(May 06, 2009) Recently, Neal Bruce (the product development genius at First Advantage) said, “If you want to be an HR thought leader, you should have some thoughts.” (Actually the precise quote was “thoughts are a prerequisite for thought leadership“). Sadly, his tongue was nowhere near his cheek.

Much of what passes for HR thought leadership involves little thought. It’s all smoke and no fire. In fact, if you look at the contents for this video, “How to Establish Yourself as a Human Resources Thought Leader with Your Management Team, Industry and Other Professionals a ReedLogic Video Seminar Featuring Top HR Executives (DVD)“, you’ll quickly see that thoughts are barely required. It’s obvious, since the training for the job requires only one DVD, that HR Thought Leadership doesn’t require any thinking whatsoever. This, in spite of Mr. Bruce’s good wishes.

I can’t seem to visualize this HR thought leadership thing. Is it like a swarm of small cars following a lead car? Or, is it more like a well trained dog? I try to think about HR thought leadership but my thoughts just don’t follow the idea. Is HR thought leadership like following someone on twitter? You sign up and then have to digest a personalized stream of what? Or is  HR thought leadership like following /component/page,shop.ask/flypage,flypage.tpl/product_id,58/category_id,6/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,28/vmcchk,1/”>buy cialis online usa a train of thought?

Self proclaimed HR thought leaders tend to be vacuous morons, incapable of sustained thought. There’s a code that I saw somewhere that says you can’t be one unless someone else says you are (without being asked to). Even that’s not good enough, really. The bluntest knife in the box has a mom who thinks /component/page,shop.ask/flypage,flypage.tpl/product_id,58/category_id,6/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,28/vmcchk,1/”>buy cialis online usa he’s got HR Thought Leadership potential. When he walks up to you and introduces himself as a HR thought leader, hang on to your wallet.

Thought leadership is neither (thought nor leadership).

I’m wildly pummeling this equine cadaver to make a point.

Influence is hard to deliver and harder to identify. The key influencers in our HR – Recruiting Marketplace take many shapes and forms.

• fantastic mentors who have shaped the careers of their apprentices
• people who reframe the very essence of HR – Recruiting
• innovators who make great breakthroughs in understanding
• product visionaries who change the nature of HR – Recruiting with their companies.
• marketers and event promoters who work to unearth the next greatest thing
• architects and consultants who tirelessly improve HR – Recruiting effectiveness
• industry giants who train others
• surprise thinkers who create new ways of doing things
• trainers and leaders who inspire us to higher performance

Last week’s post was a really good start on identifying key forces in the industry. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like a little more help. Once more, I’d like to find out who you think are the essential forces in our business.

HR is a conversation. The discipline is practiced differently in each region, industry and economic niche. The definitions of essential HR – Recruiting ideas don’t generalize well. That means that the people who influence HR-Recruiting are people who add to or improve the conversation.

The project is gaining some real momentum. My list is getting clearer. My question is simple. Is the power of a good example enough to change an industry? That is, are great recruiters or Hr pros who set an amazing example operating in a way that can change an industry.

Or is something else required?

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