It Is Not About Being The Expert, Just Increase Your Expertise

I was thinking about experts recently. One of the reasons it was on my mind stemmed from the COVID situation and how much we think about what the experts are saying. We desire experts to provide us all of the answers and to never be wrong. Many are frustrated because different experts and "experts" have made different claims on how things will go over the past year, and they are continuing to make predictions for a go forward plan. Chances are no prediction that is perfect, some are closer than others, but it is impossible to predict the future. Yet when it doesn't happen like you expect the expert gets ridiculed.

Being an expert does not mean you have all the answers, you just have more than most of the people around you. I see this at work, for myself and for others. At my company I've become the so called expert on a couple of platforms. The main reason is because I was the first person to start working with them so I simply have the benefit of having a head start. I won't claim to be the expert because I continue to learn things every day. There are also others in my company who have knowledge in the platforms I don't. It doesn't feel like I'm the expert.

It isn't just me, there are experts throughout my company who are way smarter than me on any number of subjects. We are a company of experts because everyone has their own niches of expertise, just like I have my two platforms.

It is interesting to see what happens though when someone is held up as the expert, how others start reacting differently. The thought begins to manifest, since we have an expert I don't need to learn anything about a subject. If I need an answer I'll just ask the expert. People stop trying. 

You don't have to be an expert to develop your expertise. It makes you better and it helps improve the experts knowledge as well. Because no expert, no matter how many answers they may have, has all of the answers. You might be the best person to help the expert get to even higher levels, maybe even becoming the expert yourself. 

If I've learned one thing in my life, the smartest people in the world are that way because they are more interested in learning than they are about being the smartest. 

Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise


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