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Summary: Thought Leadership: a Radical Departure from Traditional, Positional Leadership

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McCrimmon’s “Thought Leadership: A Radical Departure from Traditional, Positional Leadership” is an informed viewpoint article. McCrimmon discusses what thought leadership is, and compares it to shared leadership and leaderful organizations. Thought leadership is essentially what it sounds like—leadership that emerges from someone’s thoughts and ideas. Its basis can be described as thoughts and ideas that help to change and improve the way we currently think or operate (1065).

Thought leadership is not to be mistaken with shared leadership or leaderful organizations. In shared leadership, all team members are engaged in the teams’ leadership (1065). In leaderful organizations, team members don’t require a leader because they learned to conduct their own affairs. In leaderful organizations, each team member experiences and provides leadership. McCrimmon argues that in shared leadership and leaderful organizations, management is never really differentiated from leadership. Both represent their team members as holding some responsibilities that are typically held by a more formal leader (1065). Unlike shared leadership and leaderful organizations, thought leadership does not hold managerial or empowered authority to make decisions. Thought leaders “challenge the status quo” for the purpose of change (1065).

Thought leaders are not necessarily staff in managerial positions. They do not require a specific personality type and do not require teamwork. The article describes how thought leadership can range from those with innovative ideas or those who simply adopt new technology earlier than most (1066). It is important to note that thought leadership ends once the idea has been accepted, typically by senior staff (1067). Thought leadership is argued to be most effective for organizations that want to focus on continually improving its organization rather than

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