How to Prove You’re a Thought Leader (Instead of Just Saying It) This episode unpacks…
Thought Leadership for Intelligent Networking | Cynthia O’Neal
Using thought leadership to develop methodologies and strategies for intelligent networking.
An interview with Cynthia O’Neal about using thought leadership to spread the message of intelligent networking.
Today’s guest is Cynthia O’Neal, the thought Leadership and content strategist for the intelligent networking division at Verizon professional services with 20 years’ experience leading change across marketing, sales, and technology in both the corporate and government sectors.
Cynthia walks us through what Intelligent Networking is and how Version is using it to maintain a cutting edge in their industry. Cynthia discussed how she is helping subject matter experts develop and implement thought leadership for use on the marketing side. She shares how they are creating their methodology for use internally before taking it externally, the challenges they’ve faced and the incredible success they’ve achieved.
Three Key Takeaways from the Interview:
- How thought leadership connects to intelligent networking.
- How to develop organizational thought leadership methodologies and strategies.
- Why you need to equip people with the right thought leadership tools to ensure they are comfortable talking about the subject.
Are you an evangelist for your organization? Do you need help figuring out how to better communicate and connect with your employees or management? If you want to transform your organizational thought leadership, reach out to Thought Leadership Leverage.
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Transcript
Bill Sherman Hello and welcome to Leveraging Thought Leadership. I’m your host, Bill Sherman. And today we’re talking about one of my passions, organizational thought leadership. That is the people who create, curate and deploy thought leadership on behalf of their organizations. My guest today is Cynthia O’Neill. She’s the thought leadership and content strategist for the intelligent networking division of Verizon Professional Services. She has 20 years experience leading change across marketing, sales and technology in both corporate and government sectors. Cynthia, welcome to the program.
Cynthia O’Neill Hi, Bill. Thank you so much for having me.
Bill Sherman Absolutely. So let’s begin with a level set question. What is intelligent networking? Assume that our audience doesn’t know what it is because I’m not sure I know what it is either.
Cynthia O’Neill Yes, absolutely. So intelligent networking is a phrase that encompasses a lot of different terminology, but in a nutshell, it refers to disruptive technology. And that disruptive technology is specific to the rise and especially around our 5G initiatives. So you have a lot of telecommunications companies that are focused on 4G and they’re revving up their 5G initiatives. Well, Verizon is on the cutting edge of implementing the fiber 5G edge technology. So it’s really intelligent. Networking is really focused around implementations relating to that technology.
Bill Sherman And then that makes sense. Now you’re working with the professional services group. My understanding is you’re in the marketing function. Is that correct?
Cynthia O’Neill Yes, I am. So I’m on the marketing team within intelligent networking. And one of my responsibilities is around really making sure that our consultants within the team have a thought leadership methodology and approach that they’re implementing. And so that’s an area that I’m focusing on right now.
Bill Sherman Okay. So you’re working with the consultants who are in the field on the sales side, or are they consultants doing the work alongside the clients? Because it could be sales or operations?
Cynthia O’Neill Yes, absolutely. So these folks are on the operations side. They’re considered subject matter experts in their disciplines. And we work hand in hand with the inside sales teams to develop strategies to go out and secure customers for arising.
Bill Sherman Okay. So you’ve got subject matter experts for a cutting edge technology. Right. And so you’ve got clients who are looking to this team and Verizon to help them guide them through that change. How are you working with the subject matter experts to build thought leadership?
Cynthia O’Neill So it’s interesting you should ask that question. We’re right now in the process of doing what we’re calling an intake process. And what that consists of is I’ve developed a series of questions for each of our practice area leads. And those questions are specifically around the thought leadership implementations that they currently have going on and where the areas of opportunity are. So right now, we’re really in the discovery phase of finding out where can we get the best bang for our buck when it comes to thought leadership and the approach that we should be taking. I can’t tell you that a lot of the leaders within intelligent networking and a lot of our practice area leaders are really wanting to first, before we get into this external thought leadership approach, really securing that thought leadership methodology for our internal sales team. So primarily right now we’re focused on how can we better communicate the technology and the expertise that intelligent networking brings to the table to our internal sales team. So that’s going to be our focus in the short term and the interim.
Bill Sherman So there’s a couple layers there, and I want to make sure that I’ve got this right. First, you’ve got the subject matter experts who have cutting edge knowledge, and it sounds like what you’re doing is almost doing an inventory from the organization’s perspective within professional services and saying, what do we know, what expertise do we have? And then second, it sounds like you’re making sure that there’s a methodology and a conduit to get that knowledge and expertise out to salespeople in the field. Do I have that correct?
Cynthia O’Neill Absolutely. I can defend it better myself.
Bill Sherman Course. So this is a challenge that I’ve heard across many organizations. And you could go back to the 1990s in the field of knowledge management. But the question becomes, what do we know as an organization? I think this challenge gets compounded when you’re working with something where the technology isn’t even, you know, routine or commonplace, but it’s new. So talk to me about that process of you’re going out and you’re cataloging the information. What is that like? What are you finding? How are you organizing it and curating it?
Cynthia O’Neill So what we’re doing right now is I’ll give you an example. I was on a call today with some folks from our Smart Cities practice area. And one of the things that we’re finding is that there’s various divisions within Horizon that focus on smart cities. And there really needs to be a plan around how to better make collaborative opportunities within those divisions. So from a thought leadership perspective, what that looks like is making certain that whenever we are preparing thought leadership assets, we’re considering the different pieces or groups within the variety that play into that technology or that product or that service. So I think that’s the challenge that we’re in the process of working through. How do we make certain that all of the folks that are there need to be at the table or at the table and they’re able to provide us with the information we need so that that that leadership implementation is where it needs to be. So from a strategic perspective, that’s going to be important for us.
Bill Sherman So. There’s an interesting thread here, so if I hear it right, you’re gathering information from across the organization as well as then making sure that information goes to various functions across Verizon as well. So you’re really both doing an information gathering and distribution exercise across Verizon on this topic and building the conversation where there may not have been connective tissue between people before. Is that fair?
Cynthia O’Neill That is fair. That is absolutely correct.
Bill Sherman And I think one of the things that is often underappreciated is the difficulty of reaching that first audience within the organization. Because if you don’t get them understanding what the thought leadership is, they’re never going to take it to their prospect or client. They’re never going to feel comfortable enough to talk about it. So talk to me a little bit about once you’ve codified the idea, how you’re equipping people to feel comfortable talking about it.
Cynthia O’Neill Well, I think it’s important that we don’t get so tied to the words thought leadership, because sometimes that tends to run people down a rabbit hole where they’re not really sure exactly what that means. I think from the perspective of our relationship with our internal sales teams, what’s important to know that those communications with the sales team is really centered around how can we better collaborate with each other for the ultimate goal of securing more customers for Verizon? So the way that we’re going to implement this is really making sure that we answer the question, what’s in it for me? When it comes to the sales team so that they feel like they can contribute and the contributions that are made by them is something that we can actually take in and really group their perspectives with the perspective of the folks on the intelligent networking team to make sure that there’s synergy and there’s collaboration so that ultimately we’re able to do what we need to do. But I think the the focal point of this and my thought process is as as you’re working with thought leaders, it’s important to not get so caught up in that terminology. What’s important is understanding, okay, what are the benefits? What are the results? What are the outcomes that we’re trying to generate as a result of this process?
Bill Sherman It’s very easy, especially and I would think in sort of the technology space to either fall into product marketing, feature marketing or service marketing rather than talking about here’s the opportunity that you can achieve through the technology. Or here’s the problem that you can solve that you weren’t able to do before. And really having that client focus.
Cynthia O’Neill Absolutely. Absolutely. And that you said it perfectly. Yes.
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Bill Sherman So talk to me about some of the successes or maybe even some of the challenges as you’re trying to bring your thought leaders and subject matter experts together with your frontline sales folks. Where has it gone smoothly and where have you had to look and say, I need to find a different way?
Cynthia O’Neill So I think for us right now, Bill, the biggest challenge is simply trying to make certain that as we move forward, that we’re considering each person’s in each areas, we’re considering each of their needs, and we’re applying approaches and methodologies that are in alignment with meeting those needs. Our intelligent networking practice area leaders and our consultants, they have a certain need and that need is getting exposure. And for us, the sales teams to understand our service offerings and really taking that information and being able to make those connections with potential customers. And then of course, our sales team, they have needs and those needs are centered around they need to better understand our offerings so that when they’re communicating with potential customers, it’s in alignment with what we can provide. So. So as we’re moving forward with our leadership, it’s important to keep both of those considerations in mind and how we can best make sure that everyone’s needs are being met. So, you know, we’re in the process of really thinking through that process and making sure that everyone’s approach and ideas are valued. And we’re really in the process of fine tuning what that big picture is going to look like.
Bill Sherman Now, if I understand correctly, you’re relatively new to the thought leadership role at Verizon. How did that assessment, How do you get into thought leadership? Tell me a little bit about that story and how your background led you here.
Cynthia O’Neill Yes, absolutely. So I’ve been in consulting for over 20 years now, and the majority of that consulting has been around project management, strategic planning and organizational change management. I’ve also done lots of work on the sales and marketing side, and there’s some overlap with some of those other areas that I’ve mentioned with sales and marketing. For me, the leadership is something that I signed really for several of my consulting projects. I would say over the last 6 to 7 years and the role at Rice and the store leadership role within intelligent networking is a new position. I was fired on as a consultant in December of this year to really look at that thought leadership approach and develop a formalized process and at that ology. So that’s what we’re in the process of doing now.
Bill Sherman And that’s what I something that I think is very true across organizations. If you were to ask most organizations where they are, if they have a thought leadership department, it’s relatively new last 1 or 3 years in most cases. And so there’s questions on where does it sit, how does it report and what are the dash line connections and then what tools, methodology and maybe even metrics do you use to measure success? So let me ask you that. How are you measuring success for your work at this point? Understanding that this is all relatively new?
Cynthia O’Neill Absolutely. So right now, when I am connecting and sticking with our practice area leads within intelligent networking, I’m asking them, you know, where are your low hanging fruit when it comes from potential customers? What current sales opportunities are you in the process of finalizing? How can we incorporate thought leadership into those potential opportunities to seal the deal? Or how can we make sure that as you’re working with potential customers or you’re in the process of securing new clients, they really see us as those subject matter experts that we are, and we just need to be able to communicate that effectively. So I think with that in mind, restate your question for me so that I understand.
Bill Sherman Yes. So where I’m trying to go with is okay, so you’re getting thought leadership developed and you’re trying to reach your target audience, not only internal but external. So with that, over the last six months, how are you measuring success?
Cynthia O’Neill Okay. Measuring success. Yes. So keep in mind that this process of leadership and really ingraining it within intelligent networking is new. So how we intend to gauge success in the future is to really take a look at what are our sales numbers, what do they look like? Where can we see the benefits of implementing our expertise as leaders and communicating that message with our sales teams? Where has it had the greatest impact? And then really being able to look at from a sales perspective, where do we see the greatest benefit of implementing white papers? Are blog posts or videos or podcasts or any type of, you know, leadership, collateral or assets with those potential customers? And what impact did those assets have contributing towards that particular customer saying, Yes, I want to go with Horizon. So we’re in the early stages of figuring out how all of that is going to play.
Bill Sherman Well, and when you’re looking at the sales pipeline, right. And yes, sales success. One of the questions is, okay, no one’s ever going to make a buy decision alone because of a white paper or a blog post. Yeah, that doesn’t happen. So trying to figure out how you allocate partial credit towards a deal and influence on that to say where were we influential, where did we help out becomes really important.
Cynthia O’Neill And I think the result of that is there’s all types of customer surveys that you can do where you can request information from your customer base around, hey, why did you choose pricing? Did you choose us because you felt like we were thought leaders? Did you choose us because, you know, you felt like you could trust us based on the knowledge sharing that we did and the information we provided you about our expertise. Did you choose a speaker? Cause, you know, you look at some of our competitors, but when it came down to the wire, you saw our expertise displayed on different platforms. And for that reason, you decided to go with us. So I think that’s that’ll be a key area that we’ll keep in mind as we move forward as well.
Bill Sherman Fantastic. So as we wrap up here, I want to ask you one last question. So I think back to when you started in this role, as many people are assuming these days of thought leadership role. What’s one piece of advice that you would give to someone starting in a thought leadership role, day one with an organization?
Cynthia O’Neill Number one would be to really make sure you understand the needs of the division that you’re working with. It’s so easy as the leaders, the leadership programmers to think that we have some type of cookie cutter format where we can go into an organization and have X, Y, Z is done. Then your thought leadership approach is in place and you can move forward. I think that is not a good approach. What’s really important is to assess the needs of the company or the division that you’re working in from a thought leadership perspective, understand what they’re currently doing. And then once you have that foundation, then you can take a step back and say, okay, where are the needs? Where’s the low hanging fruit? What are the quick wins? What can we put in place that will be considered a quick win for thought leadership? And oftentimes you may have to convince some of the folks in leadership that this is something that they really should give a good amount of focus to. So you have to be your strongest cheerleader when it comes to the importance of that leadership.
Bill Sherman Absolutely. And I think even with as thought leadership develops as a profession where there are certain tools and methodologies in our toolbox, the work we need to take that time to understand the business, to understand the content. Yes. The target audience. Right. Because if you don’t understand those things, it doesn’t matter what tools you’re using, you’re going to miss the mark for producing the results the organization needs.
Cynthia O’Neill Absolutely.
Bill Sherman So, Cynthia, I want to thank you for taking time to sit down with us today. This has been wonderful.
Cynthia O’Neill Yes. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me.
Bill Sherman If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please join our LinkedIn group. Organizational Thought Leadership. It’s a professional community where thought leadership practitioners talk shop about our field. So if you’re someone who creates curates or deploys thought leadership for your organization, then please join the conversation in the organizational thought Leadership LinkedIn.
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