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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Thought leadership: 6 ways to develop and share your unique voice

Research shows that thought leadership is one of the most valuable tools organizations can use to build credibility. Yet as interest grows, so does the competition to break through the noise.

Sometimes it seems like everyone wants to do it. But what is thought leadership exactly? What value can it bring to your business or career? What does it take to become a thought leader?

In this article, we’ll define thought leadership and answer these common questions. We’ll also offer ideas for developing your unique voice and share best practices for thought leadership marketing. And we’ll wrap up with examples of thought leaders and what makes them successful.

Let’s start with defining thought leadership.

What is thought leadership?

Thought leadership content provides meaningful insights into industry topics and timely issues. It builds trust with customers, prospects, investors, and other stakeholders in your organization.

The lines between thought leadership and other types of content marketing often get blurred. Unlike other marketing content, it’s not about what your product or services can do for customers. Instead, thought leadership focuses on providing information, education, ideas, and advocacy.

Thought leadership is delivered in multimedia formats, including:

• Articles, opinion pieces, and blog posts
• White papers, reports, and ebooks
• Video and podcasts
• Webinars, events, and conference presentations
• Data visualizations

What is a thought leader?

A thought leader shares informed insights and opinions about a subject, industry, or field of expertise. Thought leaders can be authors, consultants, chief executives, coaches, or subject matter experts. They can also be organizations or companies. They tap into the expert power that draws from both deep technical knowledge and extensive experience in an industry or field. 

What value does thought leadership bring?

Thought leadership is one of the most effective ways organizations can demonstrate value to customers -- especially during a tough economy -- according to the 2022 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report. 

The report found more than half of B2B decision-makers use thought leadership to evaluate potential vendors and partners. And nearly 90% of those surveyed said thought leadership increases trust and brand reputation.

But for thought leadership to bring value to you and your brand, it first needs to deliver value to your audience. When considering a topic, start by asking: What value will this bring our audience?

Audiences consider thought leadership to be valuable when it:

• Defines their challenges and the best ways to overcome them
• Makes sense of industry trends – why they matter and what to do about them
• Challenges status quo thinking and sheds light on blind spots
• Shares valuable knowledge through research data and deep subject matter expertise
• Communicates a clear vision for the future of their industry and provides a roadmap for moving forward 

For providers, effective thought leadership can:

• Build trust and credibility
• Strengthen and differentiate your customer and employer brand  
• Engage the C-suite and other business leaders, influencers, and others in compelling conversations
• Win early adopters, advocates, and new business, as well as drive growth with existing customers
• Provide a foundation for building an effective content marketing strategy
• Stake out new industry categories

How to become a thought leader

Creating thought leadership isn’t something you can do overnight. It takes time, expertise, and commitment to build authority and recognition in your field. 

There’s a common misconception that successful thought leaders are born with creative talent. Like other skills, creativity can be developed and nurtured with the right support and practice.

“Creativity is a skill, not a talent. It can be learned. If we trust our selves, we can do more than we ever imagined. …Mostly, we’re in a race to find our voice, change the culture and make an impact that we can be proud of. Our best work happens when we contribute something new, something generous, something that makes an improvement.” -- Seth Godin, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work 

As Godin suggests, creating successful thought leadership takes a combination of discipline and skills powered by the motivation to make a difference.

We’ll break that down into six steps to help you get started:

1. Find your why

You’ll need to tap into an inner reservoir of intrinsic motivation to keep going, especially in the beginning of your thought leadership journey. A good place to start is with The Golden Circle , a business theory created by Simon Sinek and his book Start With Why . The central idea is that to inspire others, you first need to find what inspires you. 

Tapping into your core values and inspiration will help spark your innate drive. This will carry you much farther than external rewards like getting positive feedback on social media.

Begin by asking yourself:

• What cause am I passionate about that is related to my profession or business? 
• What things in my industry and in the world am I unhappy about and wish to change?
• Why should people care?
• Why do I get out of bed every morning to get to work?
• Why do I do this rather than anything else?

The process of discovering your why will also help you find a clear focus for brainstorming content ideas. For example, if you’re a people manager, you may be inspired to find and share research and stories about new and surprising ways to motivate a team .

2. Learn from others

Become a dedicated student. Follow respected leaders in and outside your areas of expertise, as well as competitors. Look for people you respect who aren’t just talking, but who are also leading by example . Ask colleagues and customers about their go-to sources for industry trends and inspiration. What issues and topics do they wish were getting better coverage? On LinkedIn, look to see who the thought leaders you admire are following. Here’s where to find that information on their profiles:

Consume thought leadership in all forms and channels. Engage with the content. Leave comments, ask questions, share the good stuff on LinkedIn, and add your point of view. 

Make time to:

• Read books, white papers, reports, and blogs.
• Listen to podcasts.
• Watch webcasts, TED Talks, and YouTube.
• Attend events and conferences.

A great way to work audio content into your schedule is to listen while you drive or exercise.

3. Set clear goals 

You’ll need an action plan backed by solid goals to keep you motivated and on track. Break down the process into incremental steps with SMART goals . For example, an early goal may be to read and share two new thought leadership pieces a week. The goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

If you work with an executive coach , they can help you set or assess your goals for thought leadership and connect them to your career path . 

4. Hone your communication skills 

You don’t have to be a great writer or speaker to become a thought leader. But you do need to build your communication skills . Good communication is one of the key characteristics of top leaders . 

A good place to start is learning how to tell a good story . Storytelling is a powerful tool for inspiring others to take action, try something new, or make a change. Personal anecdotes, customer stories, and concrete examples help you connect with your audience. 

Not that comfortable with talking in front of groups? Get practice by volunteering to make presentations at work. Step up for speaking engagements at local professional associations and business groups. 

5. Develop your unique voice

Thought leaders who stand out have a distinctive voice and personal brand. Here are some ways you can develop a voice that’s compelling, memorable, and inspiring:

• Draw from all your experiences. Include early jobs, personal failures, and humorous situations.
• Practice authenticity . Bring your perspective as a whole person .
• Find a niche where you have the ability to make the complex simple.
• Develop a distinct point of view. Ask yourself what’s different about it? 
• Look for ways to challenge the status quo.

6. Be active on social media 

Having thousands of followers on social media doesn’t make you a thought leader. But social media is a necessary digital marketing tool for becoming a go-to source in your industry or a force for change. It’s also one of the best ways to stay on top of the latest trends and tune into what your customers, target audience, and competitors are saying.

This doesn’t mean you should become a social media junkie. Avoid wasting time by being intentional and practicing healthy social media habits . Commit to an activity level, but limit the time spent.

Use these tips for being strategic about social media:

• Look at where your intended audience is and meet them there.
• Be helpful and generous. 
• Get controversial while staying positive.
• Share plenty of content besides your own. Comment on others’ posts and stimulate conversation.
• Aim for engagement (comments and shares) more than likes.
• Show up with consistency.

Best practices for thought leadership marketing

Your thought leadership strategy and tactics will depend on your organization, goals, and resources. As you develop your plans, here are six guidelines for building a successful thought leadership program.

1. Commit to quality

Prioritize quality over quantity and focus more on long-term goals than quick wins. Show your audience that you respect their time by giving them valuable, high-quality content that speaks to their needs. 

Three ways to elevate your thought leadership include:

• Create content standards to guide development from concept through review and publishing. 
• Develop an editorial planning process that aligns with your organization’s core values and marketing goals. 
• Vet topics and messaging. Check with internal subject matter experts, sales executives, and those closest to your customers. They know your audience, their biggest concerns, and the language they use.

2. Adopt an audience-focused mindset

Walk in the shoes of your audience by crafting personas that describe each segment as if they’re someone you know. Whether it’s the CEO, CFO or CHRO, you need to understand their priorities, motivations, and what keeps them up at night. Know what they want to read, watch, and listen to.

For every topic, ask: What makes this hard at this moment in time? For example, what about leading and managing people is more difficult during times of high inflation and uncertainty? Reflect some of this sentiment in the opening. Be an advocate for your audience. Make them the hero in your story.

3. Conduct SEO research 

Apply search engine optimization tactics. You want your content to be at the top of Google search results when your audience looks for help. SEO research tells you the terms (keywords) and questions your audience uses. This also helps you avoid using corporate jargon by speaking in your readers’ language. 

Optimize your content by using these keywords in natural ways. SEO research also helps you confirm if topics are of real interest to your audience. In addition, you can use it to analyze competitor content and identify “white space” opportunities where there’s less competition.

4. Feature both storytelling and data

Speak to both hearts and minds by telling stories and backing up concepts with research. Use up-to-date statistics from both internal and third-party research to build credibility. Bring abstract ideas to life with customer case studies and real-world examples. Contextualize the piece early by making the connection between the topic and what matters to your audience. It should quickly answer: Why should I read this?

5. Plan for how you will use it  

Having a distribution plan and following through is as important as creating the content. You can have the most compelling, groundbreaking content, but without an audience, it doesn’t help anyone. It’s hard to break through the noise, but you can build your audience by engaging them in multiple ways.

Here are some tactics to increase your thought leadership reach and engagement:

• Require a detailed distribution plan as part of project approval. Including this at the onset helps drive accountability for more engagement.  
• Work with sales management and customer teams. Ask them to identify priority clients and prospects they plan to engage or invite. 
• Promote content through your company’s external and internal channels. Include your website and newsletters, as well as internal communications. Create email and social media templates with bite-size insights. Encourage key team members and employees to customize and share these with their networks.
• Pitch to media. Share content with journalists, industry publication editors, and industry influencers. Credible research with industry statistics often captures their attention.
• Collaborate with others. If you team up with a third-party organization in creating the content, they’ll be a partner in getting the word out. You can also extend your reach by offering a guest post in an industry blog.
• Host a webcast. Spark more engagement by backing up new thought leadership with an online event. Include an industry expert and customer to bring the story to life.

6. Measure the impact 

Use both qualitative and quantitative metrics to analyze how people engage with your content. Downloads and social media data give you a surface snapshot. Dig deeper to see what questions people are asking. With online content and events, watch for interaction and attrition. 

Though it’s difficult, try to measure sales impact. Research shows 40% of thought leadership producers say they’re able to link business wins back to specific pieces of content .

Examples of thought leadership

Brené Brown, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, and Ariana Huffington are all thought leaders with star power. There are also plenty of examples who may not be household names, but who are recognized as thought leaders in their industry. Here are four examples of communicators who offer insight and inspiration on HR, diversity, and leadership:

• Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, bestselling author, and host of WorkLife with Adam Grant , a TED podcast. He focuses on work life, leadership, and helping others succeed. As a BetterUp Science Board member and advisor, he’s helped inform and drive research for new coaching methodologies and techniques. 
• Dee Marshall is an entrepreneur, 2022 LinkedIn Top Voice, and subject matter expert on diversity and women’s success. She is CEO of Diverse & Engaged LLC , a leadership development and diversity consulting practice. She contributes to Essence Magazine, Fox Good Day NY, and many other publications. She also co-hosts the Brown Table Talk Podcast , which provides practical tips on how women of color can win at work. 
• Josh Bersin is an author, blogger, and speaker often cited as one of the leading HR and workplace industry analysts in the world. He began his career as a serial entrepreneur with the goal of making work life better by helping HR professionals learn and develop world-leading practices. He is the founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, which provides research, advisory services, and professional development for HR teams.  
• Sallie Krawcheck is an outspoken financial industry executive, blogger, and author focused on helping women reach their financial and professional goals. She is CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women. She also chairs the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, which invests in top-rated companies for advancing women.

Moving forward as a thought leader

The path to becoming a thought leader isn't easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding when you do it well. If you want to make this a professional goal, working with a BetterUp coach can help you make it a reality. They will help remind you of the big picture: with persistence and hard work, you can reach your full potential. 

Invest in your career

Get your promotion. Make your career change. Build the future you dream about. And do it faster with a world-class BetterUp Coach by your side.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

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Thought Leadership Lab

From Leader to Thought Leader

Thought Leadership Tools: How Do You Prepare a Great Talk?

As a longtime speaker, I still frequently struggle to develop a great talk – one that is both memorable and provides some lasting change for those in the audience. When someone offers a book, class, tool or template that can help, I sit up and take notice. Thus, I was happy to be included in  JD Schramm’s  Stanford workshop last week for the students selected to deliver  LOWKeynote  talks this year. There he shared his ideas of what it takes to prepare and deliver a great presentation (which can include funding pitches.) (LOWKeynotes is the Stanford Graduate School of Business speaker series where students share how they hope to change Lives, Organizations, and the World with a compelling idea). These student presentations, many of which are  online , are similar to TED talks, but shorter — only 9 minutes in length.

JD started the class with a useful metaphor – explaining that the speech we give on stage is like an iceberg. People only see and hear what is above the surface – our final presentation. What they often overlook are the hours of research, practice and the ideas we’ve left on the cutting room floor. Yet all of that is critical to the success of that final performance.

So, how should you get started in preparing a new talk? JD offered a simple formula for preparing and presenting a top notch talk:

No matter what the subject, there is a specific group of people you are targeting. Start with who will be in your audience – younger or older, well-educated or not, angry or contented, thought leaders who are already well versed in your topic or members of the general public who are completely unfamiliar. Think of this as your psychographic research. The more you can discern about the present opinions of the audience, the better you will be able to reach them — especially if you want to change their mind.

From the start, know that you are not necessarily targeting each and every one of those in the audience. Depending on your goal, you may be focused on reaching the decision makers, the influencers, the uninformed or those ready and willing to take action.

Next, ask yourself, “ Who Do I Stand for and Who Do I Stand With? ”. This will help you tailor your examples, your call to action and the images in your slides (if you use them) to assure you are speaking on their behalf and moving their agenda forward.

Finally, why should those in your audience care about those you stand with and for? If they don’t care, how can you make them care – an unexpected fact, a compelling story, a powerful image? These are all questions worth exploring as you begin your preparation.

What are the activities you will need to engage in to prepare for your presentation? These might include interviews of thought leaders in your domain, research (ex: online surveys or crowdsourcing ideas) or delving into books previously written on your topic. What will it take to get the information together to assure you create a memorable and engaging talk? What if you could get the leading guru in your field to provide a quote that is right on target with your message? How about a client, customer or beneficiary testimonial? Each of these provide a valuable credibility boost for your speech.

Value Proposition

Who are you to give this talk and to tell these stories? Here is where you want to think through what brought you to that stage. What experiences, education (not just the book kind), passion and commitment aligned to prepare and even galvanize you to stand on that stage? This is all tied into your value proposition. Don’t be shy about sharing your expertise or unique background. A little bragging is just fine — as long as it’s all true.

Connections

How will you better connect with your audience? This doesn’t mean compiling more data and facts. It often means an open heart and a commitment to make a difference for those in the audience. If you suffer stage fright, it’s hard to remember anything on stage, but what I’ve learned is that if I can make the mind-shift from “I’m so scared” to “I am doing this for my tribe,” then a lot of that fear dissipates. You are not presenting to look good but to make a difference. If you’re just starting out, a few weeks or months at  Toastmasters  can pay off beautifully. For the more experienced, a weekend improv class or hiring a personal coach to videotape and critique your talk can result in big dividends.

Assets/Resources

Here is where a little imagination and risk taking can bring big benefits. What props might you bring to the stage to help you create a lasting impression with attendees? When Bill Gates  spoke on the TED stage  about malaria, he released into the audience a large jar of mosquitos. After they felt a few moments of panic, he assured attendees that the mosquitos were harmless. He was urging the TED participants to connect with the fear that millions live with every day.

Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor  brought an actual brain on stage to illustrate her experience as a stroke sufferer. One of our  Springboard  presenters, Lisa Henderson, walked on stage spinning a basketball as she pitched her idea for a better way to match student athletes with college scholarships. What might help you tell your story? Sometimes it’s a surprising fact or an unexpected action.  TED speaker Cameron Russell  changed her clothes on stage to illustrate her point that super models come in surprising packages.

Think about what channels you will use to share your story. Will this be a presentation on a stage, a webinar, a podcast, a video on your website? The best talks can be repurposed in many formats and each requires a bit of a different tone and technique. On a stage, broad gestures and movement are fine, props are welcomed and for many events slides are expected. Depending on the audience, interaction is also appreciated. On a webinar, unless you are using video, you must rely on your voice, your slides and some interactive elements (polls, chat) to create engagement. Each format is unique and requires you to think through how your message will translate.

Message Structure

Nancy Duarte is one of the experts on how to structure a great talk. Her  TED Talk  and book,  Resonate , are classics. She has deconstructed some of the most well-known and best-remembered speeches and outlined a great model to follow.  Sam Horn  is another authority on how to engage an audience and her  TED Talk  on how to intrigue by using a series of three questions as your opener is very powerful. Whatever model you use, thinking through the ‘hook’ – an opening that captures your audience’s attention, and a strong and memorable close are key elements to assure your success.

Results of Your Talk

Finally, what is the outcome you desire? Ask yourself, how do I want my audience to think differently, what do I want them to feel or do differently as a result of hearing what I have to say? Think about your call to action – and how you’ll reinforce it from the beginning to the end of your talk.

Combining all of these elements is where the magic lies, but relying on this set of questions will help you set the stage for that magic to occur.

Many thanks to JD Schramm and his LowKeyNotes team for providing such a useful framework to get us started.

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Top 7 Slides on Thought Leadership Strategy

Mansi Gawri

When it comes to the concept of a leader, it is always said that they are the people who manage their team and coordinate with the other members. However, in today’s growing world, just being a leader isn't always enough for success. To truly succeed and lead a firm on the proper path, one must possess thoughtful leadership abilities.

What is Thought Leadership?

A Thought Leader is a person who can generate different ideas in today’s world of hardened challenges and who is skilled at managing strategies for the upcoming period. Moreover, this kind of leadership involves sharing helpful insights and establishing yourself or your company as an expert in your field.

But do you think solely Thought Leadership is enough to get on the path to success?

Obviously, the answer is No, as we need to plan appropriately to accomplish anything.

Here, Thought Leadership Strategies come into play!

Let’s discuss some tactics that Thought Leadership should incorporate:

• Verbal communication: Public speaking is one of the significant tactics thought leaders should use. In this, leaders share their experiences with examples that enable them to establish their stronghold on the topic.
• Keeping in mind the Diversity: Writing blogs and articles is something one considers as the most accessible and most familiar tactic among diverse audiences. As through these writings, readers learn about the key insights of the articles or blogs. Further, leading to brand voice among different audiences through websites like LinkedIn, Quora, etcetera.
• Building Partnership: Another significant technique to accomplish a goal is collaborating with other organizations with the same aim. By doing so, a leader learns about the solution to a challenge and gets market access. Ultimately, benefiting both the collaborative partners.

Now that you know the crucial strategies for a successful Thought Leader, share our professionally created PowerPoint presentation, Thought Leadership Strategies, with your team or clients.

Let me showcase a selection of the PowerPoint Templates featured in the bundle.

Cover Slide

This is the Cover Slide for the Thought Leadership Strategy PowerPoint Presentation. Begin this presentation by simply adding your business’s name.

Download this PPT now and start presenting! Also, This PowerPoint Template is 100% editable. You can personalize it or add any information as needed!

Download this PowerPoint Template now.

# Strategies to Elevate Thought Leadership in Organizations

This slide highlights the tactics to improve thought leadership, which is a significant tool to bring progress in business and personalized brands.

Moreover, the tactics mentioned in this slide are as follows:

• Interview and Media Engagement
• Social Media
• Speaking Engagement
• Op- Eds and Columns

Download this PowerPoint Template, as this slide enables innovation in prior ideas and remedies problems. By doing so, the open-minded audience is attracted to new innovative ideas, leading to a competitive edge over the market.

# Steps to Develop Thought Leadership Strategy

This slide displays the proper procedure to flourish Thought Leadership Tactics to create brand equity and improve client relations.

The steps that are included to develop a Thought Leadership Strategy are as follows:

• Specify and explain Aims
• Select Specific Audience
• Decide Program Method
• Recognize Thought Leaders
• Design Content Pattern
• Create Content Marketing Strategy

Download this PPT, as this slide acts as a guide for both firms and individuals to become prominent figures in their chosen fields. Moreover, these steps provide strategic planning and implementation. Therefore, making it possible to develop a powerful and influential thought leadership presence.

# Skills Required for Successful Thought Leadership Strategy

The slide renders the variety of skills and expertise needed to accomplish Leadership Strategy to execute successful programs.

The skills that are required are as follows:

• Storytelling Expertise
• Research Skills
• Design Thinking

Download this PowerPoint Template as this slide provides people with the fundamental skills required to lead and influence successfully within their respective sectors, such as communication, building relationships, strategic planning, and more. Further, all this leads to credibility, promoting innovation, and influencing the target audience's speech.

# Foundational Elements of Thought Leadership Strategy

This slide highlights the fundamental aspects necessary for a thought leader to be recognized and accepted by target audiences.

The foundational elements that are included are as follows:

• Set up different POV
• Figure out engagement channels
• Follow commercial aims

This slide is vital as foundational elements enable firms to develop a solid foundation that further assists in successful thought leadership projects. Therefore, this leads to an increase in awareness, influence, and credibility within the intended audiences.

# Thought Leadership Strategy Framework Levels

This slide describes distinct levels of the thought Leadership Strategy framework that indicate the leaders' expertise level.

The framework levels that are explained are as follows:

• Credibility
• Depth of Ideas

Adding this slide to this PPT is vital as this framework would provide a proper approach to understand the Thought Leadership Strategy. Further, this would enable them to implement initiatives quickly and gain an authoritative voice.

# Thought Leadership Strategy Core Areas

The slide highlights the prime areas that deeply impacts the thought leadership tactic which is being formulated by the companies. Moreover, these are created by companies to develop content which leads to exciting content and programs.

Further, the core areas include:

• Individuals

Adding this slide to PPT is essential as focusing on the main areas enables the firm to stand out as a leader. This is because firms seem to be the epitome of knowledge, reputation, and power within a particular industry. Ultimately, this leads to business growth.

Download our PowerPoint presentation, "Thought Leadership Strategy.” From showcasing the steps, skills, foundational elements, and framework levels of Thought Leadership Strategies, each template provides a visually engaging and easily understandable exploration of key concepts.

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How can leaders adapt their leadership strategy to different situations or challenges?

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5 Excellent Thought Leadership Examples To Learn From

Authority is a valuable commodity in the marketing world. People who trust your brand, your message and your expertise will hang on your every word and keep coming back to hear what you have to say.

More importantly, prospects who view your brand as the expert in your field are more likely to buy from you and use your services because, all things being equal, who wouldn’t want to work with the most knowledgeable people around?

Establishing true thought leadership gives you an edge over the competition, helps build a rapport with potential customers and makes it easier to generate conversions and close sales. Let’s take a look at some clear-cut thought leadership examples to inspire your content marketing strategy.

What is thought leadership, and what can it do for your business?

Thought leadership is content that displays your brand’s authority and expertise around a particular subject or topic. You’re not focused on selling anything or even presenting your brand’s messaging or core value propositions — it’s all about building credibility, pure and simple.

True thought leadership can present itself in a variety of ways:

• Breaking down difficult topics so readers can understand them.
• Commenting on industry trends and developments.
• Providing expert advice through step-by-step guides.

Consider who you would turn to for answers on a specific content marketing subject. The usual suspects probably include heavy hitters like Rand Fishkin, Andy Crestodina and Neil Patel. If you’re a regular reader of this blog and have found it useful, you might check in to get our take on things. Whatever or whoever your go-to source is, you trust their judgement and their expertise enough to assume that their viewpoint is credible and accurate.

That credibility has an enormous amount of commercial value for businesses. A 2020 survey jointly conducted by Edelman and LinkedIn found that nearly half of B2B decision-makers (49%) believe thought leadership content influences their purchase decisions .

That’s not all, though:

• 89% say good thought leadership pieces improve their impression of a brand.
• 59% view thought leadership as a more accurate reflection of a vendor’s capabilities than other marketing or sales materials.
• 48% spend at least 1 hour each week reading thought leadership content.

And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, here’s a pretty compelling statistic from the previous year’s survey : 58% of B2B buyers have made purchasing decisions based on thought leadership content.

You don’t need to necessarily draw clear commercial connections to find value in thought leadership either. From a content marketing perspective, thought leadership pieces build engagement with potential customers, increase brand awareness and establish your business as an authoritative voice in the marketplace.

There are search engine optimization (SEO) factors to consider as well. For instance, creating comprehensive guides around different industry subjects can increase the number of backlinks your domain gets from other credible sites. As we all know, strong backlinks are great for boosting your search ranking, Domain Authority and Page Authority.

5 thought leadership examples and takeaways

A good thought leadership example delivers valuable insight, conveys authority and demonstrates expertise around a particular topic — or the industry and marketplace, in general.

1. REI leans on its built-in expertise

You don’t have to poke around REI’s blog too long to figure out what it’s all about. Right at the top of the page, two words tell you everything you need to know about the outdoor retailer’s thought leadership content: “Expert Advice.”

Just about every thought leadership article on the page is a how-to guide, capitalizing on the brand’s name recognition and association with all things outdoorsy. Who would know better about choosing the best camp chair than the people who specialize in selling camping equipment? Each blog post covers subject areas that most interest potential and current customers — hiking, climbing, biking and snowsports, for instance.

Some thought leadership articles also help readers get more value and use from products they bought from the retailer, continuing customer engagement even after a sale. A blog post on how to clean a hydration bladder , for example, can ensure that those products are used correctly and hold up over time, thereby leaving customers feeling satisfied with their purchase.

Another cool feature is the page’s review system. A quick glance will tell visitors which thought leadership articles are useful and worth their time. That star-based review system also provides some much-needed feedback so REI’s content marketing team can go back and update low-scoring blogs to better meet the target audience’s expectations.

Takeaway: Give readers expert guidance and use thought leadership content as a way to continue engagement after a purchase or sale

2. General Electric inspires optimism

Your thought leadership content doesn’t always need to tie directly to your services and offerings. General Electric’s Txchnologist blog is a perfect example.

A quick look at the latest articles wouldn’t tell you much about what GE sells or even what industry it operates in. That is unless the company has a new termite division that we don’t know about. The Txchnologist page almost exclusively focuses on emerging technology, innovation and experimental projects. It’s all very future-focused and driven by a sense of optimism of where this tech can take us.

So, what’s the value of this thought leadership marketing strategy? It establishes GE as a brand on the cutting edge, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. For a company that’s so heavily involved in research and development, that’s a reputation worth cultivating.

Takeaway: Create thought leadership that reflects your brand’s core values while inspiring your target audience to learn more.

3. Deloitte shows off its unique research

Truthfully, you could pick any one of the Big Four accounting firms for this slot. Each one — Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PwC and KPMG — seems to perfectly understand the value of research-driven thought leadership content.

But we’re focusing on Deloitte here, and the firm’s thought leadership content is second to none. From industry reports and analysis to insights from leading subject matter experts, you can find it all on Deloitte’s website . Each thought leadership article and study dovetails with a specific area of the firm’s services, showcasing its authority in those particular fields and building credibility.

One way Deloitte really disguises its thought leadership content is by offering a wide variety of media for the target audience to explore. It’s not all just blog posts or news articles on the Insights page. There are podcasts, videos and downloadable assets available, letting visitors choose their preferred content type for digesting information. More options means more opportunities for engagement.

Takeaway: Go beyond blog posts to diversify your thought leadership marketing strategy, and lean on your internal subject matter experts and research to deliver impactful content.

4. American Express builds on community insights

Not all thought leadership content needs to spring from the minds of your own staff. American Express’ Business Class insights blog is proof positive that you can get a lot of mileage out of working with third parties to fill out a content calendar. In this case, American Express isn’t promoting guest blogs from industry experts or publishing new report findings. Instead, the financial services giant is turning to its own target audience to share their insights.

The content populating the Business Class blog provides the actionable tips and helpful advice — all driven by real-world experience, of course — that you would expect from an insights blog. The only difference is a good chunk of those thought leadership articles are created by the same visitors who read American Express’ blog every day. It’s a great way to simultaneously build stronger relationships with your target audience while curating the expert insights they appreciate.

Takeaway: There are a lot of different ways to showcase thought leadership. Be sure to explore every avenue to find the right approach for your brand and your message.

5. Brafton’s Jeff Baker is a one-man thought leadership machine

OK, so this last thought leadership example is a bit self-serving, but our Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Baker, knows how to craft a meaningful thought leadership article. Jeff’s contributions to the Brafton.com blog consistently include in-depth research, unique commentary on the content marketing industry and step-by-step guidance through even the most complex or challenging subjects. If someone out there has written a better guide to keyword research , we haven’t come across it. You could read Jeff’s blog posts — and only his blog posts — and become a better marketer within weeks.

And it’s all backed by specific data, real-life examples and his own hands-on experience. Combine those elements with Jeff’s authoritative voice, and you have a recipe for building the credibility and trust that defines thought leadership marketing.

Takeaway: Make your MVPs the stars of your thought leadership strategy. Shine a light on the in-house experts who have a voice and view that’s entirely their own.

5 qualities of a great thought leader

Whether you create thought leadership content by committee or have a single subject matter expert driving the bus, there are a few qualities and actionable steps you should consider.

• Takes a clear stance: Assume every competitor is going to comment on industry trends and developments. What makes your brand stand out ? You need a distinctive viewpoint, even cutting against grain at times.
• Has a unique voice: You should have a clear-cut brand style, tone and voice to get your message across. If not, now’s the time to get on that. If you have a company leader acting as your go-to subject matter expert, find a way to retain their personality in the content while sticking to brand style guidelines. Speaking of which …
• Is personable: When turning to an in-house expert to act as your thought leader, keep in mind that role can really blossom into a public-facing one as your brand gets more exposure. We’re talking about conducting Q&As, participating in interviews, hosting podcasts, conducting webinars and sitting on convention panels. Your thought leader needs to be prepared to handle a public speaking engagement if they want to serve as the voice and face of your brand.
• Understands your audience: Thought leadership content needs to give readers tangible value, and to do that, you first have to understand what your target audience would find useful. Tailor your thought leadership articles and blog posts to different customer segments and fill any knowledge gaps they may have.
• Assesses the competition: Know what the competition is saying — and more importantly, not saying — to potential customers to figure out how your thought leadership strategy can stand out and give your audience valuable insights.

How to become a thought leader in your niche

If you already have those qualities of a successful thought leader, then congrats, you’re well on your way to carving out your own authoritative corner of your industry’s blogosphere. If not, start establishing a clear, strong voice and vision for your brand .

When creating a thought leadership marketing strategy, start with your target audience. Dig into your customer personas — you have those, right? — and figure out what insights would really matter most to them. Then, conduct some competitor research to figure out what gaps their content marketing strategy has and where you can step in with some expert advice.

Don’t forget to promote your thought leadership content. Get on social media and spread the word, include your latest thought leadership article in your next email newsletter or link to it in a related blog post.

Like anything else related to inbound marketing and content marketing, thought leadership strategies demand a lot of work and diligence. Just keep in mind that any brand, no matter the size, can become a thought leader in their respective industry.

Let these thought leadership examples inspire you to find your own voice and footing in your specific niche. Take that first step to establishing the credibility and authority customers look for in a brand they trust.

Jeff Keleher

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Jeff Keleher is a writer and editor at Brafton. A man of simple tastes, he enjoys playing guitar, playing video games and playing with his dog - sometimes all at once. He still hasn't gotten over Illinois' loss in the 2005 NCAA National Championship game, and he probably never will.

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8 Proven Ways to Create Thought Leadership Content (+ Examples)

Douglas Phillips | August 28, 2020 | Thought Leadership | 21 min read

Quick Links

• 1.   What Is It?
• 2.   Best Practices
• 3.   Benefits
• 4.   Content Elements
• 5.   How-To Guide
• 6.   Examples

How to Create Thought Leadership Content

• 1.  Decide What Your Angle Is.
• 2.  Consider Your Release Schedule.
• 3.  Assign Roles to Your Team.
• 4.  Do Your Research.
• 5.  Determine the Best Way to Bring the Data to Life.
• 6.  Develop and Launch Your Thought Leadership Piece.
• 7.  Update Your Existing Thought Leadership Content.
• 8.  Find Out What Your Audience Wants to Know.

Your organization's content marketing strategy relies on your team's ability to develop awesome thought leadership content.

Unfortunately, becoming a “thought leader” is so sought after by enterprises great and small that the original meaning has become diluted over time.

What Is Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership helps build your audience’s trust in your expertise, but this is an effect rather than a cause. One isn't a thought leader simply because they put out valuable, thought-provoking content, they become a thought leader because others recognize them as thought leaders—though creating that thought-provoking content helps!

“Doing thought leadership” isn’t simply about providing high-quality products or services. It's about bringing your industry to a higher level of thinking about the strategic problems it faces.

Individuals and businesses alike can aspire to thought leadership, but it all starts with a clear understanding of the term itself.

A true thought leader is influential not only because of how they do things but also in their ability to explain why a certain approach is better.

Thought Leadership Marketing Best Practices

Leaving a lasting and meaningful impact on your audience is no easy feat. Becoming a top thought leader in your industry requires you to apply a mix of these five best practices.

Engage With Your Audience. 

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but engaging with your audience may prove difficult for companies that are short on time. 

Engaging with your audience means that you must find clever ways to get them involved in the conversations that you raise with your content. Ask for their opinions, respond to their questions, and develop content based on some of those conversations. 

The easiest way to engage with your audience is through social media. For instance, you may try LinkedIn because it allows users to create virtual group discussions. 

Be Consistent on Social Media.

Social media is a great place for thought leaders to reside. In fact, many thought leaders produce content specifically for social media to increase their following.

Sharing corporate blog posts and individual posts from the thought leaders in your company can help to build a community. You can also use social media to showcase your teams' expertise, including when they present at industry events and when they are mentioned in the press. 

The main thing you have to do with social media is remain consistent with your posting schedule and the on-brand content you post. 

Posting once every three months won't help you to become a trusted thought leader in your industry.

Get Your Thought Leaders in Front of a Different Audience.

Thought leadership is not limited to the content that you create and promote. To spread your message, you need the thought leaders in your company to have more exposure. This creates more buzz and expands your audience.

A good way to get them exposed is to:

• Submit proposals for speaking engagements.
• Get them to guest star on partner podcasts and webinars. 
• Make connections in the media.
• Search for guest blogging opportunities.

Make Sure Your Team Is Aligned. 

Any team members who are involved in your thought leadership strategy should understand the returns that thought leadership brings your company. Creating and implementing a strategy that accurately outlines the execution of your thought leadership strategy helps to keep your whole team in the loop.

Another way to keep your team aligned is to share data reports with them to show which content resonates the most with your audience.

For instance, if you have a series of short videos posted on YouTube that are resulting in high engagement, then your team should continue to work on new videos. Why? Because this engagement helps keep the thought leaders at the forefront of your audience's mind. Having them switch to other types of content could cost you momentum with your core audience.

Start Your Thought Leadership with Amazing Content.

Amazing content is the key to excellent thought leadership. Make sure your content is accurate, informative, and entertaining before it is published to make sure you can easily attract your target audience.

If you already have a content marketing strategy, then adding in your thought leadership ideas may be easier than you think. 

Why Is Thought Leadership Important?

There are some pretty amazing benefits to participating in a thought leadership strategy. There are leaders everywhere and content is bigger than just marketing. Thought leadership exposes your business to your market in a credible way.

Your business benefits tremendously if you can develop great content.

You Become Part of the Conversation.

Early in the buyer’s journey, consumers are looking into their needs and the best avenues to meet them. If you can meet them upfront with some valuable content that helps them, then you’re presenting your company as a viable option to invest in.

You also gain more authority by consistently contributing high-value information to industry conversations.

Participating in online forums and debates is a way of getting your foot in the door and raising a hand to say, “Hey, I know a thing or two about this as well.” Additionally, being part of these discussions can help your thought leaders keep their 

Your Audience Gets to Know Your Business.

If you’re the first to greet them, then you’ll be top of mind through their entire journey.

Putting quality, personable content out there lets your audience get to know your voice and personality . You’re a representative of your company, so they’ll associate you with your business.

If you have a more light-hearted, familiar tone of voice, they’ll view your company as pretty welcoming and laid back. If you’re more intellectual and straightforward, then they’ll assume your company is more professional and savvy.

Your thought leadership content can contribute toward your business’ reputation, so guide it in a way that’s appropriate for your industry.

Your Brand Gains Exposure.

The more high-value the information that you put out is, the more people will begin to associate you with a particular pain point or market.

If your thought leadership content is really good, it can even go viral and reach a larger audience as those who read it discuss it and share it with others. 

Brand awareness and reach are important in the grand scheme of lead generation. You won’t get any customers if no one knows about you. Thought leadership is a great way to introduce yourself to the world and get your brand out there.

You Become More Engaged In Your Industry.

From an industry standpoint, it never hurts to have your peers look at you as a thought leader or resource. That shouldn’t be restricted to leads only.

When other companies see that you’re knowledgeable and capable, you earn their respect and attention. That can lead to partnerships, referrals, and greater exposure.

What Makes Great Thought Leadership Content?

Thought leadership content should not only go a step beyond your regular content. It should also be treated as something of an “event” in your enterprise.

Larger content teams with robust, mature processes may even have writers, researchers, and designers solely for this content. The content should always be at least one of four things:

There’s definitely a difference between normal blogging and publishing thought leadership content. The latter is meant to provide more insight and information to your audience that they weren’t aware of before.

You can’t post common knowledge and call it thought leadership. It needs to be valuable and share-worthy. Coming up with content that will truly interest your readers can be tricky, but proper research and ideation go a long way.

Educational

In B2B industries, sharing knowledge is important in establishing yourself as an expert and a leader in your industry. Every piece should have some sort of actionable takeaway or guide that will help assist the reader in their future efforts.

If the reader isn't learning something from the content, they may end up thinking of it as fluff rather than as thought leadership.

You’re setting yourself up to fail if you’re marketing your content as valuable and educational, but your content is generic or worse, inaccurate. Words are easy to spin, and you can write a 5,000-word article talking about absolutely nothing.

Don’t try to deceive your audience just for the sake of being seen as a thought leader. They’ll catch on quickly and you’ll be known as a fake instead. Take the time to do proper research and verify your own resources for accuracy.

In order for your content to feel relevant and contextual, you’ll need to have an idea of who your target audience is and what they want. Without it, the messaging in your thought leadership content could appear a bit scattered and misguided.

You’ll want to target other industry professionals along with your prospects. Providing value to executives, developers, and other decision-makers makes you more appealing to work with when there are opportunities for partnerships.

The advantage here is that thought leadership content, which takes more time and resources, could run on a parallel track alongside your regular content – which usually comes out weekly.

Even if you have a smaller, more focused team, however, you can still succeed in thought leadership. To do it, though, you’ll need to adjust your planning and production process.

How to Create Thought Leadership Content in 8 Steps

Developing content that's above average without feeling too "high and mighty" or talking down to readers can be tough. Where do you start? How do you balance the need to explain things with the estimated level of understanding your audience already has?

More importantly: How do you prove you know your stuff?

Follow these six steps to set your team up to create awesome thought leadership content.

1. Decide What Your Angle Is.

The average piece of content is focused on the needs, questions, or problems of your buyer persona . The content connects with prospects or current customers by helping them with a very specific issue they’re researching or confronting in the moment.

Thought leadership content is different: It speaks to an entire way of doing things.

Your audience for this content may be your industry peers, decision-makers at major enterprises, the press, or even the academic community.

However, it will not usually deal with one practical, immediate problem. Instead, it is part of a broader industry conversation.

That means you need to start with a strong position on a meaningful, relevant topic.

Your “angle” can be simple. You can take a stand against a common assumption that plagues your industry. You can string together a number of positions and make predictions about the future. Or you can explicate upon an area of strength by providing new perspectives on it.

Host ideation sessions to brainstorm with your team. These sessions bring everyone together and help you hone in on an important topic that aligns with parts of your content marketing strategy, like the keywords you targeted in your SEO strategy.

Whatever you do, however, your thought leadership content should contribute to the ongoing dialogue in your field – either adding nuance or taking it in a new direction entirely.

Usually, this will require some “pre-research” to uncover an area where your voice can make the most meaningful addition.

Industry periodicals, websites, and – perhaps most importantly – the expert opinions of your company’s top decision makers will all factor in here.

2. Consider Your Release Schedule.

For thought leadership content to make the biggest impact, it shouldn’t simply be released on your blog any old time. Ideally, you’ll be able to leverage outside events to focus significant industry attention on your informative new release.

It might seem strange to be thinking about the calendar before you even embark on developing your content, but it can actually help in a variety of ways.

When you have a specific target event in mind, you’ll be able to develop a complete schedule for researching, building, designing, and editing your content. Milestones can be assigned hard dates, essential in an iterative process where each step depends on the previous ones.

You’ll be better able to resist the temptation to get lost in any particular step in the process.

Plus, you’ll be able to lay the groundwork for fresh thought leadership content to make the biggest splash. That may mean booking time to speak at an industry conference or even planning a gathering of your own. It may mean reaching out to media outlets.

It should certainly include a concerted launch effort on social media and your subscriber list.

All these things take time, so defining your parameters first will make a big difference.

3. Assign Roles to Your Team.

Depending on the size of your team, your thought leadership creation process could involve a lot of moving parts. You need at least a few key roles filled during the content creation process.

Some roles you want to assign to people might include:

• Writers : Obviously, you want a team of awesome writers to share information in a compelling way. 
• Editors : You want fresh eyes on the content your writers are creating. If writers are also taking on editing duty, make sure they have some time to step away from the content before rereading it.
• Subject Matter Experts : Who best understands the topic to provide meaningful insights and ensure that anything your team puts out is correct? Having one or more subject matter experts (SMEs) in the topics you want to demonstrate thought leadership in is crucial for success. These SMEs could also fill in as writers or editors (or both).
• Designers : Depending on the level of complexity of your thought leadership content, a designer can help design the new report, whitepaper, ebook , or whatever other content format you choose.
• Community Manager : This person oversees the promotional side of the content, helping distribute it through PR, SEO, and more while also overseeing social media campaigns and engaging with your brand’s community.
• Analysts : You need someone to measure the impact your thought leadership content has on your industry so you can fully understand how well it performed and adjust your content creation strategy based on analytics reports.

4. Do Your Research.

Most thought leadership content is built on original research that comes directly from the issuing organization.

This research, in and of itself, is part of what makes the resulting presentation unique. It creates new bedrock facts that others are obliged to take into account and respond to.

Of course, there are many ways to do research.

Quantitative research is what most people think of first in the age of big data. It is based on objective measurements using mathematical or statistical approaches. If you have vast amounts of data at your fingertips, this is the way to go.

It is not the only way, of course. There’s also qualitative research, which can explore the reasoning, opinions, and motivations of a target group.

For example, polls and focus groups conducted with potential customers are all qualitative artifacts, but they’re no less valuable when they’re used in compelling ways.

Original research is the “secret sauce” for thought leadership content, but there are drawbacks:

• Conducting research is a daunting, time-consuming task not everyone can do in-house.
• Data and underlying assumptions will age, so the resulting content isn’t “evergreen.”

These are two reasons why, in contrast to “average” web content, thought leadership content tends to be cyclical.

It takes a while to define, process, introduce, and exploit a big idea. Then, as the novelty wears off, it’s just as vital to move forward to the next frontier quickly.

If your enterprise simply can’t do the research, it doesn’t mean you’re locked out of the thought leadership game.

Many established enterprises turn to third-party researchers to investigate emerging issues and trends, and then build out the data into a cohesive end product.

For research into markets, attitudes, trends, and other things that can change frequently, conducting new studies is vital for keeping your insights fresh and relevant. Also, it gives others new information to cite and link to—helping to build your backlinking strategy !

5. Determine the Best Way to Bring the Data to Life.

Raw data can sometimes have its own beauty, but it’s rarely conventionally “interesting.”

The huge popularity of infographics goes to show that people are most excited by data when they can look at it from an unexpected perspective. With the right principles in mind, data can be intuitive, intriguing, and instructive. In many cases, it can even be fun.

Bringing the story out of the data comes down to two interrelated decision points:

Thought leadership can utilize any format regular content uses. It can come in the form of a series of blog posts, videos, a virtual event, an ebook , and much more.

The format chosen should help simplify and streamline the overall narrative that you want to explore with the data.

It should also inform and support your voice – your method of imbuing the content with your brand’s unique imprint.

For example, many companies have released thought leadership pieces anchored by an interview with their CEO or other leading decision-makers.

Others have used “behind the scenes” footage of teams in action, often with brief leadership commentary.

In both these cases, top stakeholders define the company voice by actually, well, speaking.

That said, thought leadership does not have to be structured as a conventional discussion or dialogue. Although some of the best thought leadership content is multimedia, the majority takes a somewhat conservative approach as a long-form report or whitepaper.

6. Develop and Launch Your Thought Leadership Piece.

Depending on the size and scope of the expected piece, writing (or filming, designing, or all three) could take anywhere from weeks to months.

No matter your choice, it’s crucial to give your team enough time to not only produce the content, but test and fact-check it.

When thought leadership is positioned and launched correctly, it gets a lot more attention than the average post and putting your best foot forward is essential.

Likewise, dedicating social media and digital marketing assets is key.

Since thought leadership is usually time sensitive, you should think about it the same way you would a new product or service launch – building up anticipation well in advance, leading to a “launch event.”

The best thought leadership content gets responses – often very quickly.

Prepare accordingly by ensuring a branded hashtag is associated with the piece and that the social media team is watching it closely.

A member of the content team should be designated to either make replies or, if the “respondent of record” is a company executive, help compile the online responses so that follow-up can be focused and effective.

7. Update Your Existing Thought Leadership Content.

You've launched your thought leadership piece. Now, you don't have to think about it ever again, right? Wrong!

When you're publishing thought leadership content, you should always be aware that it will have a "shelf life" of sorts. Eventually, trends may change, new technologies might emerge, new theories might come to light, and the data you base your content on may become outdated. As such, your thought leadership content will need to change as well!

Rather than writing an entirely new article, it may be better to update your existing article with new insights, information, and tips. Updating existing content and republishing it with the same link allows you to preserve the SEO value of your previously established content while keeping it valuable and up-to-date for your audience.

8. Find Out What Your Audience Wants to Know.

So, you've created an awesome piece of thought leadership packed full of interesting information and well-designed elements. It looks great, it reads well, and you're proud of it... but it doesn't generate any traction. 

What happened? 

One reason why thought leadership content might not move the needle is that it wasn't covering something that your audience found interesting. This means that, if you want to be recognized as a thought leader, it's important to ensure that your thought leadership content resonates with your intended audience.

Here, conducting some buyer persona research , polling your audience, or even running a simple Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on a social media channel can be extremely valuable. Doing this kind of research into your audience and interacting with them helps you understand what their concerns are so you can create thought leadership content that really resonates with their interests.

6 Thought Leadership Marketing Examples

Take a look at six thought leadership marketing examples to help you get ideas for your thought leadership content strategy. 

1. Donald Miller's StoryBrand 

StoryBrand is a content company that provides videos, courses, and other content to assist companies with their brand messaging . The company was founded by Donald Miller, who also wrote the book Building a StoryBrand .

He has positioned himself as a popular thought leader and expert on branding. He does an excellent job of paying attention to his audience's wants and needs to provide them with premier content. 

Donald Miller runs his own podcast and has been interviewed on other podcasts, such as the School of Greatness podcast by Lewis Howes. 

2. Scott Galloway L2

Gartner Digital Performance Benchmarks, formerly known as L2 , is a member-based business intelligence firm that covers various industry sectors worldwide. Their thought leader and founder, Scott Galloway, made videos and posted them on YouTube to get an opinionated argument started with viewers.

He discusses L2's analysis on today's market, and he provides advice on what's valid and what isn't. The thought leadership on YouTube boosted the brand to near-cult status with their irreverent videos.

He also speaks at conferences and has been a guest on multiple podcasts. 

You may think that TED is a platform for other thought leaders to speak and you'd be right, except for the fact that TED's brand is thought leadership. This means that TED has promoted and given a platform to the world's most influential thought leaders and has become one itself. 

They create conferences around the world dedicated to various disciplines that target decision-makers in business, technology, education, medicine, and other industries. 

TED has several podcasts, blogs, and videos that position them as a thought leader in the world of self-education and inspiration. 

After all, how many times have you looked to TED to learn more about a new topic that interested you? I know TED is a go-to resource for me as it is for many others!

4. OpenView Labs

          View this post on Instagram                   Did you know that product led growth is a lot like bowling? 🎳 Not only that, but it may be time to consider using bumpers if it means you’ll get a strike. On this week’s episode of the BUILD podcast we hear from @wes_bush, founder of the @productledinc, author of “Product Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself” and fellow PLG enthusiast. Blake Bartlett and Wes unpack a TON of useful information in this episode including: 🎳 Why product led growth is a lot like bowling, and how to strike out 👋 When and how your sales team can make the biggest impact 🗺️ How to get started with product led growth ❤️ The importance of customer empathy All of that and more on this week’s episode of the BUILD podcast. Listen links are in our bio 👀 #productledgrowth #PLG #SaaS #sales A post shared by OpenView (@openviewventure) on Jul 8, 2020 at 5:45am PDT

OpenView Labs is a publication put together by OpenView Venture Partners that is dedicated to B2B software companies that are ready to expand. This publication brings together some of the most authoritative voices in SaaS and entrepreneurship. 

They also offer free downloadable ebooks and a comprehensive blog with a library full of awesome content. OpenView sends the thought leaders in their company to speaking engagements and conferences that they promote on their social media pages like Instagram. 

They also have a podcast called BUILD , where they interview some other thought leaders in the industry. 

5. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a popular marketing influencer and thought leader on the web. He is a New York Times best-selling author who creates amazing content across multiple platforms for his audience. 

He has a strong following on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, where he adds a personal touch to his marketing advice by engaging with his followers and talking directly to them.

In addition to his blog, book, guides, and videos, he also has a podcast called Marketing School with Eric Siu. The podcast has short episodes that are jam-packed with actionable marketing advice.

Neil Patel is a consistent thought leader who is relatable and easy to follow. This positions him as an expert in the marketing world, which helps him market the products and services he offers through the companies he has founded and co-founded. 

6. Seth Godin

In addition to books, Seth Godin offers LinkedIn learning courses, on-demand recordings of his webinars, blog posts, and a marketing seminar—all built on his extensive experience.

Become a Thought Leader Now

Thought leadership is simply a different game from the average short-form blog post or video.

Luckily, all the skills you learn developing that “day-to-day” content can be applied to thought leadership as well. With practice and experience, it may be possible to release a major thought leadership contribution once per quarter.

Of course, the tempo will depend somewhat on events and evolution in your industry.

Whatever the case, the message is clear. Thought leadership shouldn’t be your entire content strategy, but it is an essential piece of the puzzle.

Deep, insightful content of this kind can help you steer and even reframe industry discussions on terms that support your market leadership.

Douglas Phillips

Former military brat, graduated from Leilehua High School in Wahiawa, Hawaii in 2001. After earning my Bachelor's in English/Professional Writing, took on a job as a writer here at Bluleadz.

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• Presentation Hacks

Presentation Strategy Template for Thought Leadership Training

• By: Gabrielle Reed

When it comes to establishing a thought leadership role as a brand or company within an industry, the quality of the content you create trumps the quantity. An Association of Management Consulting Firms study found that 93% of respondents favored agencies with high-quality material – leading to positive perceptions of the brand. With the increasing popularity of thought leadership development across a wide range of areas, the need to stand out is more important than ever. Produce a comprehensive presentation strategy focused on 3 elements: content, design, and delivery.

Check out our free presentation strategy template

As you undergo thought leadership training, narrow your presentation content to address specific audience concerns. Answer the “why” questions your listeners may have about your topic. At the beginning of your thought leadership presentation, establish context for an issue rooted in unique research. Structure your main arguments through predictions, strategy, trends, or opinions. A presentation strategy for thought leaders of all disciplines must outline 3 main points supported by accurate and compelling data highlighted through an engaging story or provocative metaphor.

At the core of the thought leadership presentation is substance. Wrap your subject matter substance with short and sweet sound bites that you can repeat throughout each presentation section.

The look and feel of your deck hinges on the design portion of your presentation strategy. Thought leaders should analyze their finalized content and determine a goal tone for their material. For a more corporate and conservative feel, a photography-based presentation with sparse copy and selective iconography use may strike the right chord. On the other hand, a more creative and trendy tone may require illustrative elements paired with explanatory animations and increased reliance on icons to display concepts and ideas .

Related Post: Presentation Design Best Practice: How to Represent Complex Process Models

For an individual to associate you as a thought leader in any given space, you’ve got to offer something remarkable – or at least different from what others are offering. You can accomplish this by developing activities that align with your concluding call to action. If you are directing your audience members to inquire about your software platform, then include a brief, interactive demo using a client or customer example that mirrors your standard attendee. If that is too sales-focused, consider bringing up a case study in a narrative format. Or, ask your listeners questions regarding their own experiences with a specific portion of your presentation’s subject matter. Then, show how your ideas meet current and future needs.

To achieve thought leadership status, you’ll need to constantly pursue targeted research, documented results, and valuable insights. Marry your relentless exploration with a presentation strategy template and see the impact your messaging could have on the world.

Gabrielle Reed

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30 of the best ted talks on leadership that every great leader should watch – 2nd edition.

Last updated: 4 March 2020

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Love inspiring Ted Talks on leadership? So do we!

That’s why we put together this list of our  crème de la crème TED Talks on leadership.

So next time you’re needing a little boost, take a 20-minute break to listen to one of these and learn from some of the most forward-thinking and innovative experts to discover what’s given them their little-known edge.

1.  How Great Leaders Inspire Action , by Simon Sinek

With more than 29 million views , Simon Sinek is now on the A-List of leadership gurus, after he gave this incredible talk.

As Sinek himself says, “As it turns out, all the great inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it’s Apple or Martin Luther King, Jr. or the Wright brothers, they all think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it’s the complete opposite to everyone else. All I did was codify it, and it’s probably the world’s simplest idea. I call it the Golden Circle.”

For Sinek, the difference between these inspirational leaders and everyone else is they start with “why,” which is the core concept of his Golden Circle . By asking why, how and what, you can set yourself on a trajectory of tremendous success that, statistically speaking, very few people attain.

2.  The Puzzle of Motivation , by Dan Pink

To be an effective leader, you need to know what makes people “tick,” and especially what motivates them in the workplace to give you their best. Interestingly enough, money only takes you so far.

In this compelling video –which has clocked over 13 million views – Pink (author of  Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us ) untangles the web of motivation in a way that makes sense for leaders. Here’s a hint : traditional rewards aren’t always as motivating as we think.

3.  Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders , by Sheryl Sandberg

Sandberg left Google to become Facebook’s COO in 2008. In this video, she looks at why so few women make it to the C-suite, and offers up three important pieces of advice to women who want to buck the trend and get there. The key, in Sandberg’s view, is ensuring women remain in the workforce.

As it turns out, having more women remain in the workforce has other positive benefits on society and households, such as equal earning and equal responsibility between partners. As Sandberg notes, households that demonstrate this equality also have half the divorce rate.

4.  The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding , by John Wooden

To be a successful leader, what better place to start than by defining exactly what you mean by success? The man affectionately known as “Coach” redefines success to be much more than merely winning. Coach James Wooden explains this difference with profound simplicity, and urges everyone to pursue the best in themselves. The Coach’s 17-minute talk is uplifting as much as it is inspiring.

5.  What Makes us Feel Good About Our Work ? By Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist who has gained a deeper understanding of human motivation than most economists could ever hope for. He even designed experiments that would help solve the mystery of motivation, which is what this video is all about.

As it turns out, money isn’t the only thing that motivates us to work. It isn’t exactly joy, either. The real motivation for going to work every day is to make constant progress and lead a life of purpose . Strong leaders care about the bottom line, but are about much more than that. They have a sense of purpose, and get out of bed every single day to fulfill it.

6.  Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe , by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek’s material is so good that he’s the only one to appear twice on this list. You know building trust among your followers is important, but actually doing it is another thing entirely.

Sinek’s video on the topic will take your understanding of trust to a whole new level. After all, humans are emotional species who struggle with insecurities and vulnerabilities. A good leader brings his or her employees into a circle of trust. This is especially important in today’s economy, where jobs are destroyed as fast as they are created. Leaders have a responsibility to make their workers feel safe.

7.  Dare to Disagree , by Margaret Heffernan

When it comes to forming your dream team, the last thing you should do is surround yourself with what Heffernan calls “echo chambers” who only tell you what they think you want to hear. Mastering the art of disagreement is essential to effective leadership. Leaders must also be willing to cope with others disagreeing with them. Only through disagreement are ideas challenged.

Hefferman outlines a rubric for avoiding echo chambers and allowing ourselves to experience what she calls constructive conflict.

“So what does that kind of constructive conflict require? Well, first of all, it requires that we find people who are very different from ourselves. That means we have to resist the neurobiological drive, which means that we really prefer people mostly like ourselves, and it means we have to seek out people with different backgrounds, different disciplines, different ways of thinking and different experience, and find ways to engage with them. That requires a lot of patience and a lot of energy.”

8.  Lead Like The Great Conductors , by Itay Talgam

You’ve no doubt heard leadership described through the metaphor of conducting an orchestra. Itay Talgam operationalizes that metaphor by sharing what leaders can learn from 6 different 20th-century conductors. Don’t worry, this TED Talk requires no formal background (or interest) in the symphony.

Talgam describes the “magical moment” when a conductor turns chaos into blissful music. It’s a very small gesture, “not very pomp, not very sophisticated.” And suddenly, out of the chaos, noise becomes music.

9.  As Work Gets More Complex, Six Rules to Simplify , by Yves Morieux

Everyone knows that a staggering number of people are disengaged from their work. Yves Morieux argues that our reaction to the unfathomable complexity of modern work has a lot to do with that disengagement. Traditional organizational management certainly doesn’t help, either. His antidote includes 6 refreshing ways to engage in what he calls “smart simplicity.” The first rule is understand what your colleagues actually do. This is especially important for business leaders if they wish to simply the workplace and boost employee engagement.

10.  What It Takes To Be A Great Leader , by Roselinde Torres

Roselinde Torres has developed a deep understanding of what makes leaders effective. She poses 3 laser-like questions that will spur your own thinking on what it takes to be a great leader.

In a world filled with executive leadership programs and expensive seminars, Torres argues the best way to learn leadership might be right under your nose. Torres’ 9-minute talk is candid and to the point.

11.  A Life of Purpose , by Rick Warren

His book, Purpose-Driven Life, has sold more than 30 million copies. The church he pastors, Saddleback Church, has more than 22,000 members. Clearly, Rick Warren understands a few things about leadership.

This video is an intimate presentation of his own thoughts and crises around leadership. For anyone who’s ever looked at their existence and said, “There’s got to be more to life than this” will certainly find solace in Warren’s 21-minute talk.

12.  Listen, Learn… Then Lead , by Stanley McChrystal

Stanley McChrystal is a 4-star general who spent decades in the military. What he gleaned about leadership that can build a shared sense of purpose among an incredibly diverse set of followers boils down to how well you listen and learn, as well as how you position failure.

McChrystal’s view of leadership can be summarized with the following quote:

“[A] leader isn’t good because they’re right; they’re good because they’re willing to learn and to trust. This isn’t easy stuff.”

13.  Got a Wicked Problem to Solve? First, Tell me How you Make Toast , by Tom Wujec

Making toast is simple, right? But what happens when someone asks you to draw how you make toast? Suddenly things get interesting, and complicated.

This simple exercise reveals much about leading solutions to complex problems. Tom Wujec invites listeners to run the exercise themselves while explaining what he’s learned from observing thousands of people draw toast. From this talk, leaders will learn some important truths about how to handle real-world challenges .

14.  Everyday Leadership , by Drew Dudley

Drew Dudley’s whole approach is to make sure everyone understands how to bring out the leader within. Too many people think great leadership is reserved for extraordinary people.

His humorous take will remind you of all the little things leaders do each day. Leadership may be self-taught, but certainly isn’t reserved to a special segment of society. Dudley reminds us that leadership is an everyday act that should be celebrated.

15.  Tribal Leadership , by David Logan

It’s easy to think that as a species we have evolved far beyond the days of tribalism, but management consultant David Logan argues that effective leaders understand the 5 kinds of tribes that still crop up naturally in nearly any setting. Logan’s talk takes you through the 5 tribes, or stages, beginning with “Life sucks” and ending with “Life is great.”

16. Learning From Leadership’s Missing Manual , by Fields Wicker-Miurin

If you missed the opening line of this article, Fields Wicker-Miurin will remind you that leadership is self-taught. People who are looking for the holy grail leadership manual will wait forever in vain.

Leadership comes from within , but that shouldn’t stop you from developing the qualities that people admire in a great leader. Instead of looking for a how-to manual, learn the inspiring story of a local leader in your community. They’re not as far away or elusive as you might think.

17. How To Make Work-Life Balance Work , by Nigel Marsh

Leaders may be workaholics, but they also value work-life balance. That’s Nigel Marsh’s main thrust in this 2010 talk. Marsh shows you how to share a balance lifestyle between family, personal time and productivity. He also drops some inspiration from his books Fit, Fifty, and Fired Up and Overworked and Underlaid (yes, he has a great sense of humor).

Achieving an ideal work-life balance may seem like a jigsaw puzzle, but isn’t nearly as hard as our productivity-obsessed culture makes it out to be. Through small changes, you can have a big impact on work, relationships and life in general.

18. The Key To Success? Grit , by Angela Lee Duckworth

Successful consultant-turned-teacher Angela Lee Duckworth reminds us that success requires hard work and grit. While this is nothing we don’t know, why are these characteristics so difficult to apply? As Duckworth says, “as much as talent counts, effort counts twice.”

Duckworth’s quick talk is an essential listen for anyone getting suckered into taking shortcuts. As it turns out, all the old adages about success and hard work are true.

19. The Secret Structure Of Great Talks , by Nancy Duarte

The ability to move others through motivational speech is one of the greatest qualities of a true leader. Author and CEO Nancy Duarte gets it, and that’s why she developed this 18-minute talk to help aspiring leaders take their presentation skills to the next level.

Duarte dissects the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Steve Jobs to uncover the essential qualities of a great presentation. If leadership is your passion, be prepared to spend a lot of time talking in front of people.

20. How To Start A Movement , by Derek Sivers

Don’t let the name of this short TED Talk fool you – Derek Sivers isn’t calling for revolution or political anarchy. Using interesting footage, Sivers shows you how surprisingly easy it is to start a movement. As they say, it takes two to tango. That’s all that’s needed for leaders to inspire a movement.

21. Got A Meeting? Take A Walk , by Nilofer Merchant

“Sitting has become the smoking of our generation.” – Nilofer Merchant

In her TED Talk, business innovator Nilofer Merchant offers a simple message about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle . Leaders spend a lot of time in meetings. Merchant suggests you turn your next one-on-one meeting into a “walking meeting.” Not only do you hit two birds with one stone – by meeting and elevating your heart rate – the simple act of walking allows your ideas to flow much better than they otherwise would sitting in a cramped office.

22. The Leaders Who Ruined Africa, And The Generation Who Can Fix It , Fred Swaniker

Africa has struggled to live up to its development goals, and its leaders are to blame, says TED Fellow and founder of the African Leadership Network Fred Swaniker.

Having lived throughout Africa, Swaniker highlights the vital role true leaders play in building a society, and what can happen in their absence. Swaniker’s description of the next great African leaders is anybody who wants to make a difference in their society, especially where strong institutions are lacking.

23. The Happy Secret To Better Work , by Shawn Achor

It’s generally assumed we have to work to be happy, but what if we have it backwards? That’s the argument psychologist and CEO Shawn Achor makes in this 2012 talk. Achor says we need to be happy independently of work , and only then will we be able to increase productivity and success in the workplace.

Searching for happiness in the workplace can be a deep rabbit hole that often leads to less happiness overall. This is an important message for leaders, who seek to inspire other people in their line of work. It just so happens that developing happiness outside the 9-5 hours is the most important for our health and success.

24. How to Fix a Broken School? Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard , by Linda Cliatt-Wayman

You don’t have to be a teacher to appreciate Linda Cliatt-Wayman’s inspirational talk about her time as principal at a failing school in Philadelphia. It didn’t take long for her to realize that leadership was more than just “laying down the law.” We won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say she managed to turn around her struggling school. There were 3 key principles that helped her get there.

25. Trial, Error and the God Complex , by Tim Harford

If the title of Tim Harford’s TED Talk doesn’t pique your interest, nothing will. Harford, an economics writer who studies complex systems, talks about the importance of trial and error in achieving success. Except he doesn’t just “talk” about it, but presents the findings of his studies on complex systems.

As the title suggests, Harford’s talk centres on the concept of a God complex – refusing to admit the possibility of being wrong regardless of the complexity of the situation – and the importance of trial and error in achieving better results.  Go down the list, virtually every successful business leader used trial and error to perfect their craft.

26. The Surprising Habits Of Original Thinkers , by Adam Grant

“The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they’re the ones who try the most.” – Adam Grant

Suffice it to say, all aspiring leaders want to be recognized for their creativity and originality. While creativity often lies within, psychologist Adam Grant studies the lives of “originals” – thinkers whose ideas transform the world. Over the course of 15 minutes, Grant explains the unexpected habits of original thinkers, and their fearlessness in the face of failure.

Fear of failure is one of the biggest inhibitors to success in all of life’s endeavors. While never easy, leaders must learn to overcome that fear. Studying the habits of original thinkers will teach aspiring leaders they “need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.”

27. Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are , by Amy Cuddy

Four years and more than 38 million views later, Amy Cuddy’s powerful TED Talk has resonated with many aspiring leaders. As a social psychologist, Cuddy explains how “power posing” – showcasing a posture of confidence even when you don’t feel confident – can affect your brain chemistry and move you to positive action.

While some of the findings presented in the study are controversial among social scientists, Cuddy’s talk is a great reminder of the importance of projecting confidence in every situation . Whether that holds up to tests of academic rigor are less important.

28. How to Get Your Ideas To Spread , by Seth Godin

If you think the answer to Seth Godin’s talk is “social media,” try again. This TED Talk took place back in 2007, a few years before social media became as ubiquitous as it is today. As a leader, getting your ideas to spread requires more than just a Twitter handle. Godin, himself an author and marketing guru, explains the importance of standing out, and why even the craziest ideas can become the most successful ones.

29. Secrets Of Success In 8 Words, 3 Minutes , by Richard St. John

Analyst and bestselling author, Richard St. John, managed to condense 7 years of interviews into an unforgettable 3-minute presentation about what it takes to be truly successful. Believe us, nobody is as cognizant of your time as St. John. This 3-minute talk is normally presented as a 2-hour presentation to high school students.

30. Why We Do What We Do , by Tony Robbins

No list of inspiring TED Talks is complete without Tony Robbins, the globally renowned life success coach who has spent decades helping people achieve their dreams. Robbins shattered many preconceived notions about his work a mere 36 seconds into his presentation.

“I’m not here to motivate you, you don’t need that, obviously. Often that’s what people think I do, and it’s the furthest thing from it. What happens, though, is people say to me, ‘I don’t need any motivation.’ But that’s not what I do. I’m the ‘why’ guy. I want to know why you do what you do.”

He then goes into detail explaining the “invisible forces” that make us do the things we do. He also high-fives Al Gore in the front row. With more than 18 million views, Robbins’ TED appearance is one of the most popular.

There you have it. More than 8 hours of pure leadership inspiration to help turn you into the type of leader others admire, respect and want to follow.

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Best practices for embracing thought leadership in 2024 and beyond.

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A passionate marketer, CEO at iResearch Services , TechInformed & GivingforGood.

Imagine yourself navigating a crowded trade show floor. Countless booths bombard you with freebies, flashing lights and salespeople vying for your attention. But amidst the chaos, a single booth stands out. Here, a team of experts quietly demonstrates their craft, meticulously creating a beautiful and functional product. They answer your questions with genuine knowledge and passion, and you're instantly drawn to their expertise.

In B2B marketing, this curated booth represents the power of thought leadership. Through my time as CEO of a company that provides thought leadership services, I've found an effective method to establish myself as a trusted authority through insightful content and valuable solutions. In fact, nearly two-thirds of buyers said thought leadership improved their perception of a company, according to a 2021 report by LinkedIn and Edelman.

Here are seven strategies to help you leverage thought leadership successfully.

1. Develop content that addresses your audience's pain points.

By consistently sharing your expertise and unique insights via videos, podcasts, white papers, etc., you can elevate your reputation and position yourself as an authority in your industry, which can help build trust and reinforce your brand’s leadership and influence.

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To build trust and establish authority, my team often advises our clients to concentrate on addressing audience pain points and broader societal issues by providing clear, actionable solutions and insights. This strategy not only disseminates knowledge but also offers fresh perspectives that cultivate deeper connections and trust.

2. Use content to guide customers through the sales funnel.

Thought leadership can enhance commercial outcomes by guiding potential customers through the sales funnel, nurturing leads and elevating brand visibility. Fifty-eight percent of B2B marketers said that content marketing, including thought leadership, helped them generate sales and revenue in the past 12 months, according to a 2023 survey by the Content Marketing Institute. Additionally, 63% mentioned the effectiveness of content marketing in nurturing leads and subscribers.

Something our clients often do is create educational pieces tailored to top-of-the-funnel awareness, detailed case studies and how-tos for middle-of-funnel consideration and compelling calls-to-action for bottom-of-funnel conversions. Additionally, I've found using multiple channels—such as blogs, social media, webinars, videos and email campaigns—ensures broader reach and engagement with potential customers at various touchpoints. This strategic approach helps nurture leads, drive sales and elevate brand visibility.

3. Avoid being promotional.

In the same CMI report, 84% of B2B marketers think content marketing has helped them build brand awareness, which I believe underscores the impact of thought leadership on brand visibility. Thought leadership can enhance brand recognition and trust by positioning industry leaders as reliable sources.

There are a few pitfalls to be aware of when trying to build brand awareness with thought leadership content, however. A frequent error is being too promotional, which veers into marketing rather than thought leadership. Instead, focus on delivering genuine value through your insights and expertise.

I've often seen clients mistakenly present sales-driven content as thought leadership, which can undermine their brand. By breaking down complex issues with valuable insights and providing actionable advice, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority. Avoid overtly promoting your products or services; instead, let the quality and relevance of your information naturally build credibility and trust.

Another common pitfall is a lack of authenticity. To achieve authenticity, gather insights directly from your target audience. By staying authentic and prioritizing value over promotion, you can build genuine recognition and trust.

4. Measure your impact.

Leaders can go beyond vanity metrics and use website analytics, sales enablement tools, marketing automation tools, earned PR and lead generation tracking to measure thought leadership impact. These initiatives allow you to refine your approach and maximize your impact. They can also be scaled to fit your budget and target audience.

5. Expand your audience by leveraging multiple channels.

Thought leadership can allow you to connect with new audiences through social media and industry publications. I've found effective channels include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and high-profile events, such as the Davos World Economic Forum. I've also found LinkedIn to be an effective social media platform for B2B marketing, and publishing research reports can help enhance credibility. Diversify your content distribution across these types of platforms to help capture attention and build a broader audience base.

6. Consider how content could help attract top talent.

A strong employer brand is critical for attracting talent. A company's brand is often built on a positive company culture and thought leadership content could be a helpful strategy for showcasing that culture and demonstrating expertise and innovation to professionals who want to join a forward-thinking brand.

Regularly publish thought leadership content that shares success stories, employee experiences and innovative projects to create a compelling image that appeals to skilled professionals. You can use platforms like LinkedIn to reach potential employees and share your content.

7. Align content with your values.

Thought leadership can help you establish yourself as an authority in your field, building stronger leadership and a positive brand image. Well-crafted thought leadership content can also demonstrate your commitment to social responsibility.

I recommend regularly publishing content that highlights your company's social and environmental initiatives. Share your values and achievements, and participate in industry discussions to reinforce your authority. This approach can strengthen your leadership position and align your brand with responsible and forward-thinking values.

Thought leadership is not a fad; I believe you can achieve commercial benefits and a lasting competitive advantage by consistently creating valuable content, establishing yourself as an authority and fostering trust with your audience. As the marketplace continues to evolve, brands can use thought leadership as a tool to stand out from the crowd and shape industry conversations.

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11 Leadership Presentation Ideas for Team Training

• By Judhajit Sen
• May 21, 2024

Leadership development topics equip aspiring leaders with the skills and tactics necessary for effective management. These topics for leadership presentations help leaders understand their roles and view challenges as opportunities for growth. Training provides insights into team expectations and highlights critical aspects that drive productivity and efficiency within the company. Moreover, comprehensive management training builds confidence, helping leaders excel in their roles and identify areas for improvement and growth.

Leadership roles are pivotal in shaping organizations. Great leaders possess qualities such as respect, self-awareness, trust, influence, collaboration, and strong communication skills. They are distinguished by their ability to listen, learn, and communicate effectively with their teams. Accountability and a continuous pursuit of growth are essential traits for leaders in any industry. Hosting offsites or retreats for leadership teams can facilitate brainstorming, planning, and training, aligning leaders across departments and providing the tools necessary for success.

Leadership meetings gather vital decision-makers to discuss, strategize, and make critical decisions shaping the company’s future. These meetings are essential for sharing insights, setting goals, and aligning efforts towards a shared vision. Effective communication during these presentations ensures alignment, inspiration, informed decision-making, accountability, and innovation. By focusing on these elements, leadership slide presentations can resonate with the audience’s strategic mindset and their pivotal role in guiding the organization.

Following are 11 leadership presentation ideas for team training.

Key Takeaways

• Leadership training equips leaders with essential management skills, helping them understand their roles and view challenges as growth opportunities.
• Effective leaders possess qualities like respect, self-awareness, trust, and strong communication skills, fostering a positive work environment.
• Leadership meetings are vital for decision-making, goal setting, and aligning efforts toward a shared vision.
• Mastering soft skills, time management, and understanding different leadership styles are crucial for successful team leadership and organizational growth.

Mastering Communication: A Must-Have Skill for Leaders

Effective communication is crucial for any leader. It’s more than just talking—it’s about sharing ideas, giving directions, and understanding your team. This leadership slides idea should be at the top of your workshop agenda.

Here’s why communication skills matter:

Clarity in Ideas: Leaders must present their thoughts in a way everyone understands. Clear communication prevents confusion and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Active Listening: Good leaders don’t just talk; they listen. By genuinely hearing team members’ concerns and feedback, leaders can better address issues and foster an environment of trust.

Empowerment Through Words: Leaders should use their words to empower their teams. Transparent and encouraging communication boosts morale and drives productivity.

Training in these skills can significantly benefit managers and executives. Offer practical tips and exercises to help them communicate more effectively. When leaders master these skills, they build stronger, more loyal teams, paving the way for business plan success.

Navigating Leadership Challenges: Building Resilience and Conflict Resolution Skills

Leading isn’t easy—it comes with its fair share of challenges. Here’s why addressing these challenges should be a priority for your leadership PowerPoint – 

Leading Under Pressure: Leaders face stress and pressure daily. Equip them with strategies to handle crises and high-pressure situations effectively. Developing mental and emotional strength is crucial for overcoming challenges.

Navigating Uncertainty: Uncertainty is common in today’s business landscape, especially with layoffs and economic changes. Leaders must maintain resilience and inspire team confidence during tough times.

Managing Difficult Situations: It is vital to discuss challenging topics like handling problem employees, delivering bad news, or leading initiatives you disagree with. These discussions can lead to growth and provide valuable insights for all leaders.

Managing Emotions: Leaders must also effectively manage their own emotions. Topics like staying humble, overcoming fear, and avoiding burnout are often overlooked but essential for long-term success. Encouraging open discussions about personal struggles is vital to supporting leaders’ well-being.

Resolving Conflict: Conflict is unavoidable in any workplace. Teach leaders how to resolve conflicts constructively. By mastering interpersonal skills, leaders can turn conflicts into opportunities for growth and strengthen team relationships.

By addressing these challenges head-on and providing practical training, you can empower leaders to navigate challenging situations and confidently lead their teams to success.

Maximizing Team Engagement: Key Strategies for Effective Leadership

Employee engagement isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a critical aspect of effective leadership. Keeping your team motivated and committed ensures they perform at their best and stay with the organization longer. This leadership training PowerPoint slides idea delves into the essential elements of team engagement and provides actionable strategies for leaders to implement.

Prioritizing Engagement: Leaders must recognize the importance of keeping their teams engaged. Engaged employees are happier and contribute more effectively to organizational goals. By prioritizing engagement, leaders foster a positive work environment where the team feels valued and motivated.

Strategies for Engagement: Consistent engagement requires deliberate effort. Leaders can benefit from learning and implementing various methods to engage their teams. From recognizing achievements to fostering open communication, there are numerous tactics leaders can employ to stimulate engagement and boost team morale.

The Power of Feedback:  Effective feedback fosters engagement and improves performance.  Offering constructive criticism helps employees understand their strengths and areas for improvement, guiding them toward success. Leaders must learn the art of giving feedback that motivates rather than demotivates, fostering a culture of growth and development within the team.

Building a Supportive Environment:  A supportive work environment is crucial for team development and engagement.  Leaders must create a culture of collaboration, trust, and respect. They can nurture a high-performing and engaged team by providing growth opportunities and recognizing individual contributions.

Continuous Learning and Development: Engaging teams isn’t a one-time effort; it requires constant learning and development. Leaders should invest in ongoing training programs to enhance their skills in fostering engagement, providing feedback, and nurturing team dynamics. By continuously improving their leadership abilities, leaders can create a culture of engagement that drives organizational success.

Maximizing team engagement is a vital aspect of effective leadership. Leaders can cultivate high-performing teams that drive organizational success by prioritizing engagement, implementing strategic approaches, and fostering a supportive environment.

Mastering Soft Skills: Empowering Leaders for Success

Effective leadership goes beyond hiring top talent; it requires the ability to inspire and guide teams toward success. This leadership PowerPoint presentation idea explores the significance of soft leadership skills and offers valuable insights for enhancing these skills among team leaders and managers.

The Power of Influence:  Good leaders can motivate and influence their teams. By understanding different motivational techniques and strategies, leaders can foster a culture of enthusiasm and productivity within their teams. From recognizing individual achievements to cultivating a “can-do” attitude, influential leaders inspire their teams to achieve greatness.

Understanding Soft Skills:  Soft skills are personal traits that allow us to interact effectively with others. In today’s dynamic workforce, soft skills foster collaboration, communication, and teamwork. From communication and problem-solving to leadership and adaptability, mastering soft skills is essential for success in the modern workplace.

Building Strong Foundations:  Soft skills encompass a broad spectrum of attributes, each contributing to effective leadership. These skills form the foundation of successful leadership, from communication to critical thinking and stress management. By developing these skills, leaders can enhance their ability to connect with their teams and drive positive outcomes.

Continuous Improvement:  Soft skills are not innate; they can be developed and honed over time. Leaders should embrace opportunities for continuous learning and skill development. By investing in training programs and workshops focused on soft skills development, leaders can strengthen their ability to lead and motivate their teams to excel.

Turning Theory into Action:  While understanding the importance of soft skills is crucial, putting theory into practice is equally essential. Leaders should actively apply soft skills in their daily team interactions, fostering open communication, collaboration, and mutual respect. Through their actions, leaders can empower their teams to thrive.

Mastering soft skills is essential for effective leadership. By understanding the power of influence, embracing a wide range of soft skills, and continuously striving for improvement, leaders can empower their teams to achieve success and drive organizational growth.

Mastering Time Management: Empowering Leaders for Success

Time management is an invaluable aspect of effective leadership that training managers should prioritize. This presentation idea highlights the importance of time management for leaders and provides valuable insights for improving this essential skill.

Working Smarter, Not Harder:  Leaders often juggle multiple responsibilities, making time management indispensable. Leaders can learn to prioritize tasks, allocate time efficiently, and optimize productivity by focusing on this training topic. The goal is to help leaders work smarter, not harder, by enhancing their management skills and achieving maximum effectiveness.

Quality Over Quantity:  Overworking should never be the standard for good work. Effective time management enables leaders to produce sustainable, high-quality results in less time. By mastering time management, leaders can make better decisions, maintain consistency, and positively impact their team members’ performance.

The Power of Delegation:  Delegation is a core function of leadership and a vital time management skill. Leaders must learn to assign tasks to the right people and trust them to deliver quality results. Proper delegation saves time and fosters engagement among team members, inspiring them to put forth more effort and commitment.

Fostering Engagement: Delegation, coupled with effective time management, fosters engagement within teams. When leaders delegate tasks efficiently, they empower their team members and enable them to take ownership of their work. This responsibility motivates team members to perform at their best, driving overall productivity and success.

Maximizing Impact: As John C. Maxwell aptly stated, “If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.” Effective time management and delegation allow leaders to focus on high-impact tasks that drive organizational growth and success. By mastering these skills, leaders can elevate their effectiveness and make a lasting impact on their teams and organizations.

Mastering time management is essential for effective leadership. Leaders can maximize their impact and drive success in their organizations by working smarter, delegating tasks effectively, and fostering engagement within teams.

Exploring Leadership Styles: Empowering New Leaders

Understanding different leadership styles is essential for new and aspiring leaders. This presentation idea highlights the importance of exploring various leadership styles and offers valuable insights for leadership training and development.

Empowering New Leaders: Leadership training for new leaders should include exploring different leadership styles. By clearly understanding various approaches, leaders can develop their own leadership style and identify opportunities for improvement. This training creates a foundation for effective leadership and empowers leaders to lead their teams confidently.

Daniel Goleman’s Six Styles:  Developed by Daniel Goleman, the six leadership styles offer valuable insights into situational leadership. Each style addresses different needs and situations, allowing leaders to adapt their approach accordingly. From visionary to commanding, each style has its unique strengths and applications.

Tailoring Leadership to Situations: Effective leadership requires adapting to various situations and individuals. By understanding the six leadership styles, leaders can assess their team’s needs and choose the most appropriate style for the problem. Whether mobilizing people toward a vision or demanding immediate compliance, leaders can tailor their approach for maximum effectiveness.

Building Versatility: Exploring different leadership styles allows new leaders to develop versatility in their approach. By combining elements of various styles, leaders can create a personalized style that aligns with their strengths and the needs of their team. This versatility enables leaders to navigate diverse challenges and drive positive outcomes.

Continuous Learning and Improvement:  Leadership is a journey of constant learning and improvement. New leaders should embrace opportunities to explore and refine their leadership styles over time. Leaders can become effective and impactful by seeking feedback and experimenting with different approaches.

Exploring different leadership styles is essential for new leaders’ development. By understanding the six styles, tailoring leadership to situations, building versatility, and embracing continuous learning, new leaders can cultivate their leadership skills and positively impact their teams and organizations.

Embracing Diversity & Inclusion: Essential Leadership Training

Diversity and inclusion are vital aspects of effective leadership in today’s global market. This presentation idea emphasizes the importance of fostering diversity and inclusion within teams and offers valuable insights for leadership training and development.

Leading a Diverse Team:  In today’s diverse workforce, leaders must know how to collaborate with individuals from various backgrounds, cultures, and identities. Embracing diversity means bringing together the unique qualities of each team member to work in harmony. Leaders play an important role in ensuring that all team members are equally heard, seen, and recognized for their contributions, regardless of their differences.

Combatting Stereotypes and Bias:  Raising awareness about diversity and inclusion helps leaders combat stereotypes, discrimination, and unconscious bias within their teams. By fostering inclusivity, leaders  create a safe workspace  where team members  feel valued and respected.  This enhances team morale and promotes creativity, innovation, and productivity.

Effective Leadership Strategies:  Sharing practical strategies for embracing diversity and inclusion is essential for leadership training. Leaders should focus on empathetic leadership, foster a positive company culture, and create opportunities for diverse voices to be heard. By embracing diversity and inclusion, leaders can build stronger, more resilient teams that drive organizational success.

Situational Leadership: Situational leadership is paramount in today’s workforce. With a diverse employee base, leaders must recognize that one size does not fit all. Understanding when and how to use different leadership styles with different individuals and situations is critical for success. Leaders should develop scenarios relevant to their teams and encourage discussion on how they would approach each situation differently based on individual needs and circumstances.

Embracing diversity and inclusion is essential for effective leadership. Leaders can create diverse, high-performing teams that drive organizational success by fostering a culture of inclusivity, combatting stereotypes and bias, and embracing effective leadership strategies.

Navigating Change: Essential Leadership Training

Every organization faces change, and leaders must know how to navigate it effectively. This presentation emphasizes the importance of change management in leadership training and offers valuable insights for guiding teams through transitions.

Coping with Change:  Leaders face the challenge of dealing with change, big or small. They must understand how to navigate these situations and effectively communicate with their teams. This includes dealing with new challenges, workflow disruptions, and employee feedback. With proper training, leaders can guide their teams to overcome obstacles brought about by change and maintain productivity.

Addressing Challenges and Opportunities: Change management presentations provide strategies for leaders to address the challenges and opportunities associated with organizational change. Organizations can navigate transitions smoothly by equipping leaders with the necessary tools and presentation techniques , minimizing team disruption, and maintaining business continuity.

Essential Skill for Leaders:  Managing change is a necessary skill for leaders in today’s fast-paced world. The rapid pace of change is driven by various factors like news cycles and social media, so leaders must be adept at managing transitions effectively. Books like “Leading Change” and “Our Iceberg is Melting” by John Kotter offer valuable insights into change management strategies that leaders can apply in their organizations.

Organizational Reflection:  Leaders can facilitate discussions within their teams about how they deal with change and the level of change their organization has experienced over the years. This reflection allows leaders to gain insights into their team’s resilience and adaptability and identify areas for improvement in change management processes.

Change management is an essential aspect of leadership training. By equipping leaders with the skills and strategies to navigate change effectively, organizations can ensure smooth transitions and maintain productivity during periods of change.

Mastering Decision Making: Key Leadership Training

Decision-making is an indispensable skill for effective leadership. This presentation idea explores the importance of strategic planning and informed decision-making, offering valuable insights for leadership training.

Goal Setting for Success:  Setting clear, attainable goals is fundamental for staying focused and achieving a leader’s purpose. Goals provide direction and help leaders prioritize what truly matters. For goals to be effective, they must be well-defined and achievable within a specific timeframe. This clarity ensures that leaders can measure progress and stay on track.

Strategic Planning and Decision Making:  A strategic planning presentation offers insights into setting achievable goals and making informed decisions. Leaders can use these strategies to guide company brainstorming sessions and leadership meetings, ensuring that decisions align with organizational objectives and drive success.

Data-Driven Decisions:  Leveraging data is crucial for making informed decisions. Leaders should prioritize using data and analytics to guide their decision-making processes. This includes implementing key performance indicators (KPIs), objectives and key results (OKRs), and other metrics to track performance. Data-driven insights help leaders make better choices and improve overall effectiveness.

Incorporating Data into Leadership Strategies: Effective leadership involves incorporating data-driven insights into strategies. By understanding and utilizing data, leaders can make more informed decisions that enhance team performance and organizational success. Data visualization presentations can guide how to integrate data analytics into everyday decision-making, ensuring leaders are equipped with the tools they need to succeed.

Mastering decision-making is essential for effective leadership. By setting clear goals, engaging in strategic planning, and leveraging data, leaders can make informed decisions that drive institutional success and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Running Effective Meetings: Essential Leadership Training

Meetings are a cornerstone of company communication, but they can become unproductive without proper structure. This presentation idea focuses on strategies for managing effective meetings, offering essential insights for leadership training.

The Importance of Structure: Effective meetings require a clear objective and structure. Without these, meetings can waste time and reduce productivity. Leaders must learn to determine if a meeting is necessary, set proper leadership meeting agenda topics, and consider each team member’s strengths. By doing so, meetings can foster teamwork, accomplish goals, and boost overall productivity.

Agenda and Scheduling: A well-planned agenda is crucial for a leadership meeting. Leaders should outline key discussion points and allocate time for each topic. This ensures the meeting stays focused and covers all necessary information. Scheduling meetings conveniently for all participants also helps maintain focus and engagement.

Engagement and Focus:  It is essential to keep employees motivated and engaged during meetings. Leaders can use tips and tricks, such as interactive activities or breaks, to maintain focus. Ensuring that meetings are concise and to the point helps keep attendees’ attention and makes the meeting more productive.

Action Items:  Ending meetings with a set of action items is crucial for ensuring follow-through. Leaders should summarize the key points discussed and delegate tasks to team members with clear deadlines. This ensures accountability and helps track progress in meeting objectives.

Meeting or Email?: Not every discussion requires a meeting. Leaders should evaluate whether an email would suffice. Playing a game with attendees like “Meeting or Email?” can help illustrate this point. By providing examples and encouraging candid discussion, leaders can better discern when meetings are necessary and when other forms of communication are more efficient.

Managing effective meetings is a critical skill for leaders. Leaders can make the most of their team’s time and drive productivity by ensuring meetings have clear objectives and well-planned agendas and end with actionable tasks. This training gives leaders the tools to run productive and engaging sessions, enhancing overall organizational efficiency.

Accountability & Ethical Leadership: Building Trust and Integrity

Accountability and ethical leadership are crucial topics for effective leadership training. This presentation idea outlines the importance of these concepts and provides insights for fostering a culture of responsibility, credibility and integrity.

The Power of Accountability:  Accountability is a crucial trait of good leadership. Leaders who accept responsibility for their actions, whether positive or negative, earn the trust and respect of their employees. This trust leads to a more productive and positive work environment. Leadership training should focus on teaching behaviors that build and enhance accountability, promoting a workplace where honesty and responsibility are valued.

Cultivating Ethical Leadership:  Ethics are fundamental to successful leadership. Leaders must understand the importance of ethical behavior and its impact on organizational culture, employee morale, and long-term success. Training on ethical leadership should highlight the significance of ethics, provide strategies for maintaining high moral standards, and emphasize the need for ethical considerations in daily decision-making across all departments.

Building a Trustworthy Environment:  Organizations can create a trustworthy and reliable environment by combining accountability and ethical leadership. Leaders who embody these qualities set a positive example for their teams, fostering a culture of integrity and transparency. This environment encourages employees to act responsibly and uphold the organization’s values.

Practical Applications:  Leadership training should include practical applications of accountability and ethical leadership. This can involve case studies, role-playing scenarios, and discussions on real-life situations where leaders demonstrated these qualities. Such exercises help leaders internalize and apply these concepts in their daily roles.

Long-Term Benefits:  Emphasizing accountability and ethical leadership leads to long-term benefits for organizations. It enhances team cohesion, improves decision-making processes, and builds a strong reputation for the organization. Leaders prioritizing these values contribute to sustainable success and a positive organizational culture.

Accountability and ethical leadership are essential components of effective leadership. By focusing on these topics in leadership training, organizations can develop trusted, responsible, and committed leaders to uphold high ethical standards, driving long-term success and a positive workplace culture.

Leadership Training: Keys to Effective Management

Leadership training ideas equip aspiring leaders with essential skills and tactics for effective management. It helps them understand their roles, view challenges as opportunities, and build confidence. Great leaders, distinguished by qualities like respect and communication skills, are pivotal in shaping organizations. They listen, learn, and adapt continuously, fostering a positive work environment. Leadership meetings are crucial in decision-making and aligning efforts towards a shared vision. Effective communication during these meetings ensures alignment, inspiration, and innovation. By focusing on these ideas for leadership, different types of presentations can resonate with leaders’ strategic mindsets and their roles in guiding the organization.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What skills are essential for effective leadership?  

Key skills include communication, accountability, resilience, and the ability to inspire and influence teams. Leaders should also be adept at managing emotions and resolving conflicts.

2. How can leadership training benefit aspiring leaders?  

Training equips leaders with the necessary tactics and skills, builds confidence, and helps them understand their roles and team expectations, driving productivity and efficiency.

3. What role do leadership meetings play?  

Leadership meetings gather decision-makers to strategize, set goals, and align efforts, ensuring the company’s vision is communicated and pursued effectively.

4. Why is communication important for leaders?  

Effective communication ensures clarity, fosters trust, empowers teams, and drives morale and productivity, making it a critical skill for leaders to master.

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5 Active Listening Skills for Better Communication

Mastering executive communication: strategies, benefits, and best practices, 7 tips for crafting a winning sales presentation.

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Thought leadership is about creating an authority in the industry by gaining trust and being a resourceful leader. In order to gain trust and credibility, one needs to provide creative ideas, informative details, market insights, and more. By working on various tactics, it can result in great public relations as well. Therefore, it can be implemented by individuals for personal branding or leading firms to work on their brand presence.

No matter what your requirements are, you can always start by making your audience familiar with the nitty-gritty of this concept. Our experts have drafted this well-researched Thought Leadership PowerPoint Template that will certainly make your job a whole lot easier. If you are a trainer, subject matter expert, or a consultant who is related to this domain, then you can easily draft an informative slideshow in no time. It can also be used by professionals belonging to marketing, sales, HR, and other related sectors. It is also an essential set for every strategist and branding expert.

• The concept of Thought Leadership has been explained in an extensive manner in this set. You can readily use it or make minor edits to work on a final draft of your slideshow.
• There are different kinds of flow charts, connected diagrams, related models, and other vector-based illustrations in this set. All the graphics are featured in high-definition and comes in different color themes.
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• Based on master slide, it is available for PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides.

Editing these slides won't take a lot of your time or efforts as well. To make things easier for you, we have also provided the set in different themes. If you face any issue, then you can simply get in touch with our customer support. You won't face any trouble editing this user-friendly template and will certainly be able to save your time and resources while drafting a remarkable presentation.

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How to Present a Financial Report

Presenting financials to the board  often means distilling complex information down into concise, easily digestible pieces. Considering that board members may not have the same levels of financial literacy as you do,  financial presentations  must factor in the audience's ability to comprehend financial information. This  financial statement presentation guide  explains the best way to go about presenting  quarterly financial reports  and other statements to the board with tips to help you convey what matters most in clear language.

Before we dive into the guide, let's look at the purpose of a presentation like this.

While information is a top objective of any financial report, the real goal in most cases is decision-making. By keeping this high-level overview in mind as you work with financials, you'll be able to pull together a report that aids decision-making, rather than hinders it by confusing the audience with unnecessary details.

Presentation of Financial Statements : How to Prepare

Proper preparation is essential for a  financial presentation to a board of directors . Preparing smartly saves time down the road, because it helps you to understand what is and is not necessary to include.

Think through these two areas ahead of time:

Audience financial literacy levels:  Financial literacy means the ability of your audience to comprehend financial information. A board member with an MBA may be well-versed in acronyms and capable of reading complex graphs, while one that does not come from a business background may feel lost in the numbers. When you understand the makeup of the board, you can strike the right balance.

Relevant data:  Your report should help the board consider questions and chart the best path forward. So ... what data is truly relevant or necessary to the questions at hand?

Reflecting on these areas helps you understand what your audience needs to review and how to best present the information. If the audience has a lower level of financial literacy, you may choose to include more charts and graphs. If your audience is highly literate about finances, pairing raw data like figures with a contextualized narrative summary can help them quickly and confidently analyze everything from  SEC forms  to  proxy statements  to balance sheets.

Once you have a strong understanding of the data that is needed, gather it from  financial reporting software .

Key Components of the Financial Report

Most financial reports consist of these key sections:

• Executive Summary:  This is a high-level overview of the information contained in the report, often written after you complete the report.
• Financial Statements:  There are several kinds of financial statements that might be included in a report, such as a cash flow statement or balance sheet.
• Key Metrics and Ratios:  These add context to the raw financial data, highlighting what is most important to consider.
• Budget vs. Actuals:  By comparing the actual performance against the budgeted figures, the report tells a story about how the business performed versus expectations or projections.
• Forecasts and Projections:  Drawing on data, this section combined narratives and graphs to make educated guesses around the future of the company.

Crafting the Presentation

A strong presentation focuses on the most important points and omits irrelevant or extraneous data. This is where the preparation ahead of time comes in hand.

Understanding your audience, the focus of the presentation, and their background and level of financial literacy will help you assess the right way to format information.

Visual aids such as tables and charts highlight key points. They allow board members to focus on the main takeaways and top-line trends.

The numbers tell a story. Using a narrative flow highlights the underlying story. Your narrative might be sequential (this happened, then this happened) or thematic (these data points have this underlying factor in common).

Use summary sections to connect the financial story to the bigger picture: What happened and why does it matter?

It's common to present the financial information using a slide show. The golden rule with slides is "less is more." Cluttered slides confuse audiences who lose focus.

Presentation Tips

Write out your thoughts. Then, go through your notes and remove any jargon. A successful  presentation of financial information  is clear, concise and engaging.

Pick several points in the presentation where you will pause and take questions. Allowing questions and debate not only keeps the audience engaged, also it helps you to figure out what your audience does and does not understand. If a key point isn't landing as you hoped, you then have time to rephrase.

Finally, practice the presentation multiple times until you can talk without speaking from your notes. This will help you stay on track if someone asks you questions.

Addressing Challenges

When presenting financials to a board, you must respect the time allotted. When practicing, time your presentation, so it falls within the allotted time and leaves room for questions.

Keep an eye on the time when giving the presentation.

While most questions will be straightforward, there are challenging questions. If you receive a difficult question, stay calm. Take a deep breath. Then, use the data to provide answers. Your goal is to speak logically, rather than emotionally, and connect the question back to the data.

Successful Follow-Up

Your work does not end after a presentation.

Close the presentation by summarizing the key takeaways from the report.

Talk about next steps: What action items remain? Who is in charge of completing them? If board members have questions, how should they contact you?

Finally, provide copies of the report to board members, so they can go deeper at their own pace. Make sure to include copies of any supporting documents, such as  financial statement tie-out binders .

Afterward, ask for feedback from the board. This keeps lines of communication open and helps you to improve your performance.

Strive for an attitude of continuous improvement. If something did not go as well as you hoped, reflect upon it. What could lead to a different outcome next time? This attitude will help you adapt the model to better serve the needs of your audience and, ultimately, the company's goals.

Financial presentations  are an essential part of running a business. By understanding the key purpose of these presentations and how to present a financial report to best connect the data to the audience, you can prepare for success. The next time you have to present, it will be easier because you know what to expect.

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ThoughtSpot Named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ThoughtSpot , the AI-Powered Analytics company, today announced Gartner Inc. has positioned the company in the Leaders quadrant in the 2024 Gartner ® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI Platforms. A complimentary copy of the report can be found here .

A Leader for Companies Leading in the Era of GenAI We believe that the modern analytics and BI market has gone through unprecedented change in the last year, a direct result of Generative AI (GenAI). There’s been a mindshift among business and data leaders, as organizations look to go beyond experimentation and see tangible, concrete results and ROI from their GenAI investments. Early adopters have proven analytics and BI are a high value use case where GenAI, when applied correctly, can immediately add value. In doing so, these organizations are unshackling themselves from the dead dashboards of the last decade and bringing data-driven ideas to life as they spark their Data Renaissance . Now, with personalized, trusted insights at the fingertips of all employees, any business user can ask questions of their data, get actionable answers, and deliver meaningful business value, all without compromising on governance and security.

Customers like JP Morgan Chase, Verizon, Elevance Health, Electronic Arts and easyJet Airlines are turning to ThoughtSpot as an innovative business partner they can trust to deliver value in their GenAI business strategies, via AI-Powered Analytics.

As reviewed on Gartner Peer Insights ™ by customers across industries and roles:

“A Paramount AI Driven Platform to Revolutionize Your Data Analysis: Thoughtspot Analytics has been impeccable since we brought it on board as it has contributed greatly in the transformation of how we conduct our data analysis. Thanks to ThoughtSpot we can easily derive informative insights from our data which is integral in data driven decision making. Its AI powered analytics are critical for employees of any technical level to create visualizations from a given set of data,” said a data analyst of a consumer goods company https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/analytics-business-intelligence-platforms/vendor/thoughtspot/product/thoughtspot-analytics/review/view/5263682 .

“I have to say it's a game changer. It truly democratizes the use of data. Advanced users get answers faster. Fresh users are less scared once they see how it works,” said a VP of Operations at a construction firm https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/analytics-business-intelligence-platforms/vendor/thoughtspot/product/thoughtspot-analytics/review/view/5171782 .

Key Business Achievements The report publication follows a year of growth and expansion for ThoughtSpot, including:

• The launch of and expansion of ThoughtSpot Sage, an AI-powered search experience that empowers every person in an organization, regardless of technical skills, leverage foundational language models within ThoughtSpot’s patented search technology to get insights from their data through natural language search.
• The success of ThoughtSpot Embedded , the company’s embedded analytics solution introduced in late 2021, which emerged as an industry leader for product and app developers looking to infuse AI into their analytics.
• A deepening partnership with Google , including new integrations with Gemini models to help organizations unlock unprecedented value from their investments in the Google Cloud ecosystem. ThoughtSpot was also recognized as Google Cloud’s Technology Partner of the Year for Data - Business Intelligence.
• Growing partnerships across the data ecosystem including new data catalog integrations with Alation, Atlan and Collibra, and Model sync for dbt. ThoughtSpot was named Snowflake’s 2023 Innovation Technology Partner of the Year .
• The introduction of ThoughtSpot Monitor for Mobile , empowering customers with on-the-go, automatic notifications on their mobile device as critical business KPIs change, along with an explanation of the key drivers of that change, so that they can make data-driven decisions from anywhere.

Thoughts from the Top

“The world has fundamentally changed in the last 18 months. The rise of Generative AI is ushering in a new era that we call the Data Renaissance . Companies of all sizes, and in every industry, are looking to put GenAI to work in their business and their teams, to measure and deliver tangible business outcomes from their GenAI investments. This is not about technology for technology’s sake. It’s all about putting people and ideas back at the center of decision-making,” said Ajeet Singh, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of ThoughtSpot. “Our focus is to support every person, regardless of technical expertise, in being able to engage with data, find answers they can trust, and take action that creates impact. We will continue to co-innovate with our customers and partners to deliver the next generation of AI-powered analytics that drives real business value. As a company, we like to say we’re always 2% done. There’s more to come.”

“Generative AI is moving into the disillusionment phase, where businesses and users are no longer wrapped up in testing and trialing, they are looking for real world value. In 2024, it’s no longer enough to say you have a GenAI-powered experience, customers require trustworthy, accurate, secure GenAI that delivers tangible outcomes. GenAI investments across analytics, natural language search and chat, and BI are proving to have real returns and business impact by reducing effort, enabling wide adoption, and answering deeper questions,” said Sumeet Arora, Chief Development Officer at ThoughtSpot. “ThoughtSpot was built for this moment in analytics, where natural language search is a reality with the power of LLMs and Generative AI, and our customers report up to 95% accuracy when using ThoughtSpot Sage compared to GPT alone. We’ve done this by building security and governance guardrails into every step of the process, giving customers transparency and ensuring accuracy with our advanced human-in-the-loop verification and training controls. We will continue to drive innovation in AI-powered analytics and support our customers in their quest to modernize their analytics stack for the era of natural language search and conversational analytics technology. The time to leave legacy BI is now.”

Download the report here , and read more about ThoughtSpot’s perspective on the report here .

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant Gartner Magic Quadrant gives enterprise technology shoppers an unbiased assessment of how well competing providers are performing against Gartner’s market view and is supplemented by validated user reviews.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark, and MAGIC QUADRANT, HYPE CYCLE, and PEER INSIGHTS are trademark and service mark, of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, Kurt Schlegel, et al, 20 June 2024.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences with the vendors listed on the platform, should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot is the AI-Powered Analytics company. Our mission is to create a more fact-driven world with the easiest to use analytics platform. With ThoughtSpot, anyone can leverage natural language search powered by large language models to ask and answer data questions with confidence. ThoughtSpot enables everyone within an organization to limitlessly engage with live data in any popular cloud data platform, making it easy to create and interact with granular, hyper-personalized, and actionable insights. Customers can take advantage of both ThoughtSpot’s web and mobile applications to improve decision-making for every employee, wherever and whenever decisions are made. With ThoughtSpot’s low-code developer-friendly platform, ThoughtSpot Embedded, customers can also embed AI-Powered Analytics to their products and services, monetizing their data and engaging users to keep them coming back for more. Organizations like T-Mobile, BT, Snowflake, Daimler, CVS, OpenTable, Capital One, Huel, and Verisk Analytics rely on ThoughtSpot to transform how their employees and customers take advantage of data. Try ThoughtSpot today and see for yourself.

June 28, 2024

• Innovating leadership at the Spring CELEbration

The 2024 Spring CELEbration highlighted the intersection of service and leadership at the University of Washington. Students involved in the Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center and Mary Gates Endowment Leadership Scholars showcased their service, leadership and activist work from the academic year. The HUB, North Ballroom and Conference Rooms were filled with energy on May 24, the date of the culminating student event. Family, friends, mentors and community partners interacted with students during the CELEbration, which included lightning talk rounds, table talk presentations, poster sessions and a video showcase.

Nathan Loutsis at the Spring CELEbration. Photo by Jayden Becles

Honors Program undergrad Nathan Loutsis, ‘24, majoring in political science: international security with minors in public policy and leadership, first connected with the CELE Center as a UW Presidential Scholar . “Director Fran Lo not only collaborated with me to develop an individual leadership plan but also connected me with leadership opportunities that arose during my academic journey,” Loutsis explained.

Loutsis’ commitment to public service began at age 14 through a youth volunteer program with King County. In high school, a personal incident sparked his passion for creating safe school walking routes. As a result, Loutsis began serving as a planning commissioner for Kenmore at 16. “I brought a unique perspective to the table, representing a younger and often overlooked demographic,” Loutsis said.

With his background in local service and community governance, Loutsis was an ideal candidate for the NextGen Civic Leader Corps , a UW tri-campus, interdisciplinary program that widens the pathways to public service. Loutsis is currently a city council member for Kenmore, a position he won in last year’s election, “Running for office was challenging, but I won and continue to fall in love with public service and civic engagement every day.” Loutsis added,  “I enjoy empowering young people to participate.”

At the event, Loutsis presented his Husky Leadership Certificate in a table talk format, sharing his leadership development project. Initially, Loutsis viewed leadership as a hierarchical construct. Over time, he saw it as an interpersonal and social influence. “Leadership is unique to each person. How we utilize our strengths and character to guide others is significant,” said Loutsis.

As he prepares to begin his master’s in public administration at the Evans School this fall, Loutsis credits the CELE Center as a pivotal part of his Husky experience. “This community has supported me in unimaginable ways, providing comprehensive leadership development,” he says. Loutsis believes the CELE Center equipped him with leadership skills and helped him discover his potential. “I can continue this work, developing the skills, theories and competencies to serve my community more effectively.”

Foundations for success

Bryan Ortega presents his experiences as an Ellis Fellow at the 2024 Spring CELEbration. Photo by Jayden Becles

Ellis Fellow and Husky 100 awardee , Bryan Ortega, ’24, presented his leadership reflection during one of the evening’s lightning rounds. A first-generation Latino student majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, Ortega participated in the CELE Center’s Undergraduate Community Based Internships (UCBI) program. He attributed his strong leadership foundations and values to his family, stating, “My parents and grandparents are my main inspiration; they have been the foundation for what I have accomplished so far,” he said.

Ortega began his years of community service volunteering at a local hospital in Independence, Oregon, during high school. After moving to Seattle as a first-year student, he dedicated himself to youth shelter advocacy and spent two years working with young adults experiencing homelessness. Through UCBI, Ortega partnered with El Centro De La Raza, offering financial literacy support to empower people of all races. Currently, Ortega is an associate teacher at Bright Horizons, an early childhood education center, where he works with children ranging from infants to six years old.

Ortega emphasized that leadership embodies a profound commitment to growth and continuous learning. He views the role of a leader as a guide and a source of support, with a firm grasp of humility. “If you’re a leader who can’t admit that you’re making a mistake, are you really leading?” he questioned.

Ortega highlighted the importance of communication as a leader, not just for expressing his ideas but also for engaging in meaningful conversations. “There’s so much more that I’m excited to continue learning, and UW and the Ellis Fellowship have been integral in helping me develop my core values,” he reflected.

As Ortega prepares to pursue medical school, he looks at his CELE Center experience with gratitude. “I couldn’t be more fortunate for the opportunity and the connections I made. I learned to trust in myself and my abilities, and to see myself as a scientist,” he shared.

A way to give back

Su Cho with her poster presentation at the 2024 Spring CELEbration. Photo by Jayden Becles

Su Cho, ’24, is a neuroscience major who demonstrated her leadership and service through her involvement with the Dream Project as a College and Career Readiness Assistant (CCRA). Presenting via the poster format of the event, Cho expressed her connection to the project’s mission, stating, “I was drawn to this work because I am also a first-generation student whose parents didn’t know about college and the systems here.” Cho found a passion in providing resources and guidance to first-gen students, immigrants and those from low-income families.

Cho shared how her sensitivity and understanding of the unique challenges faced by these students made her a strong leader in the Dream Project. Her personal experiences allowed her to be more respectful and sensitive when dealing with students’ family situations, financial status and other personal matters. “Having gone through a similar experience allowed me to understand their perspective,” Cho said. “I was able to support them respectfully, promoting their empowerment and self-respect. I hope this equips them with more opportunities and paves the way for future success wherever they go,” Cho shared.

Cho cited her service with the Dream Project as not just beneficial to the students she assisted, but also to her personal and academic growth. She viewed her role mentoring high school students as they navigated through barriers as a way of “passing down all the resources and giving back what I’ve received.” Cho hopes to apply these experiences in her future healthcare career, using her expanded understanding of diverse individuals and their circumstances to understand and serve all of her patients.

Photos from the 2024 Spring CELEbration

These photos are a sampling of students’ projects and presentations. Photos by Jayden Becles and Nancy Huizar.

About the Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center

The Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center provides students with opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to thriving communities; building authentic community and campus partnerships drive the work. CELE Center programs are centered around the areas of community-engaged learning, democratic engagement, leadership education, preK-12 student success and place-based initiatives.

About Mary Gates Leadership Scholarships

Mary Gates Leadership Scholarships encourage undergraduate students to develop their leadership abilities through practical experience, personal reflection and in community with mentors and peers.

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• U.S. Supreme Court: Chevron overruled

Courts will no longer be bound to uphold IRS regulations as authoritative interpretations of ambiguous provisions under the Code.

The U.S. Supreme Court overruled Chevron.

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The U.S. Supreme Court today overruled Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. , 467 U. S. 837 (1984), and held that the Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, and courts may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.

The cases are:  Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo , No. 22-451 (S. Ct. June 28, 2024), and Relentless v. Department of Commerce , No. 22–1219 (S. Ct. June 28, 2024). Read the Court’s  opinion

Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court, which was joined by Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch also each filed a concurring opinion. Justice Kagan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Sotomayor joined and in which Justice Jackson joined as it applies to case No. 22-1219 (Justice Jackson took no part in the consideration of case No. 22-451).

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Now that Chevron’s deferential standard has been overruled, courts will no longer be bound to uphold IRS regulations as authoritative interpretations of ambiguous provisions under the Code.

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Candidates have survived bad debates. But is a reckoning afoot after Biden v. Trump?

Team biden wanted an early debate to shake up the presidential race. this one did, but not in the way they wanted..

President Joe Biden and his team wanted to hold an early debate to shake up the presidential race he was trailing in and to counter concerns about his mental acuity.

That was not the debate they got Thursday night.

Instead, the president's voice was raspy and his answers halting in a performance that fueled worries about his age, not settled them. He unnerved even some Democrats who support him and raised questions about the future of his candidacy.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump hammered Biden, turning even questions about the national debt and drug addiction to his favored issue of illegal immigration. The Republican candidate unfurled a series of unsubstantiated accusations against Biden and recast his own record, asserted with confidence even when he was at odds with the facts.

Sometimes it's hard to call a winner and loser in a debate. Not this time.

Candidates have survived bad debates before. In their reelection campaigns, both Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Barack Obama in 2012 faltered in the first debate and recovered in the next one.

Biden does have another debate on the calendar, on Sept. 10 on ABC. But chatter erupted on cable TV and in political corridors Thursday night about whether someone else should and could be nominated at the Democratic National Convention in August − a step that under party rules probably could happen only if Biden chose to withdraw.

It is a step that has never happened this late in the process, not in modern political times.

The power of the mute button

Trump got low grades from independent fact-checkers who detailed falsehoods about everything from downplaying his role on the Jan. 6 insurrection to overstating expert assessments of his economic record and presidential legacy.

But the debate rules designed to curb Trump ended up helping him.

Call it the power of the mute button.

In the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump's constant interruptions disrupted and derailed the debates, frustrating his opponents and hurting his own image. To prevent that this time, at the urging of the Biden campaign, the candidates' microphones were turned off when their designated time had expired, silencing them to millions of Americans watching on TV.

Trump, whose campaign operations have been more disciplined in 2024, was also more disciplined on the debate stage, abiding by the time limits although he often didn't respond to the question he had just been asked.

In contrast, Biden failed to show the strength and spark he displayed at the State of the Union address in March and in the national debates he has been participating in since his first bid for the presidency in 1987. He had spent days in seclusion at Camp David preparing for this one. Yet he rarely delivered crisp, compelling answers, though he fared a bit better as the end of the debate neared.

The president only occasionally effectively challenged inaccurate assertions Trump made. Debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who had said beforehand they would be facilitators and not participants in the debate, did no fact-checking on the fly.

Even in his closing statement, the most scripted moment of the debate, Biden meandered. He failed to mention two of Trump's greatest vulnerabilities, his criminal conviction and his role in making Supreme Court appointments that led to the overturning of abortion rights. He briefly seemed to lose his train of thought.

"Give people a break," he finally said.

No second chance to make a first impression

This debate was never going to be the opportunity to make a first impression.

Debates have sometimes done that in the past, especially in a contest with an incumbent. In 1980, Reagan's buoyant confidence combatted the critique that he was just an actor, and too conservative for the country. In 1992, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton overshadowed the impression left by scandals during the primaries with an earnest empathy with those in a town-hall audience.

But Biden and Trump are now the two best-known politicians in the world. For the past 16 years, either Biden or Trump has been president or vice president. Whichever candidate wins in November, that record will stretch for another four years − for two decades, for a generation.

After four years each in the White House, Americans' views of their qualities and their quirks have been set in political concrete.

The debate did give Americans a chance to see them side by side for the first time since their 2020 debate, standing just 8 feet apart. Their contempt for each other was apparent from the start, when they didn't shake hands.

Both of them looked older than they did in the last campaign, though it was Biden who especially showed the wear and tear common to many presidents.

Both looked warier, too.

So are the voters this time.

Six Takeaways From the First Presidential Debate

In a testy, personal clash, President Biden failed to ease worries about his age, Donald Trump forcefully made his case (with wild claims and exaggerations) and the moderators held their fact-checking fire.

The debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday night. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times

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By Shane Goldmacher and Jonathan Swan

Shane Goldmacher reported from the debate in Atlanta, and Jonathan Swan from Washington.

• June 28, 2024

President Biden struggled through his first debate of the 2024 campaign against Donald J. Trump, meandering and mumbling through answers as the former president pressed his case for a second term with limited resistance from his rival.

They disagreed on abortion, inflation, climate change, foreign affairs and immigration. But the sharpest contrast was in their presentation.

Mr. Trump was confident and forceful, even as he let loose a stream of misleading attacks and falsehoods. Mr. Biden spoke with a hoarse and halting voice, closing his eyes occasionally to gather thoughts that sometimes couldn’t be corralled. Democratic anxiety rose by the minute. About halfway through, people close to Mr. Biden put out word that he had a cold.

Mr. Trump relentlessly hammered Mr. Biden on areas of vulnerability, sending exaggerations and embellishments — he was the “greatest” and his opponent the “worst” — flying unchecked through the audience-free CNN studio in Atlanta.

Here are six takeaways:

Biden stumbled over his words as he answered a question on the national debt.

“We’d be able to wipe out his debt. We’d be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the — with, with the Covid, excuse me. With dealing with everything we have to do with — look, if — we finally beat Medicare.” “Thank you, President Biden. President Trump.” “He was right. He did beat Medicaid, beat it to death, and he’s destroying Medicare.”

The debate exposed Biden’s biggest weakness.

Mr. Biden’s allies desperately hoped he could turn in a commanding performance to calm voters’ persistent concerns about his age.

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