Thought Leadership Building

Introduction

The phrase "thought leadership" sounds like corporate buzzword bingo, sort of plastic-y. But frankly, in academia, your reputation comes from publications and citations. Outside that bubble? It works completely differently.

As a PhD, you've been trained to qualify every statement with "however" and "on the other hand" until your ideas drown in caveats. But in industry and public spheres, people value clear perspectives that help them navigate complex problems.

This isn't about becoming some YouTube guru or LinkedIn influencer. It's about taking your deep knowledge and translating it into insights people can actually use. If you are the expert, have an opinion to guide the public. And if you can’t guide the public with your knowledge, what was the point of all that knowledge?

When you do this well, doors open that your academic CV alone usually can't unlock: actual influence in how your field evolves in the real world. In this section, we will:

• Narrow down our domain, our audience, and what they need to hear from us
• Think about how to stand out from the pack with original ideas
• Build out a roadmap for getting our thoughts out into the world
• Measure the effectiveness

Exercise: Developing Your Thought Leadership Platform

Exercise Components:

1. Domain Mapping This will take our previous work one step further by understanding our audience and bringing our field into current context. Who are we talking to, and what do they care about right now?

Use this prompt with your chosen LLM, making sure it can surf the web for current information:

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I have a PhD in [your field] with expertise in [your specific areas]. I want to develop thought leadership that creates value beyond academia. Please help me map my potential intellectual territory by asking me questions about my work and my skills and my intention, then analyze them cohesively. By the end of your line of questioning, you should offer me suggestions about: 1. What unique combinations of knowledge do I possess that external people would relate to or benefit from? (List 3-5 areas where your expertise intersects) 2. What emerging challenges exist in my field or adjacent fields that are currently under-explored but that I can navigate? 3. Which specific audiences might benefit most from my perspectives? For each potential "intellectual territory," suggest 2-3 specific problems I might address that would demonstrate distinctive thinking rather than just sharing information that's already well-known.

2. Perspective Development Differentiation is very helpful for most content. Even if you’re rehashing the news, it’s often more engaging to put your own spin our perspective on it. Here, you will clearly write up three distinct perspectives on challenges in your field that showcase how you think differently. Why should people be led by your thoughts? Focus on clarity and usefulness rather than comprehensive literature citations. This will form the outline for the beginning of your content pipeline.

Create a table with these columns:

Conventional Wisdom	My Perspective	Why This Matters	Who Should Care

3. Content Development Strategy Now let’s take those actionable pieces and create some content! A dedicated roadmap will keep us on track and make the creation process quite a bit easier.

Bring the table from above into a document, upload it to the AI in the thread we just used (or copy the results into this prompt) and use this prompt with your chosen LLM:

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Consider my uploaded documents and help me create a sustainable content strategy that leverages my academic background while speaking to [your target audience]. Please help me create a 3-month content roadmap that includes: 1. 2-3 foundational pieces that expand on my core perspective (suggest formats and approximate lengths) 2. 5-7 derivative pieces that explore specific aspects or applications 3. Appropriate channels for sharing this content with my target audience 4. A realistic creation schedule For each content piece, suggest a working title and 1-2 sentence description of the key message or insight.

Adjust the suggested roadmap based on your time constraints and communication preferences, selecting the formats and channels that feel most authentic to you.

4. Engagement Cultivation Remember that what gets measured gets managed, so if you want to continue to build out your content platform, here are some ways to measure it.

Create a tracking document with these components:

1. Content metrics: Views, shares, comments, or other relevant engagement indicators
2. Conversations: Discussions, inquiries, or collaboration opportunities stemming from your content
3. Professional opportunities: Speaking invitations, consulting requests, or career advancements
4. Feedback themes: Recurring questions or suggestions from your audience