Leaders are easily overwhelmed with "busyness," which can affect personal life and even health. Focus on the tasks that matter, and accept that you can't do everything all at once. Productivity and activity are not the same thing. Garland's thought leadership helps focus on productivity, and ways to fulfill life's greater purposes. Taking a Thought Leadership keynote into a virtual presentation requires additional work, and there are simple ways to make the experience personal and create genuine connection with your audience.

Today's guest on our podcast is Dolores Hirschmann. Dolores is well known for organizing TEDx conferences, and is also the author of Clarity First, a recently published book that helps people find the clarity they need to grow their business. She has deep experience in marketing, and has blended coaching into her unique approach for helping businesses scale. We are so excited to spend some time talking to her! Dolores uses her time as a TEDx organizer to delve into the way many brilliant minds lack the succinctness needed to deliver their message. Too often, great leaders get tangled in the details, and can't connect in a way that gets others to lean forward and buy-in. By applying her knowledge of coaching skills to marketing tactics, she has enabled countless leaders to read between the lines of conversation - and strike upon the best ways to share the parts of their leadership that really matter most. However, clarity isn't the only struggle. Even leaders who instinctively grasp clarity often still struggle to make an impact. Some fight the fear of failure, and others find themselves facing fear of success and "what-happens-next?" Dolores discusses the way these fears are two sides of the same coin, and how to overcome them. In today's conversation, we explore self-worth, self-doubt, and how to change your mindset. You can create a new way forward, build your confidence and assuredness, and give yourself the permission to succeed. If you have ever had the nagging fear that you weren't enough, or that you were just muddling through when you could be winning, this episode can help you realize and accept your full potential. You can do it, and Dolores Hirschmann's Clarity First can get you there! Three Key Takeaways: If your Thought Leadership lacks clarity, the greatest potential of your insights will be hidden behind a messy message. Once you find clarity in your Thought Leadership, you need to take action to create impact. Even things you consider failures can drive success! Take a moment to study challenges, learn from them, and use those lessons to shape a better way forward.

If one voice can reach a wide audience, what about a hundred voices in unison? Think that would get some attention? You'd be right! Our guest on today's episode is Joe Sullivan, the co-founder of Gorilla 76: a firm that specializes in helping mid-sized B2B manufacturers modernize their marketing programs. Joe is also is also the host of The Manufacturing Executive Podcast, celebrating a year's worth of content helping manufacturing leaders find the right growth strategy for their organizations.. In our conversation, Joe shares how Gorilla 76 helps their clients find the right audience. He discusses having a focus on clients that can be helped efficiently, profitably, and with expertise in their challenges. By developing a deep understanding of the decisions involved in purchasing, manufacturers can create and capitalize on the strongest opportunities for growth. Amazingly, Joe isn't the only thought leader at Gorilla 76. Along with his partner, Jon Franko, Gorilla 76 is striking out in a new direction - encouraging and supporting thought leadership created by everyone in the company! Joe details how the skills and experience of many like-minded voices help them create content that proves the company has varied, deep expertise in many subjects - and they're eager to share that knowledge in order to help others! Measuring the success of thought leadership in marketing and sales is a difficult task, even with great analytical tools. Joe helps leaders avoid getting caught up in the routine of "counting likes and shares" without stopping to fully understand what the data is saying. It's easy to be overwhelmed by statistics, and great leaders need to focus on the most important information, and weed out the rest. Thought Leadership is a long game that feeds your sales pipeline, but first, a leader needs to build trust and become established as an expert in their domain. If you want to add thought leadership to your B2B company, or grow innovation across your entire organization, this episode is full of great advice for you. Three Key Takeaways:· Be sure that your thought leadership is tailored to your audience, and addresses their specific challenges and needs. Don't allow metrics and stats to rule your actions. Thought Leadership that connects with a narrow, but well-researched focus will have a higher return than broadcasting to a wide, but uninterested, audience. Podcasts and blogs are a perfect way to give your thought leadership a voice and build community. Just remember, these methods require focus, time, and commitment. They are not a magic wand to bring short-term sales.

Our guest today is internationally renowned business leader, Doug Conant. Doug is the best-selling author of The Blueprint, an eminently smart and practical guide to leadership that contains 6 content-rich steps to creating a richer, fuller, more elevated professional life. With more than 40 years of leadership experience at first-class companies like Campbell Soup and Nabisco, Doug now focuses on Thought Leadership as the Founder and CEO of Conant Leadership. In today's episode, Doug shares his passion about his life's work in Thought Leadership, and how he implemented positive, meaningful change at Campbell Soup Company. Years after he began, he chose to leave the corporate world and move into Thought Leadership full-time, using his experience and expertise to help leaders world-wide. Doug tells us about his legacy of contribution, and the ways in which he is inspired to transcend the ordinary and elevate new, innovative ideas. Doug talks to us about his book, The Blueprint, and how following a few simple steps can help leaders "up their game" by focusing on ways to constantly elevate their interactions. Doug and Peter discuss the need to take time for reflection and study; how to know what matters most; and how to change small things to get big impact. Great leaders are pragmatic about where they spend their time, focusing on the things that matter the most in order to see the biggest - and best - return for their efforts! If you've been looking for ways to increase your focus and bring innovative ideas about leadership into your life, this is the episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: Leadership is "sacred ground," where you affect people's lives and livelihoods, and great Thought Leadership should improve the quality of leaders in order to change a myriad of lives. Thought Leaders need to be meditative about their time and their goals, focusing on the things that matter the most! When seeking to improve as a Thought Leader, seek out role models, pay attention to those who had a profound positive impact on you, and actively follow the leadership they've shown - as you develop your own path!

When an issue is too important and too big for a single leader or team member to own? How can massive organizations tackle challenging issues in a manner that is beneficial to society? Our three guests in this episode are Surya Kolluri, Jeanne de Cervens, and Brian Forbes. They join us to discuss their critically important study: The Pandemic's Perfect Storm. This study examines COVID-19's impact on Gen Z and Millennials, and delivers some surprising results. Surya Kolluri is the Managing Director at Bank of America, where he structures and leads their Thought Leadership, with a focus on retirement, longevity and social impact. Jeanne de Cervens is a public policy strategist and advocate, with a deep understanding of complex legislation and regulations. In the past, she has worked at both Transamerica and Georgetown University. Brian Forbes is the current Director of Thought Leadership and Strategy at Transamerica. He oversees that organization's research and sales enablement programs, and focuses on healthcare costs, caregiving, and retirement. Our three guests recall how they crossed paths within various research groups and institutions before coming together to examine the impact of the pandemic. They discuss the population groups that are most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and give us their insights about ways to position thought leadership to better serve the people who are most affected. Our guests explain why large corporations are collaborating on these issues, and why society's interests outweigh the need for prestige or monetary gains. Previously established relationships between organizations allow for broader teamwork, and create more leverage for the message. We shed light on the ways Bank of America and Transamerica sponsored the work being done at Georgetown University. This study, and its success, would not have been possible if our guests had not previously established a relationship between themselves. Further, we discuss the importance of building relationships with individuals from other industries who share our passions. This can bring a myriad of viewpoints to the table, benefitting society as a whole. Collaboration can increase the credibility of a project, allowing it to reach a wider audience. If you want your organization to be more collaborative, this episode is for you! We chat about how to find solid, inter-corporational partners, ways to create mutually beneficial engagements, and how to make an impact on topics too big for one person to take on alone. Three Key Takeaways:· How Thought Leadership collaboration can create solutions that reach beyond a single organization. Successful Thought Leadership needs to include establishing and nurturing relationships outside your organization. Ways that thought leaders can go beyond research, and bring effective, meaningful results to your constituents.

If you've ever felt creatively "stuck in a rut," and innovation seems out of reach, this is the episode to cure your woes! Our guest today is Dr. Chitra Anand, an award-winning Communications & Marketing executive with over 20 years in the technology industry. She's an extraordinary leader, and has spent time as the head of Communications for Microsoft Canada, Director of Marketing at TELUS Corporation, and Director of Operations at Open Tex. She is also the author of The Green House Approach, a book filled with insights about innovation, creating compelling storytelling in business, and fighting complacency in the workplace. The Green House Approach is a mindset shift; a change in the way we approach thinking, and gives strong advice about "breaking out" and challenging current structural norms. Bill and Chitra reminisce about her career in various tech companies, and discuss the way she implemented thought leadership to educate customers about new trends - long before "thought leadership" was a commonly used term! Plus, Chitra illuminates the many contrasts between content marketing and thought leadership, and how your organization needs both if you're going to thrive. Chitra is leading a new movement in the workplace: Intrapreneurship! Today, she tells us what the term means, and how Intrapreneurship can drive innovative thinking and build new, better ways of conducting business. Chitra gives thoughtful advice for those looking to include "Intrapreneurship" in their organization. This is a great episode, sure to change your mindset and leave you with great ideas. Give it a listen! Three Key Takeaways Thought leadership means building new ideas and concepts; content marketing means leveraging an existing product or service. Thought leadership that forces clients to question old, staid habits, and identify behavioral shifts that can move an organization forward. Good thought leadership creates trust, and trust builds business.

Today's guest is Jim Kouzes the coauthor with Barry Posner of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge. He's also the Dean's Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Jim tells us about his first meeting with Barry and how they quickly became best friends. That friendship and their complementary skills and interests led to writing The Leadership Challenge which has sold more than two million copies worldwide! Jim's focus on the applied and Barry's emphasis on research has allowed them to develop the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) a standard 360 leadership assessment. Jim explains the process of creating LPI and how real-life examples play heavily into the ability of clients to grasp the concepts. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many people work and think. Jim discusses the changes in leaders and what employees look for in leadership due to the pandemic and whether we can expect these changes to subside as we move forward or if some of them will become the new norm. If you want a deep understanding of how evidence-based research can become applied skills you can use in daily life this is a great episode for you! Three Key Takeaways: When collaborating on Thought Leadership try to work with those who have complementary skills and not competing interests. Your Thought Leadership should not include anything you cannot factually demonstrate. Real-life stories of how your Thought Leadership has worked can help others understand the principles of your content.

Tom Schwab is the Chief Evangelist Officer and Founder of Interview Valet, which helps hosts find great guests for their podcast. He is also the author of PODCAST GUEST PROFIT which gives step-by-step systems from taking your podcast from obscure to acclaimed! With more than 2.1 million podcasts out there you are probably curious as to how to get yours heard. Tom gives us strategies for getting the most out of your podcast, how to hit the right audience, and why big numbers don't need to be a priority. In addition, we discuss the pros of being a guest on the bevy of podcasts that exist. Tom explains why you should try being a guest 20 or 30 times before starting your own. Then he breaks down why being a guest might be better for some than putting in the time and money to become a host of their own show. If you chose to be a guest you'll want to hear the advice Tom has for ensuring you maximize the potential of your appearance. Tom compares being a podcast guest to being invited to the host's home for dinner. If you have a podcast this episode will help you reach new heights. If you want to be a guest it will make sure you don't arrive empty-handed. Three Key Takeaways: When producing a thought leadership podcast hitting the right audience is more important than hitting a large audience. If you are going to be a guest on a thought leadership podcast ensure you research the host and their audiences before you sign on. The greatest benefit of being a host or guest of a thought leadership podcast is the relationship you can build.

Our guest is Tom Kolditz, the author of Leadership Reckoning and Director of The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. The Institute's two-fold mission is to create a powerful and widely available leader development experience and improve the quality of leader development in higher education everywhere. Tom shares how many universities include the development of leaders in their mission statement. However, he explains that few have any focused programs to bring about that mission. Many focus on what Tom calls "leadertainment" which has no lasting benefit. We discuss Tom's book Leadership Reckoning, which outlines the failure of higher education. In addition Tom defines leadertainment and reveals how to measure outcomes and design programs to improve leadership development. Tom informs us about the upcoming classification system from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that is compelling Universities to listen to the problems being presented. Afterwards, he gives insight into how it will aid them in moving towards better programs for leadership development. If you want to understand how Universities can develop better leaders and why they are currently struggling to achieve that, you'll want to listen to this episode! Three Key Takeaways: Thought leadership needs to include methods of measuring outcomes. In addition, you should be tracking goals in order to truly understand its effectiveness. Thought Leaders often have big ideas, but you have to cultivate the right conditions for the ideas to take root and grow. Your thought leadership should include a system of checks to ensure that a client is progressing. These checks should also account for movement backward.