The Friday News Minute!

A weekly gem of information you will be using on Monday!

Published by Andrew Sanderbeck

Managing Partner of The People~Connect Institute

www.peopleconnectinstitute.com

Success Begins when People~Connect!

This week in our Friday News Minute, we look at becoming an expert in your career, field or area of interest. A coach that I hired many years ago told me that if I read one book a week on a specific topic for one year, that I would be an expert in that topic, knowing more than almost anyone else! While I found that an interesting thought, my belief about being an expert is that it not only included being knowledgable, but that I must have "real life" experience as well.   

Sometimes becoming an expert just kind of happens, without really trying. But most of the time, we carefully pursue expertise, whether through schooling, self-education, on-the-job training, or some other avenue.

There’s no "quick and easy" path to expertise. That said, people do become experts every day, in all sorts of fields and areas. You can become an expert by focusing on these things:

• Perpetual learning: Being an expert means being aware, sometimes painfully aware, of the limitations of your current level of knowledge. There simply is no point as which you’re "done" learning your field. Invest yourself in a lifelong learning process. Constantly be on the lookout for ideas and views both within and from outside your own field that cna extend your own understanding. Remember: Your expertise has an expiration date! Keep sharp!
• Networking: Build strong connections with other people in your field. Seek out mentors — and make yourself available to the less experienced. Also, learn to promote yourself to the people who need your skills — the only way you’ll gain experience is by getting out and doing.
• Practice: Not just in the "gain experience" sense but in your the "practice what you preach" sense. You wouldn’t trust a personal organizer who always forgot your appointments, right? Your daily practice needs to reflect your expertise, or people will not trust you as an expert.
• Presentation skills: Learn to use whatever technologies you need to present your expertise in the best possible way. And by "technologies" I don’t just mean web design and PowerPoint, I mean writing, drawing, public speaking — even the way you dress will determine whether you’re taken for an expert or a know-it-all schmuck.
• Sharing: 10 years ago, nobody knew they needed expert bloggers on their staff to promote themselves. 15 years ago, nobody knew they needed web experts to get attention for their websites. A handful of early experts — experts that, in some cases, didn’t even know what they were experts in — shared enough of what they knew to make people understand why they needed experts. Share your knowledge widely, so that a) people understand why they need an expert, and b) you don’t become a one-trick pony who is the only person who can fix a particular problem.

         Adapted from an article by Dustin Wax. His website is www.dwax.org

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