follow a model of systemic thinking that helps them find the root cause of the issues that their clients and industry face and they have a healthy sense of ‘paranoia’ in the Andy Grove sort of way that guides them to find the problems beneath the problems and come up with solution after solution no matter how “good” things may look on the surface.

The ‘problem-finder’ notion came across my email inbox this week from the Knowledge@Wharton email newsletter. This article, “The Mindset of a Problem Finder“, is an excerpt from the book “Know What You Don’t Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen” by Michael A. Roberto”. In the article, Roberto illustrates the difference of having a problem-finder mindset by sharing the story of structural engineer William LeMessurier and his efforts to seek out and correct some of the structural flaws in his original design of the Citicorp building in Manhattan. Roberto states that problem finders use several key characteristics that differentiate them from everyone else. Those same characteristics are what thought leaders use to keep themselves and their organizations ahead of the market, the industry and their competitors. Here’s how they do it.

Thought leaders demonstrate intellectual curiosity - Thought leaders are intrigued by questions rather then threatened by them. In the article, LeMessurier was questioned by a student, of all things. Rather than dismissing the student’s perspective, he explored it and found it to have significant merit. The thought leader in an industry explores problems, seeks out opportunity in sticky situations and maintains integrity throughout the process. Thought leaders demonstrate their intellectual curiosity by:

• Having a restless mind that’s never satisfied with a one-dimensional understanding of an issue
• Thriving on novelty, details and nuances in the challenges that they confront
• Focusing on ‘always learning’ and never forgetting ‘how to learn’
• Seeking out the unfamiliar and upholding the ‘curiosity imperative’

Thought leaders embrace systemic thinking – Systemic thinking means that you, the thought leader, recognizes that nothing, even the smallest of occurrences, happens due to one-off events or through outright negligence of human beings. There’s always a root cause. There’s always more to the story. For example, thought leaders in the banking industry have shared their perspective over the past year on how the multitude of players in the financial scene contributed to the current state of our financial system. Systemic thinking brought them to the multiple sources, issues and conclusions where no one event caused the entire effect. Systemic thinking thought leaders establish their point of view on working on the underlying issues and errors en-route to positing solutions to the larger problem. Thought leaders demonstrate their systemic thinking by:

• Stepping back and questioning “why” things occurred (in fact, they often do the 5-Why’s exercise)
• Recognizing the complex issues are never caused by a single occurrence
• Having the resolve to always “dig deeper”
• Take every opportunity to look holistically at every issue they approach

Thought leaders have a healthy sense of paranoia - One of my favorite books of all time is Andy Grove’s book, “Only the Paranoid Survive.” Grove said that success makes you lazy and in order to stay on top, you need to be on the lookout for inflection points in your company, industry and the world as a whole. Thought leaders stay in touch with their healthy paranoia and are in a persistent state of looking out for the inflection points that indicate changes are afoot. Inflection points are described as

I’ll describe what a strategic inflection point is a bit later in this book. For now, let me just say that a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end. - Andrew Grove

Thought leaders maintain a healthy sense of paranoia by:

• Never allowing themselves to get too comfortable
• Getting comfortable with problems – there are always problems (the absence of problems is a problem…)

Thought leaders, I mean, real thought leaders, have many more traits that just these three. However, success depends on embracing some core values such as these, and living by them each and every day. In order to attain thought leadership status in your industry, you need to work each and every day on these values and incorporate them into your habituated way of being and infuse them into your corporate culture. Successful thought leaders see every problem in their industry as an opportunity to offer solutions from their unique point of view and add immense value for their clients.