Tamsen Webster argues that being a thinking leader beats being a thought leader. The difference: focus on your unique process of how you think, not just what you think. She introduces the ITBA framework (If, Then, Because, And) to show how.
So you want to be a thought leader? Okay, good. But I gently invite you to consider being a thinking leader instead. I'm Tamsen Webster. I'm the founder of the Message Design Institute, where I run a community of people who are dedicated to helping other people transform the world. Okay, Now, thought leader has two words, so there's two concepts that have been put together. It is, by the way, the very definition of what I like to call a core or prime strategy. First of all, the thought is what you think, right? And when we think about that and only that, we run into a couple challenges. Number one, there's always a process behind the thought. So there's what you think, but there's also how you think that got you there. The opportunity is, is that even when the thoughts are the same, what you think, how you think, and how you think in such a way that brought you there isn't necessarily the same at all. And this is a phenomenon, as surprising as it might be to you, that happens all the time, where two different people in two completely different places come up with the same idea, but sometimes from very different experiences and for very different reasons. So just focusing on what you think isn't necessarily the thing that will make you a leader. Because if somebody else has it, not quite so leadershipy. But the answer actually lies in that process part. Because as I said before, how we think about something and why we think that way is almost always, if not actually, unique to the person thinking it. Even if you have the same thought, even if some of your principles and values are the same, why you think what you do How you think, in other words, is always different. Now, how all this translates into thought, or rather thinking leadership, is that when we can change how people think about something, we also typically change their thoughts. So that's why I encourage you to think about being a thinking leader. Don't just focus on the thoughts that you think set you apart. Focus just as much, if not more, on how your thinking is different. When people see and align with your thinking, the thought naturally follows. And even better, it's much more likely to be distinctively and defensibly only yours. How people think is one of the core focuses of the Message Design Institute. And in fact, we believe that all great messages and all great change starts with how people think about something in the first place. So we've created a framework for that. We call it the ITBA. It stands for If, Then, Because, And, and you can grab it right from getthehandout.com and get started on your own.
