“Thought Leadership” is a term that has become a buzzword among many career advisors to those looking to advance their careers. The theme seems to be that to reach the upper echelons, you need to self-promote and produce “thoughtful” content that will get you noticed.
The career coaches emphasize that senior executive and board of directors positions are typically filled through word of mouth and networking, rather than job boards. How do you make those connections? The main recommendation I have seen is to leverage LinkedIn as a networking and self-promotion tool. This is achieved by being active on LinkedIn, which involves creating posts, liking, and commenting on other posts. This, in turn, will cause the algorithm to promote your content and profile.
If you want to advance to a senior role, you need to take decisive action and build your “brand”. Take a few minutes each day to explore your feed. At a minimum, “Like” several posts. Over time, aim to be more ambitious and make “thought leadership” comments that add to the discussion. Repost content you think would be of interest to your connections and followers. Finally, create a fresh post on something you feel strongly about.
Measure your success. LinkedIn provides analytics to track your engagement. Record these metrics to track your progress. Your initial success can be managed by increasing metrics. The ultimate measure of success is building your network to where you are recognized and others begin to ask your input.
So I am going to practice what I just preached. This post marks my first official step towards becoming a recognized thought leader.
I have relaunched my personal website as a platform to share insights on cybersecurity as a career path and provide advisory services to senior leadership, boards of directors, and individuals exploring a cyber career. If you have stumbled across this website, I hope you follow along and provide feedback on my posts. Hopefully, you will find value in my content.