1.
A Manifesto for Thought Leaders
12 Secrets to Becoming a Thought Leader
Cogito ergo sum – I think therefore I am.
by David Zinger
www.davidzinger.com

2.
The map is not the territory.
Alfred Korzybski

3.
I have been referred to as a thought leader
in employee engagement and was
conferred engagement Guru status by the
UK’s Engage for Success movement. I never
knew that a business and workplace
movement in the UK could confer guru
status.
I believe that if you think you are a thought
leader or a guru in all likelihood you are
neither of these things.
I don’t think I am a thought leader, just a
fifty-nine year old guy living on the
Canadian prairies in Winnipeg who
developed an abiding passion for the
various permutations and combinations of
engagement in
work, living, leadership, and management.

4.
A Dozen Ways to Get Cracking as a Thought Leader

5.
1. Develop a mild to medium obsession with a topic.
I admit that I am obsessed with engagement and what it
means. I can’t resist reading a book or blog about
engagement. I check tweets on engagement about five times
a day. I think about engagement all the time. Psychologists
suggest we have about two thousand 14-second daydreams
each day. A fair number of my daydreams involve
engagement.

6.
2. Be willing to go anywhere to learn about your
specialty.
I have gone from military bases in Winnipeg to distilleries
in Manitoba to learn about engagement. I have walked
the tunnels of uranium mines in Northern Saskatchewan
and spent time scurrying though a platinum smelter in
South Africa in search of engagement.
I got a real buzz of engagement by using computers over
three summers to interact with honeybees in their hives
to learn about social engagement.
If you want to buzz off for a few moments to learn how
even one honeybee can be a teacher, click on: Waggle:
39 Ways to Improve Human Organizations, Work, and
Engagement. Thought leaders need to go anywhere and
to learn from everyone (even another species) about
engagement.

7.
3. Your best thoughts always begin with ignorance.
Everything I have learned about engagement has come
from my ignorance. To me, ignorance simply means not
knowing. Stupidity is thinking you know when you
don’t. It is okay to be ignorant just don’t be stupid
about it. Just because we start with ignorance doesn’t
mean that we stay there.

8.
4. You are only half right but don’t let your
brains fall out.
I believe that half of what I say is right on,
evidence-based, and state of the art while
half of what I say is wrong. The conundrum
is that I don’t know the difference.
Concepts, ideas, and practices need to be
played out and what works for one person,
team, or organization may not work for
another.
Jacob Needleman, the philosopher offered
the following advice, “it’s good to keep an
open mind, but not so open that your brains
fall out.”

9.
5. It is more important to
write than be right.
E. M. Forester once
wrote, “how do I know
what I think until I see what
I write.” Writing has proven
to be a good way to think.
I have written over 2500
blog posts, 3 books, and
10000 tweets. I read to
learn but I also write to
learn.
Thought leaders won’t go
wrong by writing.

10.
6. You can think on your
own but you are never
alone.
Thought leadership does
not exist in isolation or a
vacuum. I founded and host
the 6100 member EEN. I
have devoted countless
hours over the past 6 years
to this community and it
has been worth every
second.
We are now firmly
embedded in the era of
social thinking supplanting
solo thinking.

11.
I am enthralled by learning and learn from everyone I encounter. I default on being a
student. I study rather than read. Currently, I am studying, Employee Engagement in
Theory and Practice. I can’t help myself as I make notes and draw little diagrams in the
margin, I argue with certain statements and put giant check marks beside other
statements. The white pages of the book are streaked with contrails of yellow
highlighter.
7. You can never know enough, or retain enough, to stop being a student.

12.
8. Build a pyramid so that your thoughts will outlast
you.
I never intended to build a pyramid but I ended up
building a 10 block pyramid of engagement. I am a
visual thinker and created images for the key elements
of engagement. Before I knew it the blocks took the
shape of a pyramid.
Partially as a tribute to the great UCLA’s basketball
coach John Wooden’s pyramid of success and partially
because the pyramid structure created a
strong, almost intuitive, visual representation of the
tactical and practical requirements of full engagement.
It may be premature to declare this but I believe the
pyramid of engagement may be my magnum opus, or
it could be the manifestation of regression to when I
was three years old and totally engaged in playing with
wooden alphabet blocks.

13.
9. Embrace contradictions and change your mind.
My mind has been changed often in engagement. I have
more questions than answers. My thoughts lead me
more than I lead my thoughts.

14.
Do I contradict
myself? Very
well, then I
contradict myself, I
am large, I contain
multitudes.
Walt Whitman

15.
10. To find enlightenment
be a lamp.
A much wiser one than
I, the Buddha, said “be a
lamp unto yourself.”
We must shine a light on our
own thinking and approach
to knowledge. We can go
around the globe in search
of enlightened learning and
fail to realize that it resides
in our own hands, head, and
heart.

16.
11. Waggle while you work.
My honeybees taught me to waggle. Waggles are their dance-
like movements to communicate with their community about
sources of pollen and other essential resources. I trust my
thought-waggles will help others find and nourish their own
engagement.
I place countless links to resources in my frequent updates on
Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

17.
12. Think, pray, laugh.
I keep everything in perspective with the
Chinese beatitude:
Blessed are those who can laugh at
themselves, they shall never cease to
be entertained.
I maintain my serenity by reciting the
modified serenity prayer I learned 30 years
ago:
God grant me the laughter to see the
past with perspective, face the future
with hope, and celebrate today
without taking myself too seriously.
Thought leaders who laugh, last.
Enjoy my free book: Assorted Zingers:
Poems and Cartoons to Take a Bite Out of
Work.

18.
Alfred Adler was a thought leader for
psychological thinking. He didn’t
follow Sigmund Freud’s path or
someone else’s path, he created his
own. Supposedly after presenting his
latest theories and thinking on
psychology in front of very large
audiences he would conclude his
presentation with this statement of
heartfelt uncertainty, “things could
also be quite otherwise.”
As we journey forward in our
knowledge, let’s never forget that,
things could also be quite otherwise.

19.
The Manifesto thinned down:
1. Develop a mild to medium obsession with a topic.
2. Be willing to go anywhere to learn about your specialty.
3. Your best thoughts always begin with ignorance.
4. You are only half right but don’t let your brains fall out.
5. It is more important to write than be right.
6. You can think on our own but you are never alone.
7. You can never know enough, or retain enough, to stop being a student.
8. Build a pyramid so that your thoughts will outlast you.
9. Embrace contradictions and change your mind.
10. To find enlightenment be a lamp.
11. Waggle while you work.
12. Think, pray, laugh.
Things could also be quite otherwise…

20.
David Zinger speaks writes and consults on employee engagement
and engaged work, organizations, management, and leadership.
Contact him today if you would like him to share his thoughts.
Visit his site: www.davidzinger.com.
Visit EEN: www.employeeengagement.ning.com
Email him: david@davidzinger.com.