Engaging a real expert allows you to
quantifiably accelerate your rate of failure and
your rate of success. A real expert serves as a
force multiplier to you!
Create a partnership and mentor under
a subject matter expert, learn from a true
achiever that has spent years, if not decades,
to accumulate their expertise and from whom
you can leverage and learn from them within
days, weeks or months.
In today’s robust internet world and need for
immediate consumption, the depth of the
marketplace subject matter experts and apparent influencers is astonishing. It is like a
“kiddie pool of true intellect, understanding,
experience and credibility.” Yet most people
seem to either be oblivious or are so complacent that they have no sense of care.
Today, what passes for an expert or person
of legitimate credentials, would have ten
years ago been called a “new hire, a beginner
or a neophyte” … With the aging BabyBoomer population and entrance of the
Millennials rapidly overtaking the majority
of the workforce over the next five years, it is
estimated that nearly sixty-percent of those
in managerial-leadership and “boss” positions
in 2001 will be retired and gone by 2020!
Generations of American’s were reared with
cultural mantra’s such as work hard, apply
yourself, always learn, have self-respect,
achieve, help others, operate from etiquette,
and you will be rewarded as this created a
DNA of what being an AmeriCAN was all
about. Today, we have a generational and
cultural mindset of “reward me first and
maybe I’ll work hard.”
In an ever exploding rhetoric infused world,
diminishing legitimately integris people, and
with this magnitude of loss in experience,
intellectual capacity and wisdom, you need
to be on your attention to not be a pawn in
someone else’s game. The wave of current and
impending self-proclaimed experts to emerge
and attempt to influence the trajectory
direction of the future on the world market
place and in your front yard is here!
With the rise of self-proclaimed experts and
wannabes, make sure you cover your actions
and are a good steward of others. Consider
the company you keep and the company you
hire. Therefore, consider these simple vetting
observations and questions to unearth the
real expert from the self-proclaimed:
1. Have they ever done it as an apprentice
or beginner? Can they prove it?
2. Have they ever done it as a journeyman
or employee/member?
3. Have they ever done it as a master or
leader?
4. Can they prove anything based upon
fact, data and logic versus emotion,
rhetoric and assertions?
5. What would ten of their reputable
clients/benefactors say about their
deliverables?
6. Is there a degree in their area of specialty,
and do they have it?
7. Is there a trade association certification
in their area of specialty, and do they
have it?
8. Have they ever been featured in a
credible third party publication or
newswire about their specialty?
9. Have they ever penned a White Paper
on their specialty?
10. If appropriate, have they ever authored a
book which was published by a credible
and reputable publisher?
11. Have they ever designed, written, implemented and taught an instruction course
in which they are a self-proclaimed expert?
12. Do they hold a patent, trademark or a
copyright certificate on their body-ofwork, expertise or deliverable?
13. Are they the innovator of anything in
thier subject matter, or are they an imitator of others work?
14. Have they ever spoken before a body of
peer experts in their space?
15. If I go to their website, will
it prove they are professional?
16. And above all, Can They
Prove It?
And here is where you really accelerate
catching a self-proclaimed expert wannabe
in the act of B.S. which will influence your
trajectory towards failure and ultimate
derailment:
1. Fact check their resume. If they do not
have one, that may be a major clue.
2. If they have harvested others’ credentials
and body-of-work as their own. A major
clue is yelling at you - fraud.
3. Check the social media world for profiles
and begin the process of reverse reading.
You can add more content to the social
media world to bury past trails, but it
is very difficult to make data disappear.
If their employment changes with the
seasons, you need evidence for why they
are not a charlatan. If they have quotes
for lack of performance that seem to
keep coming up in different places and
times, then the lack of performance ROI
is probably them and not other factors as
reported or cited.
4. Check the credentials, pedigree,
experiences cited and make sure the
math adds up!
5. Ask for several references. If they
hesitate or can’t provide plural references
which they are servicing both at the
present time and past, this is a major red
flag – run!
6. A major clue you are in the presence of a
self-proclaimed expert that can’t sustain
an ROI will be their resistance, persistent
deflection to other topics and degrading
of others to avoid accountability.
7. If you are in an interviewing process
situation, consider asking the candidate
for copies of the past employer-employee
performance reviews for discussion or a
copy of their most recent tax statement
– these are major reality checks.
Accountability matters, and how you create
or abdicate accountability is critical. Hold on
for the pushback when you
are in the presence of a selfproclaimed expert as you will
see a life cycle of the following:
1. Culture (generational,
ethnicity, regional, diversity, etc.) will
be re-written to justify their outcome
with no sense of personal ownership and
personal responsibility.
2. Values will be abdicated.
3. Deflection (deflect responsibility and
blame someone else) away from themself
and the core matter by playing the blame
game to make someone else the problem
and positioning themself as the victim.
Performance success creates clear mandates
and dictates. The ramifications of actions,
accountability or lack of accountability on
you and others now and later when influenced
by a self-proclaimed expert is devastating.
Success achievers will not stay within an
organization that maintains and sustains
this environment of people. So, if you are
that self-proclaimed expert, you may want to
really do something meaningful, contribute
something meaningful, and get a job.
If you have never done anything, don’t
proclaim to have done so – step aside and let
the real innovators/adults lead the way!
Engaging a real expert allows you to
quantifiably accelerate your rate of success.
A real expert serves as a force multiplier to
you. Engage a sage as coaches for daily or
weekly check-ins and accountability growth
opportunities. Identify mentors to develop
and guide your growth. Create peer groups
that are comprised of people with greater
credentials than you to serve as a 360°
benchmark for excellence in all that you
do. Develop a balanced IQ and EQ with
substantial readings and continuous mental
DNA enrichments on a regular basis. And,
explore all opportunities to mentally tithe to
others – but only those that will appreciate
you and play-it-forward.
Just as complacency and mediocrity grows
contempt, so too can success begets success!