Just be profound

I am a big fan of TED. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives ... in 18 minutes.

I have it on good authority that the speaker briefing before you go on stage to 1,000 of the world's leading thinkers is ... "Say whatever you want, just be profound!"

No pressure. Be profound! Sure, no problem ...

But it makes sense, it's not only at the wildly amazing event like TED that you need to bring your thinking. Thought Leadership is the new imperative.

It's getting harder to stand out in your career or business.

It's also getting competitive out there as the gap between the developed and the developing worlds close. India alone is creating thousands of technically qualified accountants, engineers and IT graduates each year. Knowing something is now not enough. It gives you less and less competitive advantage. The world is most definitely flatter.

It's also hard to know who to trust when it comes to the presentation of ideas. Do we trust the newspaper, the 6 o'clock news? Do we trust our politicians? Our priests? Individuals are the trusted advisors again - not brands. Political parties, church's are definitely brands. It's the individual within those brands that matter now. Maybe we are in the age of the rock star thinkers. Not necessarily the classical thinkers.

There is an exponential increase daily in the amount of information we could choose to be across. The amount of knowledge on the planet is not only doubling every time you blink, but the ability to access that information is accelerating as well.

In a recent Wired article, a case was made that scientific method as we knew it is dead! It used to be that clever people had theories and that these were thrown at other clever people who either tried to prove or disprove theories. Now it's less about clever theories proven and more about the ability to gather vast amounts of data and extrapolate or recognise patterns.

In short, now is the time for Thought Leadership. It's time for the sharing of great ideas. In fact, going beyond sharing and activating great ideas on the planet. Regardless of your personal position or politics, it's the way in which the Al Gore documentary; An Inconvenient Truth is pitched that made it work. It's the same with Barack Obama and his run to the White House.

A You Tube video can achieve cult status in days if it presents an idea whose time has come.

Increase your Thought Leadership ...

  • Write something and send it out.
  • Volunteer to present at the company conference.
  • Offer to mentor others in your business.

Be a Thought Leader. Who knows, your business might thank you for it!

Matt Church is one of Australia's foremost experts on 21st century leadership. He is a best-selling author, conference speaker and consultant to the Thought Leaders of tomorrow.

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