"Let's say you've just spent three months pulling together a killer report. It's got charts. It's got stats. It's got more acronyms than the those used by the federal government. You hit publish. You post it on LinkedIn. You get a few likes. Your CEO shares it with the comment "Great work, team!" And then... No waves. No spark. No mental reframe in your audience. Just another piece of content slowly floating to the bottom of the thought leadership ocean."
"It's that you may be doing what I call broadcasting your expertise instead of leading with it. And there's a difference. Broadcasting is done with a megaphone. It's about output. Volume. When you broadcast, you signal expertise rather than share generated insights. Leading, on the other hand, is a quiet but powerful invitation. It's about surfacing ideas people didn't know they needed, such as shifts they haven't yet articulated, and giving shape to ambiguity."
Thought leadership should make meaning and help people see what they couldn't before. Producing a well-researched report and publishing it can still fail to reframe audiences if the output simply broadcasts expertise. Broadcasting signals authority through volume and surface-level claims, using salesy tone and clichés that read like a brochure. Leading with expertise invites readers into new perspectives, surfaces unarticulated shifts, gives shape to ambiguity, and makes readers feel smart for thinking alongside the leader. Many professionals default to broadcasting in B2B, consulting, tech, and academia-adjacent fields. Recognizing and shifting tone, framing, and intent can convert content from noise into leadership.
Read at Forbes
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