We’ve all heard the term Thought leadership, but industry leadership is about not trying to boil the ocean but becoming a leader in your own sector. No one can outpoint you there because it’s a domain you understand well.

Don’t be afraid to extend your vision and argue for what you think needs to happen in a broader sense, but if you’re not fully comfortable in some area, or don’t yet have authority in some domain, work with partners to extend your knowledge and authority.

Setting up your industry leadership goals for 2021

The world is chaotic at the best of times, but particularly now. To avoid being buffeted and thrown off course by events, it’s important to identify 4 main goals as an industry that you want to achieve for 2021. One for each quarter as a focus.

That’s not to say you ignore all other issues, or don’t proactively or reactively engage with other issues through the media, but by identifying four main issues they act as an anchor point and give you goals or deliverables to work toward and that you can show your board, membership, and the general public.

Draw in as many partners as you can that will help you to get your message amplified, and build your network and list of contacts.

  • Identify 4 key areas that need addressing
  • Work out calls to action around those four key areas
  • Bottom line or simplify the issues
  • Identify campaign or issue partners to work with

centrelink

Content creation

Make sure having identified the four key focus areas that they are reflected in your media content. That means a slate of media releases, a social content plan which emphasizes that focus through infographics, videos, or short posts, and industry leadership pieces based around this theme. You might run 6 thought leadership pieces a quarter, two a month, narrowing in on specific elements of that quarter’s theme.

Perhaps you want to talk about employment and the need for government training investment in the first quarter.

In the process you will have shown your breadth of knowledge to the sector, established relationships with partner organisations and individuals, built your chops and media credentials, and displayed your advocacy efforts to the public and stakeholders. And quite possibly, your conscious intentions might have seen you win some change.