In today’s digital culture, it is easier than ever to share thoughts and expertise with a wide audience. This ease of sharing is equaled by a desire for information. A survey of government decision-makers found they value informational content to help them better understand their needs and what the market has to offer. Vendors have embraced the “content is king” mentality, developing educational e-books, whitepapers, videos, blogs, and more, but the source that decision-makers value the most is peers. There is a great opportunity for government employees to become thought leaders, advancing the knowledge of the market as well as advancing their own careers.
A “thought leader” is an expert in a particular field who is authoritative and trusted. These experts earn authority and trust by taking positions on a topic and providing factual experiential insight to help others better understand the subject matter. Thought leadership is not a sales pitch. While vendors can develop educational content, government practitioners are in a unique position to offer insight on technology and potential impacts when implemented in a government environment.
Why Be a Thought Leader?
Just as an organization’s thought leadership can drive bottom-line growth for commercial organizations, individual thought leadership can drive professional growth. Being seen as an expert helps build others’ trust in you and can lead to new opportunities within your current organization or even with another enterprise. Demonstrating your knowledge sets you up to be considered for roles with increasing responsibility and visibility. For an agency, having recognized experts working for them builds trust in the efforts and work of the organization, leading to improved citizen experience and inter-government confidence.
How Can You Be a Thought Leader?
You have the expertise, but how do you start sharing it? The first step is to start writing. Use professionally oriented social media platforms like LinkedIn and Medium to self-publish informative articles. If writing a full blog post feels too daunting, start by reposting articles you find interesting, and adding a personal comment or takeaway.
After building up a collection of writing samples (and hopefully gaining some feedback and new followers), use that as a portfolio to approach your agency’s public affairs team. This group is usually looking for people who can write for them and are always seeking more material to share, so approaching them can give you the chance to write for your agency’s blog or social media. Public affairs may also have opportunities for you to publish articles on other media sites as a contributing author representing your agency.
From the written word, you can move on to the spoken word. Look for occasions to speak at industry conferences. These events typically issue a call for speakers six to nine months in advance. Such calls usually require little more than submitting an abstract outlining your topic. It’s also a good idea to get involved in committees or leadership positions in professional organizations; with this visibility, you may find many opportunities to begin publicly speaking at membership events.
Thought Leadership Feeds Your Career
Thought leadership can help you both personally and professionally. Putting yourself and your knowledge base out there and creating content (whether written or spoken) allows you to explore different skills you may not use as often in your day-to-day work. In particular, it’s a great way to improve your writing and presentation skills. The visibility of your expertise will make people want to work with you and have you on their team, opening up avenues you may not have known existed if you did not publicly share what you know. As you put yourself forward this way, you’ll be rewarded with new contacts and collaborations that can accelerate your career goals.
As the founder of GovEvents and GovWhitePapers, Kerry is on a mission to help businesses interact with, evolve, and serve the government. With 25+ years of experience in the information technology and government industries, Kerry drives the overall strategy and oversees operations for both companies. She has also served in executive marketing roles at a number of government IT providers.
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