In previous columns we discussed the importance of building your value by building your intellectual capital. Welcome to the next in a series of leadership articles what specific intellectual capital to target, and how to do it.

Our focus for this column is building knowledge of your competitors. In my 20 years of consulting, the most common issue I see is that people think they know their competitors and they don’t. They have a fossilized world view that an effective leader should not have. You can add a tremendous amount of knowledge and value to your own reputation and company if you know what your competitors are doing and can apply it to your own company. Remember the Spanish proverb: well stolen is half done.

As practitioners of competitive intelligence (CI), I can speak from experience that this is a very rigorous discipline and effort. I am not suggesting that you become a full time CI expert. However, there are a few tricks that will open your eyes and build your value if you invest your time in learning and using them.

First, a few myths to dispel. There is a code of ethics around CI that you must adhere to. All any of us have is our reputation. Doing anything to besmirch that will do long term and untold damage, let alone cause you to lose your job and end up in court. Dumpster diving, paying sources for information, appropriating competitor’s passwords, encouraging someone to violate their Non-Disclosure Agreement and acquiring your competitor’s proprietary information are all off limits. So is, as the recent Hewlett-Packard board incident reveals, ‘pre-texting’, or using a false identity or deceptive pretense to approach a source for information. If it is lying, stealing or trespassing, it is out. Whether you are religious or not, the 10 Commandments are a pretty good platform to operate from.