How can you use thought leadership to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

The first step is to align your vision and mission with the SDGs that are most relevant to your industry or sector. You need to understand how your work contributes to the global agenda and what value you can offer to your audience and society. For example, if you are a thought leader in education, you might focus on SDG 4 (Quality Education) and how you can improve learning outcomes, access, and equity for students. You can also link your vision to other related SDGs, such as SDG 5 (Gender Equality) or SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

To sustain any effort toward an objective (like thought leadership) requires knowing oneself deeply. This includes: 1) Creating your purpose statement (what brings you joy that also serves the world). For me this is helping people find the transformational leader inside of themselves so together we can create a planet that works better for all. 2) Leveraging strengths you already have that give you energy 3) Knowing your values. These help you create an authentic vision of who you are as a leader and the impact you want to have in the world that inspires you and others around you.

It’s empowering to know your inspiring purpose. Ask yourself “what’s the reason I do what I do beyond the obvious profit and functional reasons?” For me, it’s to inspire Hope and empathy for people, pets, and planet. Then, align your actions and impact towards that goal.

The key for me once I had an audience was finding my North Star and walking towards it. My passion is gender equity, with a focus on period dignity. When I started a page dedicated to awareness posts on the subject, I was inundated with messages from people that said LinkedIn was not the appropriate platform. LinkedIn currently boasts of 930 million users with over 43% female. We have been able to use the platform to shed light on a subject considered taboo by both sexes. Once you have clarity of purpose, which answers your why, be informed on the subject, dial up your curiosity, and continuously educate yourself on the SDG of your focus. Be consistent. Thought leadership has to be sustained, and it is not a once-off occurrence.

I wanted this to be a big part of my personal brand. I have consciously written, shared or expressed comments on social issues for awhile. I would say about 10 to 15 percent of my posts align with SDG issues. I do not do goals or capabilities mapping but it could be eadily demonstrated. Be strong, give an opinion. Take a position, debate and be polite and balanced in your approach. That works well for me. I have had 500000 impressions + off issues posts. They are often impactful and I hope memorable.

I reach out to the smaller community -our employees and a larger community- our guest at the hotels and the citizens in the region with regular updates on the initiatives taken by the hotel brand to promote the goals. We have well being and health workshops, 10 k runs ending with a healthy organic lunch in the community and blood donation and eye check up camps. We have pledged to take up the gender equality of women in workforce from 15 %to 30 % in next 5 years.

I am firm believer of habits creates the person and creates the society. Its very important companies to make efforts to disengage activity does not support SDG. Create community with in organizations to eliminate such activities slowly and adopt sustainable methods . People spend good time at work and this habit would lead to their homes and society and nation. In short choose wisely and accumulate sustainable methods

If aspects of your business are not already working towards them, what exactly do you think you're doing? If they are, they'll already be embedded in your ethos, your communications and your outreach, and this will be merely part of what you're doing already (rushes off to check that's what's happening here).

The philosophy, ethos, and rationale underpinning content creation around SDGs is about the rhetoric and how it is deployed. When we think of sustainable shipping this approach is key, but does need a lot of groundwork. To provide useful, relevant and credible content, needs a baseline level of respect and recognition for your organisation, it needs a logical and sensible argument and it needs to resonate with an audience. It either needs an emotional or an operational value to it. This is how compelling content comes about. It does not just happen, but needs the alignment of outlets, relationships and saying good, challenging and useful things. The recipe for success looks simple, but rests on research, respect and reach.

Crafting thought leadership content that weaves in the SDGs is essential and the challenging part. Blog posts, articles and videos can all serve as platforms to discuss how businesses, individuals, or the industry we are a part of can contribute to achieving these goals. People listen to people, so I would help thought leaders integrate SDGs into their narrative, so they can create a compelling story that resonates with their audience. The key emphasis is on making the SDG goals relatable.

In this super connected world unless you build a community, a program like Sustainability become difficult to sustain. So I would say one of the most important areas to focus first is to build a community with like focused people.

Start Local ! As a former UN Programme Officer, my experience is that such programs should not be formulated like viral memes or clips that fizz out but like marathon runners who are consistent and persistent. Rather they are to be constantly reminded in community clusters like schools (the first point of impact), universities, socioeconomic, cultural and religious groups. Apart from the global groups mentioned alongside, there are local groups, in towns and villages, which need to be tapped and which have great potential. Infact these are the groups, in my experience, where impact is maximum and it is much needed. Social and global reach is good but local is where it should start. And that is the need of the hour.

Thought leadership on SDG goals is most useful when the messages are pragmatic, focused on things most organizations do not do well. For example, when it comes to SDG reporting, most organizations cherry-pick what they want to report on and always focus on positive impacts rather than trying to see their actions on the economy, environment and people in a comprehensive, balanced way. In this case, a good thought leadership piece should provide simple solutions to bypass this reporting trap - with step-by-step guidance. There can be a lot of wisdom in simplicity.

The message may be great, but unless there is a platform of like-minded individuals, organizations, or influencers, there is no collaboration. A community, such as online forums, LinkedIn groups can create a collective impact, if successfully implemented these set of diverse voices can help carry your opinions and vision. So I would look at my immediate surrounding, colleagues, social media, friends and acquaintance circles to rope in people who can be part of this discussion any probably a community.

Thinking globally and acting locally is important. Building community is key. Enrolling and connecting local organizations and nonprofits through chambers of commerce or departments of education for example can add lots of value. Local efforts are often not connected or communicated broadly enough to the communities they support. Local partners and communities would greatly benefit from linking up, sharing insights, leveraging tools available, amplifying each other' activities in relations to the goals. Any effort to unify community efforts and actions would bring about noticeable change, at a much larger scale.

Ofcourse Thought leadership is a great way to promote the SDG to make impact on your communities and the wider world. Use social media , opportunities to speak at events , interact with school children to promote the SDG or even have a weekly blog or podcast to spread the message

Know what you want, and keep checking how you are doing on that journey. So it is important to define objectives which are clearly aligned with promoting SDGs. Then outline what success looks like in terms of reach, engagement, influence, or conversion metrics. What do you want to do? What do you want success to look like? How will you know if you have succeeded? These are the key questions. So setting your goals, making sure they are aligned with the vision, with the content, and needs of the community. Stop, check, act, adjust as needed and then do the same again. This is a rolling process, and one that needs constant oversight. Being brave enough to readjust and rethink is key, as it is not enough to measure impact you must react to it.

Measuring impact is the heartbeat of effective thought leadership. It's not just about numbers; it's about understanding how your voice resonates. Metrics like reach and engagement provide a quantitative view, but the true essence lies in qualitative feedback, testimonials, and real-life stories. These narratives illustrate the tangible impact, painting a vivid picture of how your thought leadership contributes to positive change. Embrace this data not just as numbers on a chart but as a compass guiding your strategy refinement, ensuring your voice continues to echo meaningfully in the pursuit of shared global goals.

We have to course correct along the way. Feedback is key when it comes to SDG. We keep learning new things along the way and have to keep tweaking our approach. Contributing to journals and magazines as well as interacting and speaking at conferences and virtual events can help further in sharing your views.

Anything that can be measured is concrete and therefore turns a thought into an impact. Make your thoughts concrete through providing examples of specific actions and initiatives with defined measurable outcomes.

SDGs are only words. They need actions, they need leaders, commitment and determination. Be those things, and others will follow. Be authentic, vocal and challenging, but be encouraging too. Show the way and path for others, illuminate the way forward with wisdom, compassion, good humour and intelligence.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are only as good and attainable as we are able to turn them into concrete actions. The impact of those actions needs to be measurable (first), and standardised for comparability (second). Thought leaders who take the measurability and concreteness of their ideas into consideration are able to make a bigger impact on the success of the UN SDGs.

Thought leadership can be used to create a vision of what the future looks like when the SDGs are met. It’s an opportunity to influence people that follow what you say, to see how we can roll-out each SDG for bussiness success, while making a positive impact.

It’s important to step back and make sure your business is actually aligned with the SDGs you’re promoting through thought leadership. Otherwise, attempting to force a connection may come across as inauthentic or insincere. It's crucial to ensure that your engagement with the goals are meaningful, relevant, and genuinely contribute to sustainable development rather than being perceived as a mere marketing tactic. Always prioritise authenticity and a genuine commitment to making a positive impact.

Impact consultants use these three strategies to advocate for UN SDGs: 1. Educate and Raise Awareness: We educate businesses and the public about the importance and benefits of aligning their vision and operations with the SDGs. 2. Share Best Practices: We use case studies and success stories to demonstrate how implementing strategies aligned with the SDGs can lead to successful outcomes, both in business performance and societal impact. 3. Collaborate and Network: We create communities focused on achieving the SDGs. We build capacity in local communities that can amplify efforts and resources. We are a voice of authority and expertise in our field; we use thought leadership to advocate for SDGs and drive collective action.