Let’s get this straight. We’re not saying that you should ignore thought-leaders completely. Far from it, in fact – they’re thought-leaders because they’ve walked the walk and demonstrated their expertise through their actions. They often have a lot of great advice to give and plenty of insights to share.
That said, there’s a limit. If you spend too much time focusing on strategy you’ll have nothing left for the execution, and the same is true when it comes to learning from thought-leaders. It’s possible to get so caught up in intellectual exercises that you forget to actually do something, and that’s a problem. When seeking inspiration takes up more time than acting upon what you’ve learned, it suddenly becomes counterproductive.
There’s a time and a place for thought leaders, and that time and place is often on the commute or over your morning cup of coffee. If you can squeeze in a quick blog post or a podcast without it interfering with your work, you should do it. That’s not what’s causing the problem.
The problem with thought-leaders
Perhaps we’re not phrasing this correctly because the problem with thought-leaders isn’t really a problem with thought-leaders. After all, you could argue that if they’re releasing content and people are consuming it, they’re doing their jobs. The whole point of a thought leader is that they share useful insights and information which can help people to get their job done.
So really, the problem is actually with the consumer. When they spend too much time consuming thought-leadership content, they can start to trick themselves into thinking that they’re actually doing something. But while watching a dozen episodes of #AskGaryVee might be inspiring, it’s also a lot of time down the drain with no measurable return.
That’s why it’s so important to remember that thought leaders got where they are by doing remarkable things, and that you can’t do remarkable things if you’re busy reading and watching how other people did it. Of course, not everyone can be a disruptor, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t give it a go – and perhaps your time would be better spent trying something and failing than simply sitting at your desk and reading another dozen blog posts.
Conclusion
When it all comes down to it, as with most things the key is moderation. Thought-leadership content can be a fountain of inspiration if you’re a casual consumer that keeps up with the latest influencers while building a little influence of your own, but it can become a huge time sink if you’re not careful. The moral here, then, is to follow thought-leaders – but to do it with self-awareness.
And who knows? If you go out there and innovate, perhaps one day you’ll become a though-leader yourself. Wouldn’t that be nice?
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.