Loved a post on LI this week from Justin Megawarne who posed the question: How do you really know if you are talking to an expert?
If you need an expert, it’s because you don’t know their field. But, by not knowing their field, you are robbed of the ability to evaluate the expert!
I have seen people get misled by supposed experts touting fancy credentials, useless experience (10 years’ experience is not the same as 1 year ten times), impressive client lists, blogs, vlogs, quotes, and other very hackable things. There is no perfect procedure. But these 5 tips are a good sniff.
1. Follow up on client references, and ask about real, measurable outcomes. Real experts contextualise their knowledge to solve people’s actual problems.
2. Ask the expert to explain something foundational in their field as if they were explaining it to a bright teenager. Real experts have great explanatory skills.
3. Ask them what new ground they are exploring at the moment. If the answer is “nothing”, be suspicious. Real experts are always pushing at the limits of their knowledge.
4. Mention some of your problems, and see if they work to understand your situation as clearly as possible. Real experts want people to benefit from the right thing and don’t want to jump to conclusions.
5. Ask them about the limitations of their field. Real experts know the boundaries and will gleefully tell you what remains unknown in their domain.
My reply to him was: “Excellent check list. Truly excellent. Also, we all have areas we consider ourselves expert in, this list felt like a great one for me to introspect with too!”
I am indeed using these questions now to introspect about these in my work as a Sounding Board to leaders, and here is some initial introspecting on each question:
- What real, measurable outcomes have my clients had? In Leadership work these will come in both outcomes quantifiable in terms of shorter term financial and other commercial results, then longer term as a key part of change in an organisation which then leads to commercially measurable outcomes. Whatever those measurable outcomes are, though, always important to take time to define “what great looks like” as an outcome at the start and as you go along, then to measure to that.
- Can I explain something foundational as if explaining to a bright teenager? A great reminder, and yes indeed I know I can do this. I always strive to simplify and also to use relatable stories, and, all of that said, I can always do more, do better at this.
- What new ground am I exploring? I am insatiably curious about a wide variety of fields related to human behaviour, yet see many other “experts” who lock in to one method, one system, one “answer” and, well, sell that for many years. Valid, but not my personal choice 😉 Introspecting though, I do always look to be aware of my biases (and have a series of people who call me out on them whey they show up!) and so to have a growth mindset, always learning anew, so this helps me explore genuinely new ground rather than retread paths.
- What limitations are there to my field? Great question. Bluntly, one is that there is no one answer, one way, to grow from good to great to elite to world class as a leader. Humans are infinitely complex and anyone who tells you they have THE answer? Run 🙂
If you consider yourself expert in any field, I recommend introspecting on these five questions. Thank you Justin!