How law firms can avoid the biggest 'thought leadership' pitfalls

Thought leadership is a dreadful bit of jargon that, over the past 20 years, has been widely adopted. Whatever your reservations about the term, it has at least two useful elements to it. It highlights the need to put thought into it and the need to show leadership (which might be regarded as a certain boldness that influences other people into action and perhaps even inspires them). It's not the same as being a technical expert, champion networker or even a great rainmaker, although each of these is a
great foundation.

Because the term is so widely used, misused and abused, it's helpful to start with a definition of what thought leadership means for your firm. It can help to ensure clarity on what you want to achieve, to focus activity and to ultimately help with quality control. The definition used at Clifford Chance notably does not contain the words 'law' or 'legal' (see box).

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CLIFFORD CHANCE'S DEFINITION OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Thought leadership in recent years has become central to many aspects of Clifford Chance’s development, marketing and even culture. It describes thought leadership in its internal documents as something that comprises views expressed by the firm that:

• are forward looking;

• contain intellectual content;

• progress the discussion on a given issue;

• show a different angle on an existing theme or make new connections; and

• have a cross border, practice or sector element.

Why is thought leadership important to Clifford Chance? It helps us to:

• build our brand as intellectual heavyweights, able to lead the debates that are critical to our clients; 

• broker new relationships with our clients – for example, with new parts of their organisation; and

• exercise our influence for the benefit of our clients.

 

There are three common traps that
law firms fall into when developing a
thought leadership programme.

1. Creating the illusion of a programme

The easiest way to create a thought leadership programme is to simply start calling all the marketing activity you already do 'thought leadership'. Many firms do this by using the term to cover any form of PR activity, but they are fooling no one but themselves. Ensuring a clear definition
of what thought leadership means for
your firm will prevent this pitfall.

2. Believing it's all marketing activity

With this trap, creating thought leadership is simply seen as a marketing activity to either be dumped on the marketing team (with little involvement from partners) or outsourced wholesale.

Utilising specialists can be hugely beneficial. The involvement of the marketing team from the early stages is important for maximising the business development value. Successful firms do this, but many unsuccessful ones instead simply abdicate.

How do you avoid this problem?
It starts at the top. Of course, billing
targets need to be hit, but being a partner
is a leadership role including providing
intellectual leadership in areas important
to the firm's clients. Without this being valued by the firm, where is the incentive
to put in the time to do it well?

3. No quality control process

There are a lot of firms that have proudly unveiled initiatives intended to generate headline-grabbing thought leadership, but ultimately delivered platitudes. How did it go so wrong and how could it have been prevented?

A strong and thorough peer review is
an important lesson to be learned from the big firms with established programmes and the world of academia. At specific points, such as before undertaking research and once the initial findings are drafted, there needs to be time for a strong peer review from people knowledgeable in the subject. They would ideally be from within your own firm, but there is no reason why trusted clients or others cannot be involved.

Anything that does not score well
must be improved, with nothing allowed
out the door that is not interest-grabbing.

4. Leadership needed

For the managing partner, your role shouldn't be to interfere in the process or insist on reading everything. Your role is about leadership, not micromanagement. But, if you want your firm to stand out for its commercial knowledge, your people need to demonstrate it, not simply assert it, and there is no better way to do this than through ensuring it has successful thought-leadership initiatives.

Tim Prizeman is director of Kelso Consulting and author of The Thought Leadership Manual (www.kelsopr.com)