What Makes a Thought Leader?

Clearly it requires some deep, specialized but un-myopic subject-matter expertise, some right-brain core competencies, an extremely broad range of interests and readings, and networks and tools that filter and feed the fire hose volume of daily news and information into a manageable stream.

Dave Pollard suggests three main Thought Leadership styles, which depend on individual temporal orientation and knowledge processing behaviour:

• Guru: Exceptionally innovative yet practical.
• Visionary: Future-oriented, able to 'think people ahead'.
• Facilitator: Canvasses and synthesizes others' perspectives and points of view.

Dave's article discussing these ideas can be found at How to save the world.