Unchain your Brain

If you want to implement an idea, you must first explain and sell it to others, e.g. your boss, staff, co-workers, clients. Those people may be resistant to your suggestion for some reason. They'll tell you why it won't work. Or they might not understand what you mean. Even if they do say yes, if they don't really support it, you'll have a hard time putting it into action.
Lots of potentially great ideas are squandered, destined to moulder away in a locked box, because people don't raise their idea, or they give up as soon as they meet some resistance. It takes a lot of skill to communicate an idea in a way that makes others buy into it.
Lack of skill diminishes the quality of communication. For example, when I send emails to people, I put a fair bit of effort into making the tone of my writing sound friendly. But from time to time, I will receive a very curt and blunt response from someone. When I first started using email, this always caused me angst. I would wonder why the person was being so unfriendly. But after I while it dawned on me that probably they did not mean to be unfriendly. They just couldn't type very well. Their lack of keyboard skills caused them to type as little as possible, not realising the effect it would have on their relationship with the recipient.
Recently, I was teaching in a public speaking training course. When asked "What do you want to gain from this course?", one participant said "I want to be able to take an active role in meetings, not be the person sitting in the background holding onto his thoughts." As the course progressed, everyone's confidence and skills developed. That man gave us a glimpse of the brilliant thoughts in his head. What a waste it had been for him not to share his ideas for lack of confidence and skill.
Important as they are, public speaking skills are really the icing on the cake. Before you stand up to speak, you must have a strong and clear message. Similarly, before you put forward an idea, you need to have considered the most effective way to express it.
Here are nine key skills that you can develop, to improve your ability to formulate and communicate ideas:
Foresight. What is going on around you? What are the trends that will affect you? How does your idea fit in with these?
Communication. What's the best way to share your ideas? You can select from various methods of "telling", "asking" or "showing". Select the most appropriate role for the given circumstances, so you get your point across in a meaningful, effective and engaging way.
Comprehension. How do others like to receive information? By understanding and responding to this, you can get the attention of more of the people, more of the time.
Uniqueness. Who are you? We are all the product of our particular unbringing, education and experience. When you understand what you uniquely have to offer, your contribution suddenly becomes much more valuable.
Expertise. What do you know? You'd be surprised how much of your knowledge you take for granted. Use it to make a point and share it in an engaging way.
Positioning. When someone asks "What do you do?", how to you respond? Know how to position yourself and your organisation so that people know exactly what you do and why.
Pitching. How do you get your idea out? Learn how to invite people to buy you, your business or your ideas more effectively.
Commitment. How do you sell the vision? Learn how to influence others so they engage with your ideas.
Execution. How do you launch a concept? Take your great ideas and bring them to reality.
These are the skills of thought leadership. They help you unlock the great ideas in your head and use them to create a better world for yourself and those around you.

Use what you've got, to get what you want.