You, too, can be a thought leader: Being one leads to invitations to join corporate boards and other opportunities to raise your profile.

AuthorBrosseau, Denise
PositionENDNOTE

Obviously, not everyone chooses to be a thought leader--to put themselves out in front of their field. Most follow the traditional career advice we were all taught was the path to success: keep your head down, work hard, and take each step, one by one, up the ladder. If you're lucky, and I hope you are, this route will routinely pay off for you with promotions, salary raises, and job security.

But that's not always the case, is it? What I've witnessed all too frequently (especially through the economic downturns that seem to follow one after another) is that if you take the traditional route, there comes a point in time when things no longer go your way. Your champion retires or leaves the company; your company is sold or merged; or your industry moves off in an entirely new direction. Technologies evolve, funding dries up, or customers revise their preferences overnight. Your path to the next job, to a partnership position, or to full tenure is blocked; your party is now out of power or your boss falls out of favor.

The result? That long sought-after career goal, the one you may have worked towards for years, may no longer be attainable or anywhere near as desirable.

The best career insurance invitations to join corporate boards, serve on government commissions, and participate in industry-wide committees--opportunities to raise your profile from the local to the national to the international stage.

The good news? Thought leadership is the very best career insurance around.

As the best-connected, most-respected, and most highly valued people in their organizations or industries, thought leaders, I've found, are usually the last to find themselves without a role or opportunity when things go awry. Their supporters and followers often become their allies, able to help them identify new paths forward after an unexpected company acquisition, reorganization, or downturn. Their wide network of connections, communities, and constituencies makes them much more likely to find the next place to land without significant difficulty or detour along the way.

The fact is that the world needs a lot more people who will step beyond traditional leadership roles into the role of thought leader.

Now is exactly the right time to begin your thought leadership journey.

D0 YOU WANT CO become someone who can move and inspire others with your innovative ideas, turn those into reality, and then create a dedicated group of friends, fans, and followers to help you...

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