I recently finished reading American Icon by Bryce Hoffman, the story of how Alan Mulally stepped in to help save Ford Motor Company. I was so inspired by his leadership that I wanted to follow Mulally on LinkedIn, but I quickly realized he wasn’t active.
Have you ever come across someone who you know is a leader or expert in their space who doesn’t have a strong social media presence or platform? So many of my clients and other accomplished leaders I know fall into this category.
They are experts in their fields and leaders in their organization, but their thought leadership is shared in other ways, often informally in conversations, emails, presentations, etc. They do meaningful work focused on their vision. Visibility often isn’t a priority for them.
Many people feel visibility isn’t necessary, and as someone who isn’t the biggest fan of social media, I get it. But visibility is an important way to expand the reach of your mission. Social media isn’t the only way to get more eyes on your mission. Let’s reframe how we think about visibility and how a book can help accomplish this.
After all, I learned about the lore of Alan Mulally through a book, not a social platform.
Solidifies Your Thought Leadership
When your ideas, teachings, and stories only exist in conversations, emails, and presentations, it’s easy for them to fade. They simply live in the minds of others who you interact with. But when you write a book, you solidify your thought leadership in a clear and consumable way.
Your stories and teachings find a home in an evergreen asset. They are clear and organized in a way that can be easily understood and applied by the readers of the book.
More importantly, a book allows you to take the lead in this communication. You aren’t relying on a game of telephone. Rather, you’re putting this thought leadership in one space where it can be passed through layers of people and generations with the message remaining consistent.
This is not only beneficial to your audience. It’s a powerful process for you as well to put thought into how you would like your stories, teachings, and ideas to live on in this evergreen asset.
Scaling Your Thought Leadership
If your thought leadership continues to exist only informally, you’re only able to really impact those you come into contact with. This could be directly through conversations or more indirectly through communications that reach your teams or organization.
With a book, you have the ability to scale your thought leadership further. If you’re averse to visibility and think your message really only needs to reach who it needs to reach, I want you to reframe this.
Take a step back and think about your why. What is your mission? What is your purpose? As a leader, this drives how you act and what you communicate.
Now think about how much momentum your mission could gain if you were able to scale the message. Creating visibility for your mission isn’t about you. It’s about helping give your purpose legs so that it can be amplified in the here and now as well as continue on for generations.
Reframing Visibility
Being a thought leader in your field doesn’t mean you need to be posting every day, focused on building your own personal brand, etc. It means scaling your ideas with clarity and increasing your ability to preserve your impact for generations.
You don’t need to constantly come up with new ideas. All you need to do is shape your existing ideas so they are consumable and preserved for others to see.
Doing this is not about creating visibility for you. It’s about the impact you can have on others. It’s about that person five to ten years behind you, struggling to figure out how to navigate that challenge you already mastered. It’s about that business looking to become a force for good but isn’t sure where to start.
Visibility is for creating good, not building ego.
The leaders I work with are experts in their fields. They don’t need more credibility. They just need a way to structure and preserve their messaging while scaling their impact. If that sounds like you, let’s chat!
Disclaimer: This blog should not be construed as providing, or intending to provide professional financial, legal, psychological, or other professional advice. It is simply meant to share my experiences with those who may find them relatable and helpful.