The local used bookstore is becoming a regular haunt for me. There are two particular aisles that are a magnet. Every time I’ve been in there, I’ve found an interesting book or few. My personal library is growing at an alarming pace, and I love it. The book I found today was titled “Thought Leadership” co-authored by Matt Church, Scott Stein & Michael Henderson.
Upfront: I’m not a fan of the phrase “thought leader”, let alone the capitalised version. I’ve seen far too many self-promoting, vacuous and incompetent assholes calling themselves thought leaders.
I swallowed my usual visceral response to the phrase, & began thumbing through the book subtitled “How to capture, package and deliver your ideas for greater commercial success”. A few chapters in, and I’m glad I didn’t follow my instinctive response to ignore the book.
It strikes me that I do all three things – capture, package, and deliver – with ideas. Except: They’re about wildly diffuse ideas, from different domains. I’m interested in and read on a wide range of topics. I remember what my close cohort of friends and acquaintances are interested in, and I share stuff that interests them. Is there a better way to package what I capture and deliver it in other ways? How can I bring my writing, design, & public speaking skills to bear on this?
Reading The Neo-Generalist, followed by this book, is making me ask questions (ha! A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger is the book that preceded these two) of myself. Am I being effective at what I really want to do? Where am I spending my time of late, given my daily challenges? How can I invest my time more appropriately?
Ill-health pushed me to take a couple of sick days off. Promises to the kids helped me get out of the house, from behind the screens, and invest time with them. Letting my mind wander away from frustrations I’ve been bottling up has been cathartic.
With 86 days left in 2022, I have some things to put into practice to package. Documenting this journey will be valuable in of itself.