So you want to be a thought leader?
“if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.”
Ok, so Charles Bukowski was writing about poetry, not the quarterly content plan.
But when it comes to thought leadership writing at least… he kind of has a point.
Because the internet is not short of articles. LinkedIn is not short of opinions. And your audience is certainly not sitting waiting for another piece on navigating change.
So how can you make sure your next thought leadership piece actually earns the name?
1. Make it count
The problem with a lot of thought leadership is simple: there isn’t enough thought in it.
You don’t need a world-first idea. It could be a hard-won belief. A pattern you’ve noticed. A truth your competitors aren’t owning.
In thought leadership writing, the reader should leave with something they didn’t have before.
2. Make it clear
The topic is not the thought. Before you write, ask yourself: “what’s the line I’m prepared to stand behind?”
A topic might be ‘AI and content’, ‘building trust’ or ‘the future of work’. The thought is what you actually believe about it.
If you can’t say what the piece is really arguing in one sentence, it may not be ready yet.
3. Make it land
A lot of business writing opens with context everyone already knows.
Markets are changing. Expectations are rising. Technology is moving quickly. True, yes. But usually not the bit your reader came for.
If they work in the sector, your audience probably doesn’t need paragraphs of scene-setting. Start closer to the argument, and it’s more likely to cut through.
4. Make it real
Thought leadership writing often deals in Big Concepts: trust, innovation, culture, transformation, purpose, resilience.
There’s nothing wrong with those words. But they do need something solid around them.
Ground your idea in examples, proof and consequences – drawn from what you’ve really seen, learned or changed your mind about.
5. Make it yours
You don’t need to sound like a founder on a podcast. You don’t need to be provocative for the sake of it. But your writing has to carry the opinion.
If the language is flat, vague, generic AI speak or borrowed from the same pool of phrases as everyone else, even a strong idea can sink.
This is where tone matters. Thought leadership should feel authored – by your individual business, with your specific experience, proposing an argument only you can make.
A thought leadership piece doesn’t need to roar out of you in a flash of poetic compulsion. But for any writing that wants to really matter, it does need to come from somewhere real.
As Charles Bukowski says, “there is no other way. and there never was.”
Got a view worth sharing? We can help turn it into thought leadership people actually remember. Just get in touch.
Excerpt from so you want to be a writer? from sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way by Charles Bukowski © 2003 by the Estate of Charles Bukowski.