3 Things Thought Leaders Can Learn From 1 Thing Jon Stewart’s Retirement Can Teach CEOs About Kanye’s Outburst at The Grammy’s

With the recent news of Jon Stewart’s retirement illuminating executive leadership learnings from Kanye’s recent antics at The Grammy’s, thought leaders are gaining some valuable new thinking. And while there are many important takeaways from Jon Stewart’s retirement that thought leaders can assimilate from Kanye’s inspirations for CEOs, one is far and away most revealing: we don’t use zeitgeist nearly enough in our thought leadership.

What is zeitgeist? From german, it means “to wildly extrapolate pop-culture references to prop-up clichéd business thinking.” And it’s one of the most powerful publishing tools we have today. Scroll through any list of high-performing business content and you’ll see that many thought leaders are leveraging some sort of connection to the latest sociopolitical or celebrity-fueled entertainment story to make their thoughts more leading. Jon Stewart’s retirement’s amplification of CEOs’ insights from Kanye’s outburst at The Grammy’s proves that when readers can make a loose and sometimes seemingly incongruent association between something popular in mainstream culture and a thought leader’s point of view in a blog post, they are more likely to promote it in their social network. But, how can you start zeitgeisting with your readership today? Simple.

If there’s one thing that thought leaders can learn from Jon Stewart’s retirement’s perspective on CEOs’ revelations from Kanye’s shenanigans at The Grammy’s it’s three things:

1. Listen Obsessively
Being timely and relevant requires a skill we so often take for granted: listening. But in our busy worlds filled with days of exhaustive thought leading, finding the time to listen is often impossible. So how do you know when the latest salacious celebrity downfall that would map perfectly to your tried and true tips for facilitating a more effective meeting has happened? Good news: there are many social listening tools available to make your hunt for that timely analogy quick and easy. Radian6 is a comprehensive dashboard tool that allows you to monitor and track all sorts of zeitgeists. Looking for something quicker and more cost-effective? There are plenty of free ways to stay in the know as well. For instance, I simply create a Google alert for each reference Jon Stewart’s retirement echoes about trending “Kanye at The Grammy’s”-related Twitter topics every 30 minutes. Experiment to discover what tools bring you the most contemporary and potentially qualified news.

2. Push the Analogical Limit
Why should you settle for conservative connections to non-titillating references? The Kanye/Grammy’s-inspired CEOs that Jon Stewart’s retirement is leveraging wouldn’t. Want to connect the latest celebrity rehab story to your Top 5 Team-building Exercises listicle? Go for it! People want to feel incredulous. It makes them think you know more than they do…which is the whole point!

3. A Grösser Zeitgeist
Regardless of how well you pay off the pop-culture reference in your content, people of the internet are hungry for more. Make your zeitgeist bigger! Expand it with additional references to new and interesting and possibly related stories. A bigger zeitgeist could add high-test flavor to your repurposed powerpoint deck of sure-fire sales techniques and could have serious performance impact in search. And that’s exactly how Brian Williams’ suspension’s relevance to Jon Stewart’s retirement’s reflections on CEOs’ learnings from Kanye would want it.

Need a jumpstart? Feel free to work from these thought-starters:

• 5 Things CFOs Can Learn From SNL’s 40th Anniversary
• Dealing With Conflict: Who Is The ISIS On Your Leadership Team?
• What Cindy Crawford’s Unretouched Photo Says About Mission Statements
• 50 Shades of Gray: Investing In Continued Education For Older Employees
• Learning To Be A More Effective Interviewee From Bobbi Kristina Brown’s Coma

Whatever you do, don’t wait! Zeitgeist most assuredly won’t wait for you.

Speculatist, acclaimed thought leader, zeitgeistist, award-winning filmmaker, entrepreneur, acclaimed thought leader and Chief Innovation Officer Troy Hitch explores the consumer trends, business innovations and technological breakthroughs defining the next evolution of humankind. He leads with more thought at The Hypermutable Future.