The Dark Side of Thought Leadership
Listen to this episode on the Purpose + Profit Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the podcast player of your choice
Last week, we got to dig into the power of thought leadership and why it’s so important for female entrepreneurs and leaders.
While thought leadership is an important tool for elevating your expertise and influence, it doesn’t come without its challenges.
In this post, we'll explore some of the difficulties that come with being a thought leader, and I’ll offer some insight into how you can navigate the turbulence as it comes.
Overexposure
When I first stepped into the online marketplace, the prevailing advice was to post 3-4 times a day, every single day. I did that. For over a year, I did not skip a single day. Now, it probably didn’t hurt from an exposure perspective given that I was still so new, but over time, I’ve realized you don’t need to share content every single day and certainly not more than once a day.
One of the paradoxes of thought leadership is the risk of overexposure. Striking the right balance between being visible and oversaturating your audience can be tricky. As women, we often fight harder for our platforms, and we may be tempted to seize every single opportunity that comes before us.
Not only is this a recipe for burnout, it can also potentially dilute your message and create fatigue in your audience. This is where having a strategy and plan for how and when you’ll share content and being consistent is so important to creating real trust with your audience.
Handling Criticism and Backlash… Or Worse, Being Cancelled
As your visibility increases, so does your exposure to criticism. Hands down, when I talk to the women I support, there is a fear of saying the wrong or unpopular thing.
In fact, I remember a conversation I had with a high school student I was coaching for TEDxWarmSpringsAvenueYOUTH last November. I could tell she was mincing her words, dancing around what she really wanted to say, so I asked what was going on. She said, “What if people don’t like what I have to say?”
We talked through the reason she was chosen for that particular stage and why her message was needed - right now. She went on to deliver a powerful talk, but this fear is not exclusive to high schoolers.
Female thought leaders often face scrutiny not just for their ideas but sometimes for their right to express them. The critique we face can sometimes be harsher and personal attacks more frequent and personal.
Developing a thick skin (I know, easier said than done) and a professional approach to handling criticism—separating useful constructive feedback from mere trolling—is essential for maintaining your mental well-being and professional image. This is where your personal board of directors and your inner circle become a total godsend.
Echo Chambers and Confirmation Bias
One of the coolest things about being a thought leader is how galvanizing your message can be to others who share those views. We often attract like-minded people, which is awesome from a support and community impact perspective, but when left unchecked, can inadvertently create an echo chamber.
Our thought leadership has to evolve, and the only way it can do that is if we’re exposed to other thoughts that force us to ask questions, dig deeper into our subject matter, and engage in rich dialogue. Without this challenge, we run the risk of limiting growth and genuine impact, which are fostered through diverse opinions and challenging debates.
In high school, I was part of the speech and debate team. One of the things I loved best about the debate process was how it forced me to confront challenges to my own case. For female entrepreneurs, breaking out of these echo chambers and safe spaces to test our ideas in broader, possibly more critical arenas is essential for true thought leadership.
The Blend of Personal and Professional Life
If you’re in the social impact space, thought leadership is often not just a professional role but one that merges significantly with our personal identities. This blending can place additional pressure on how you manage public perceptions and balance life responsibilities. It also raises questions about privacy and the extent to which personal experiences are used to shape professional insights.
We all have to navigate this tension personally, so spend some time really think about the boundaries you need to have in place and how you’ll care for yourself in this process.
Long-Term Sustainment
Maintaining momentum in thought leadership requires continuous effort, innovation, and engagement. It can be exhausting - if left unchecked - to continually produce fresh, relevant content and to stay ahead in fast-changing industries.
For women, who may also be navigating systemic barriers or balancing disproportionate familial responsibilities, the challenge of staying relevant and influential without burning out is very real.
This is where knowing your boundaries is really important. It’s also an invitation to be more strategic about your own content. I told you I created content multiple times a day, every single day for over a year. What I’ve learned in the intervening years is that you don’t have to constantly be creating NEW content. Much of what we need and want to share can be repurposed as the core messages don’t change that dramatically.
Conclusion
These challenges aren’t fun to navigate, but when you KNOW that the impact you’re trying to create depends on it, thought leadership is still rewarding and powerful. My hope is that by acknowledging and preparing for some of the challenges you may face, you’ll be better equipped to handle the pressure when it comes up.
In the next blog post, we’re going all in on why we need HUMAN thought leadership… and not just AI.
