David A. Fields Consulting Group Is it hard for you or your consulting firm to become a Thought Leader?
Not really.
The benefits of thought leadership for consultants and consulting firms are well established: more inquiries from more clients, less competition and higher premiums on your projects.
Plus, you’re invited to speak at conferences, write articles for prominent magazines and pose for your effigy to be carved into mountains. All of which lead to even more client inquiries. It’s a good thing.
There are plenty of articles, videos and online courses that speak to thought leadership tactics (e.g., publish a book, gain a million YouTube followers, win a Nobel Prize). But really, that stuff is just visibility. Plenty of visible people aren’t Thought Leaders.*
You can start establishing yourself and your consulting firm as Thought Leaders by overcoming a scant handful of hurdles.
Hurdles may be overstating it. More like low steps. Or maybe just lines painted on the ground. Whatever they are, they’re (mostly) easy to accomplish.
Thought Leadership, Boiled Down to a Few Hurdles
Originality
Have an original idea. This is less daunting than it sounds. Below are three starting points for your fresh perspective:
Restate old ideas in a new way.
Enlisting the right people on your team isn’t new. In the Hebrew bible (purportedly a pretty old document), Moses employs his brother Aaron to help out with the whole “Escape Egypt” initiative.
Jim Collins rephrases that idea as “Get the right people on the bus” and voilà, he’s a Thought Leader.
Jim used the bus metaphor. Most people don’t like buses, but do like metaphors.
Provide an answer to a mystery.
Or at least an unanswered question. Why did the Europeans invade the Americas and not vice-versa? Answering that question won Jared Diamond the Pulitzer Prize.
Contradict common wisdom.
Sam Altman looked at all the secrecy in AI development and thought, “There must be a way to rapidly develop AI in a more ethical, open way.”
He set up OpenAI (you know their product ChatGPT) as an open source platform. Bam! Most successful app launch ever, and Though Leader status.
Credibility
Corral evidence to support your original idea.
Do you or your consulting firm need years of experience to be a Thought Leader?
Nope. You just need proven success.
You can be a newcomer to your field and if your original idea holds water, you’re a shoe-in for Thought Leader status.
Consider Boyan Slat, for instance, who catapulted to Thought Leader status at age 19 when he presented his Ocean Cleanup ideas.
Your evidence can be your own experience. But it can also be other people’s experiences or case studies or analysis.
Plenty of Thought Leaders come up with an idea then search out evidence that corroborates their position. (Blue Ocean Strategy comes to mind.)
Clarity
Your original idea has to be communicated in terms other folks can easily grasp and repeat.
For many consultants and consulting firms, this is the toughest hurdle.
Reducing an idea to its catchy, repeatable essence takes some time and concentration.
Once again, frameworks and metaphors are your friend. “Fishing Where the Fish Are,” “People on the bus” and “Blue Ocean” are memorable metaphors.
Visibility
The fourth hurdle is communicating your clear, original, credible idea broadly, frequently and consistently over time.
This is where the tactics from all those other articles, videos and courses come in. Write books, speak, stream to a million followers, found OpenAI. None of these are particularly difficult, but they do take time.*
The more credible and clear your original idea is, the faster and easier you’ll be able to gain visibility.
What have you or others in your consulting firm done (so far) to establish Thought Leadership?
Text and images are © 2025 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
David…Absolutely brilliant yet simple to use. Thanks for sharing these gems.
You’re absolutely welcome, Rajeev. I look forward to seeing your Thought Leadership reach superstar status!
Solid advice, and clearly presented, David. My consulting business is helping execs become thought leaders, and it’s amazing how often people overlook step 1, over-focus on step 2, and then want to jump directly to 4. Spending some time developing an original idea and formulating it in clear terms isn’t always easy, but it really pays off.
Well said, Dylan. As with so much in consulting, it’s simple but not easy. Good on you for guiding executives down the correct path.
I very much appreciate your lending your voice and experience to the discussion, Dylan.
Good stuff!
What are your thoughts on adding “niche” to the list? My thinking here is that being a Jill or Jack of all trades makes you a master of none, making it harder to get credibility, clarity, or originality. But by having a focus, such as finance and accounting consulting for nonprofits, you can get the subject matter expertise that typically eludes Jill and Jack.
What do you think?
You’re right, Sean, and also there are also natural forces driving Thought Leadership toward niches: the difficulty in creating an original idea and making it practically applicable.
It’s often easier to come up with a novel idea in a narrow area than in a broad one. It’s definitely easier to come up with practical applications that work when you’re considering a narrow space.
Take consumer products, for instance. There are constant “innovations” within a product category. Truly new categories come along very rarely, though.
Great addition to the conversation, Sean!
I love these articles because the light bulb comes on after I read each one! Thanks David. I’m in the process of developing my social media posts for November and beyond and this is very timely for me to look at how I can solidify my place as a thought leader in my industry. Thanks for sharing!
Woot, Aaron. Let there be light! Kudos for advance planning on your Thought Leadership.
Thanks for joining the conversation, Aaron, and please keep me up to date on how you progress with your Thought Leadership efforts.
I’m a fan of wordjacking–hijacking existing words to create a word-splice that can own a unique space in the mind. This word can be your intellectual property and concisely explain your thought leadership.
Consider “Freakonomics” and “Ideavirus.”
More common: “hangry” (hungry and angry).
Even “wordjacking” is a phrase I created to name the process.
David’s could be consultcrafting.
I continue to work on automating quality improvement. Qualitymation?
It’s often hard to work on your own stuff because of the curse of knowledge.
I always find it easiest to do this for other people.
What two words can you splice together to explain your uniqueness?
Who can you enlist to help you find the best wordjack?
Nice, Jay! We old folks still refer to that as a portmanteau. You’re absolutely right that a good portmanteau can become part of your IP and a way to make your ideas sticky. Freakonomics is a great example.
A danger, of course, is the compulsion to lead with form (in this case, a portmanteau) rather than function. A portmanteau is one method of quickly communicating an idea, and if a search for one yields fruit, that’s fantabulous. But if it doesn’t, I’d discard the portmanteau exploration and look for other communication vehicles.
I’m so glad you added your thinking to the conversation, Jay, and expanded on the topic.