What is an Expert?

Where it Started

I remember the specific day even though it was many years ago. I had a few years experience in the Payments Industry. I was a voracious learner of everything about payments. I worked in an office of 15 people. The 15 of us had to make Mastercard happen in Canada. The office atmosphere was entrepreneurial. It was an amazing, inspiring environment!

On that day, one of my coworkers - who I still consider a dear friend - leaned over the wall of my office cube. He said:

Mark, remember, an expert is someone who knows when to stop.

 He only said it once, but I have never forgotten it. It has taken me decades to unpack that statement, and I hope that it has significantly shaped who I am today.

What an Expert Isn’t

The word “expert” gets used often to describe many types of people. Before I propose some defining statements for the word, allow me to comment on some definitions I find inaccurate:

• “An expert is the person who knows more about the topic than everyone else in the room.”

This can be a very low bar. While that person may be a senior knowledge person for that group, it doesn’t mean they have comprehensive knowledge on the topic. They may be “the smartest person in the room”, but a room is a very small place.

Unfortunately, this definition can be a breeding ground for people “who know enough to be dangerous”. They have assembled enough data about the topic to reach conclusions that are missing critical information. These conclusions may be accidentally accurate. More often, they are inaccurate and can cause damaging outcomes.

• “An expert is someone who knows everything about a topic.”

Unlike the last definition, this one creates an impossibly high bar. I don’t think there is a topic that any person can honestly claim to know “everything” about. The human grasp of accessible knowledge is tiny and feeble. On top of that, so much knowledge lies beyond human comprehension. We often look back at past science and inventions and readily criticize the gaps in their knowledge. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have the humility to draw the same conclusions of our own science and inventions.

The danger is in believing this definition can apply to me. If I know “everything” about a topic, there is nothing left to learn – at least on that topic. That paradigm creates an arrogance that not only keeps me from learning but also shuts down any thoughts from others that don’t align with my perspective. Many teams, companies, and industries have withered at the peak of their growth – in part due to experts who forgot how to keep learning and growing.

• When recognition and affirmation of my expertise becomes a core part of my identity.

I didn’t put this one in quotes because I have never heard this stated. However, this one gets personal. As my expertise in a topic increased, people began to recognize, reward, and affirm that knowledge. Unfortunately, and probably inadvertently, I allowed that affirmation to become a source of “soul nourishment”, and, eventually, an addiction.

I needed to be needed.  

My expertise became a crutch to fill a personal inadequacy it was never meant to fill. As the addiction progressed, the “expert” forgot “when to stop”. I would interpose my expertise where it wasn’t needed for the discussion – but was needed for my own affirmation addiction. Maybe that is why my coworker said . . . “an expert is someone who knows when to stop”.

The Heart of an Expert

Unfortunately, many definitions for “expert” start with the head and not the heart of the expert. They focus on “what” a person knows and ignore “why” that knowledge was gained.

Here are some thoughts about “expert” that I have found helpful in recognizing and addressing my own shortcomings:

1.     An expert, at heart, is always a student.

The more I learn about a topic, the more I become aware of how much there is still to learn. An enemy of learning is the fear of “looking stupid”. If I kill that enemy and embrace the humility of a learner, I find the following benefits:

• Learning never stops: I can spend my whole life learning and never reach the end of knowledge. To an expert, this is a call to endless adventure. To someone who wants to be seen as an expert, this is depressing paradigm as they can never “arrive”.

• I can learn from anyone: As I have learned to be a student among students, I have gained amazing insights from other learners. It may be from a question they ask that I have never thought of. It may be a perspective they bring that is different than mine – I learn.

• The camaraderie of learners: We learn – maybe at different, speeds, levels, and ways – but we learn together. This builds a camaraderie as close as a sports team striving for a championship, or as a team of explorers discovering new frontiers. This camaraderie is so organic, dynamic, and inspiring!
  
  

2.     An expert is passionate about learning.

Though their expertise may be in one discipline or subject, an expert shows interest in topics that range far from their core expertise. Maybe they realize that each topic contains nuggets that are pertinent beyond that specific topic – principles that apply to many topics. Maybe they just love to learn and to see life through different eyes.

3.     An expert is disciplined about learning.

I had the privilege of working in the early years of the personal computer (PC) industry. There weren’t many books that kept up with the rapid development of PC technology. We learned so much by doing rather than studying. Then, manufacturers developed certification exams. I thought, with my experience and expertise, the exams would be easy to pass. However, they exposed the holes in my expertise - holes because my learning was not methodical and disciplined. I had to add discipline to my learning to pass the exams and gain my certifications.

4.     An expert is generous with knowledge.

I remember being hired as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher when I was 19 years old. At the time, I lived in Mexico. English is my first language and was always a strong subject for me in school. I thought “I can do this – I am an expert in English”.

However, as I started teaching English to my students, I found out how little I knew about the language. The more I taught, the harder I studied, and the more I learned English.

This is a secret an expert knows: teaching and mentoring are amazing tools for learning. The expert says, “I want to share what I know with you. That way you will know it, too, and, in sharing it with you, I will learn more than I did before – and I will open the same door of learning for you.”

Conclusion

As you can see, expertise has much more to do with attitude than with knowledge. A child who can tie shoelaces is an expert to one who cannot. Both have so much more to learn in life, but, if “the one who can” has the desire to learn well and the heart to share knowledge with humility – that child has the heart of an expert.

This type of expert will know “when to stop”. They will recognize and avoid the traps of affirmation addiction and other ego-related afflictions that can turn an expert into a “knowledge tyrant”. They will recognize the limits to their knowledge, the vectoral power of pooled knowledge, and the camaraderie of shared learning.

May I never forget these lessons.