Mike, I wrote a prize-winning comment, hit submit, forget to enter my CAPTCHA code, and lost it! You'll have to settle for this poor imitation of that now forever lost comment. : )

Great and thought-provoking (if not thought-leading) post. I still cringe just a bit when I hear the thought-leader term. This comes from too many decades/years in software and tech where what passed for thought-leadership was thinly veiled marketing-speak of the worst kind.

Leadership as a category offers some interesting challenges in the thought-leader arena. You are right, the core concepts are...well, they are core and timeless. Fortunately, there are nearly endless applications of those core concepts in different settings and circumstances, which makes for interesting writing, reading and learning opportunities. I genuinely cannot run out of ideas to write about based on the application of those core concepts.

I don't know the work/authors you cited, so no defense. The only observation is that we have a nearly endless stream of new,  young professionals that don't have the wisdom of the Lead Change members, and I'm all for anyone with good, character-based comments to jump in and help us change the world.

Last and not least, the people reading and writing here are so darned smart...we need to have more books and more visibility to their great ideas, applications and helpful approaches.

Thanks as always for educating, inspiring and instigating a few thoughts.  Best, -Art