Am I a thought leadership purist, or an Nth-generation Puritan pilgriming around in the 21st-century business world?
Maybe it’s both. Maybe I’m carrying around a multigenerational history grounded in individual conscience, a quest for autonomy, and a tendency to preach. Maybe it has a land-grabbing, witch-fearing underbelly, too, shivering in fear at the edge of a cold, unfamiliar continent.
I’d like to think my commitment comes more from aspiration than desperation. I genuinely want people to have the freedom to develop and share ideas. And I want them to be able to do it outside the extractive, exploitative mindset of bad content marketing.
I’m thinking in these terms in response to Reunion, the new book from Jerry Colonna. It’s a call for radical and family-historical self-inquiry. Releasing it just ahead of traditional holidays seems especially apt. In the U.S., it’s holidays like Thanksgiving where we see, remember, imagine, and confront our family histories, even our families in history. How did we get here and what have we been trying to do?
I’m especially inspired by the book’s call for leadership that makes belonging a priority. Thought leadership, too, brings people into a circle of care rather than baiting and hooking them into a trap. It’s shared harvest versus “we harvest you and take your resources (attention, time, and money).” Yet, it sustains growth. It imagines better.
More about Reunion, thought leadership, and a tiny taste of personal and Thanksgiving history here.
