Please don’t call me a thought leader. Last week I had coffee with an acquaintance who used the phrase to describe me. He meant it as a compliment — and I took it as such. But I still corrected him.
“No,” I insisted, “I’m not a thought leader. Please don’t call me that. It’s an overused term most people use to self-describe themselves so they can build a platform on Twitter or something like it. It’s the most overused phrase in our “leadership” culture.”
Since I was already on a rant, I continued with, “Besides, all those self-appointed thought leaders ignore the messiness of the world around them. They come up with 12-steps to achieve a goal, or 5 ways to change your life. They create tidy packages that are easily understood and applied. Never mind that they seldom actually work. Never mind that they don’t take into account all the nuances and vagaries of life. But hey, they say, I’m a thought leader because I came up with a system that follows a narrative you can comprehend. Nonsense.”
He smiled, even laughed a bit. He teased me about writing books, public speaking, keeping a blog, etc., but it was just teasing. He doesn’t know me that well but he intuitively understood my negative reaction.
Calling yourself a thought leader — or letting others call you that — just sounds incredibly narcissistic.
So what is a thought leader? I liked the dictionary description, “One whose views on a subject are taken to be authoritative and influential.”
Fair enough. The problem is that this description actually fits very, very few people. Most “views on a subject” are created by collaboration backed by diligent research. Sure, there are a few geniuses who come up with truly original ideas, but even they often admit to the strong influences of those around them. Defining a “thought leader” as if he/she has unique and singular views merely puts them on a pedestal they don’t deserve. If the view has any authority at all it’s usually because the community embraces the idea, not because a single person advocates for it.
And cut the “influential” nonsense too. In our media saturated world “influential” is largely meaningless no matter how many Twitter followers you have.
Doubt me? Go to Twitter and search for “thought leader” in user profiles. Feels like there are millions of people claiming the title, which of course makes it meaningless. Or visit Amazon and search for the term. You’ll be surprised how many books are written on the topic, which of course just cheapens the concept.
So please don’t call me a thought leader. I might take it as a compliment, but both you and I know it’s not true.