Thought leader

A thought leader can refer to an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first citation for the phrase an 1887 description of Henry Ward Beecher as "one of the great thought-leaders in America." But it was revived or reinvented by marketers in the 1980s; in a 1990 article in the Wall Street Journal Marketing section, Patrick Reilly used the term "thought leader publications" to refer to such magazines as Harper's.

The term is sometimes used to characterize leaders of service clubs, officers of veterans' organizations, of civic organizations, of women's clubs, lodges, regional officials and insurance executives.

Thought leadership is often used as a way of increasing or creating demand for a product or service. High tech firms often publish white papers with analyses of the economic benefits of their products as a form of marketing. These are distinct from technical white papers. Consulting firms frequently publish house reports, e.g. The McKinsey Quarterly, A.T. Kearney Executive Agenda, Booz & Co Strategy and Business (now being acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers), or Deloitte Review where they publish the results of research, new management models and examples of the use of consulting methodologies. New York Times' columnist David Brooks mocked the lifecycle of the role in a satirical column entitled "The Thought Leader," published in December 2013.

Thought Leader

Thought Leader is a collaborative news and opinion platform owned by the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian. It was named a Webby Award Honoree in 2008, won 2008 SA Blog of the Year, and has scored a few firsts, including sending the first South African blogger, Ndumiso Ngcobo, to cover a major political event – the 2007 ANC national conference in Polokwane.

In 2010 it was named as the forum where “most analytic discussion of sexual violence” was taking place by the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, which conducted a study on the reporting of sexual violence in South Africa.

List of contributors

This Is That

This is That is a news satire program broadcast on CBC Radio, which airs comedic news stories presented in the style of a real CBC Radio public affairs program.

The program began as a summer replacement in 2010, returned in the summer of 2011, and was added to the regular schedule in the fall of 2011. It is hosted by Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring, and produced by Chris Kelly.

In the media

The program, whose style has been compared to The Onion, has drawn phone calls from listeners who did not realize that they were listening to a comedy program and took the content seriously; Oldring and Kelly admit to having been surprised that listeners would be fooled.

In June 2010, the National Post reported as fact that CTV purchased the set of the NBC series Friends; this, however, was a satirical story by This Is That.

Two years later, esteemed Canadian journalist Robert Fulford wrote an article for the National Post claiming that the show is "worth tuning in for".

Also in 2012, Public Radio International reported as fact a This Is That story that dogs in Montreal would have to know commands in both English and French by law.

Leadership

Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill, regarding the ability of an individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations . Controversial viewpoints are present in the literature, among Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also within the West, on US vs. European approaches. In US academic environments leadership is defined as "a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Leadership seen from a European and non-academic perspective encompasses a view of a leader who can be moved both by communitarian goals but also by the search for personal power. As the European researcher Daniele Trevisani states:

Studies of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values,charisma, and intelligence, among others.

Theories

Early western history

The search for the characteristics or traits of leaders has continued for centuries. Philosophical writings from Plato's Republic to Plutarch's Lives have explored the question "What qualities distinguish an individual as a leader?" Underlying this search was the early recognition of the importance of leadership and the assumption that leadership is rooted in the characteristics that certain individuals possess. This idea that leadership is based on individual attributes is known as the "trait theory of leadership".