Cardinal Rule #2 - Thought leadership (continued)

So what does through leadership actually look like in practice? Well, a thought leader who is running a client workshop to resolve one or more issues will have multiple alternatives or suggestions prepped and in their "back pocket" to stimulate brainstorming among the group. Likewise, a thought leader will walk into a process redesign session with a "straw model" or even two. Another common mark of a thought leader is the reference and use of best practices; bringing them into workshops, sessions, and deliverables wherever BPs will add value.

"Consultant-as-thought leader" seems to have been dying a quick death since about 2002 which depresses me to no end. Whenever I have used this phrase recently among consulting colleagues, I have received mostly blank stares. On one of my recent projects, I assigned two consultants (one of whom was supposedly a "training expert") to run a training planning kick-off workshop with the client.

• They did not want to or see the need to prep facilitation questions beforehand


• They did not stand at the white board or the front of them room during the session


• They did not present initial ideas or suggestions to attendees to stimulate discussion or consensus


• They did not capture ideas and agreements in full view of attendees


• Best practices were not mentioned

As you can imagine, the session and travel involved was a complete waste of time and money because there were no concrete ideas put forth or recorded as to how to deliver training to the target audience. So, you can be any kind of expert -- training, supply chain, CRM, whatever -- but that does not make you a good consultant nor a thought leader. Thought leadership comes from 1) APPLYING your knowledge where it will help in a project, and 2) SHARING your knowledge with the client.