Most “thought leadership” content is neither thoughtful nor leading — it’s recycled takes, vague frameworks, or thinly disguised sales content. The bar is low, which means writing something genuinely useful and specific will make you stand out. Here’s how to do it without making the same mistakes.
Start with a real observation
The best thought leadership starts with something you’ve actually noticed — a pattern across clients, a problem you see repeatedly, a conventional approach that you think is wrong. Not a trend piece about something you read, and not a summary of what everyone already knows.
If you can’t finish the sentence “I think most people get [X] wrong because…” with a specific, grounded answer, you don’t have a thought leadership piece yet. Keep thinking.
Be specific and concrete
Specific beats general every time. “Three things I noticed about how senior teams read strategy documents” is more interesting than “How to write better strategy documents.” “Why most comms audits miss the most important thing” is more interesting than “How to do a comms audit.”
Use your real experience as evidence — anonymised examples, patterns you’ve observed, things that surprised you. This is what separates a practitioner’s perspective from a generic article.
Format and length
For LinkedIn: 150–300 words with a strong opening sentence. For a blog or newsletter: 500–1000 words with clear headings. For a long-form piece: 1500+ words, justified by depth, not padding. Whatever length you choose, cut the first paragraph — most pieces get going in the second one.
Consistency matters more than quality
One excellent piece a month beats one viral piece a year for building a professional reputation. Frequency builds the habit in your audience and trains them to expect something useful from you. Don’t wait until you have something “big” to say.
The thought leadership content planner below helps you develop ideas, plan your content calendar, and structure individual pieces before you start writing.