In Praise of Experts
by
Marty Nemko © 2006
We love to diminish
experts. It makes us feel less inferior. And we do many things to
rationalize their unimportance:
Companies are adopting ever
flatter hierarchies and insist on team decision making to minimize
the notion that some employees are more expert than others. They use
their own employees as trainers and internal consultants rather than
bring in the best experts available.
Recognizing today’s anti-expert
ethos, true experts themselves often downplay their expertise. How
many times have we heard experts, even Nobelists, mouth egalitarian
pap such as, “It really was a team effort,” “I couldn’t have done it
without my family,” and other placating hogwash.
Our devaluing of true experts
extends beyond the workplace. For example, today, we’re as likely to
draw our political views from comedian Jon Stewart as from a true
political expert like CNN’s Jeff Greenfield let alone the
New York Times’ Tom Friedman.
Even the media doesn’t take its
search for experts seriously enough. The experts who appear in the
media are disproportionately people who have written books with sexy
titles and then hired expensive publicists to pester the media until
they relent. You might ask, “But don’t only the best businesspeople,
doctors, lawyers, etc., get books published?” Hardly. Often they’re
the ones whose careers are flagging and choose to write a book to
try to salvage it. Most true experts are so busy and so rewarded by
their work, they usually don’t take the time to write books, at
least until they’re slowing down toward retirement. That’s
especially true today when, even after writing a book, the odds are
slim of a first-time author getting published, let alone selling
enough copies to justify the enormous time it takes to write a book.
Alas, most media people don’t value true expertise enough to take
the extra time to dig up the real experts. It’s easier to just say
yes to the publicist pushing an author.
So, I invite you to transcend
all that egalitarian posturing you hear today and remember the
obvious but obfuscated truth that, indeed, some people really are
more expert than others, a lot more expert. So when you have a
significant need or problem at or outside of work, ask yourself
whether you’d really be wise to dig up a true expert.
How to find one?
1. Instead of relying on who is
being interviewed in the media or even the trade press, ask
respected colleagues for recommendations of experts they’ve been
happy with.
2. In just the first few minutes
of that first conversation in which you describe your problem, you
usually can tell how expert someone else. True experts almost
immediately understand your situation, perhaps invoking past
instances in which they addressed a similar problem. Usually, they
quickly then outline a plan for how they’d help you that makes sense
to you. Phony experts usually avoid talking specifics except
perhaps to brag about their credentials or past “successes,” and
instead focus on getting you to sign on the dotted line.
3. Before expending any serious
money on an expert, get three references from clients with problems
similar to yours. If the “expert” can’t come up with three, he
almost assuredly isn’t the person you need. When you call the
references, say something like, “I’m deciding which consultant to
hire and it’s an important decision. I’m considering (Insert
candidate’s name) to help me (insert the problem you’re
trying to get help with.) Are you in a position to assess
whether he’d be an excellent choice?”
Then again, maybe, to succeed,
you don’t need an expert. Just write a book called, “The Seven Keys
to (insert a career-building topic)” and hire a publicist.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian named Marty Nemko “The Bay
Area’s Best Career Coach.” His columns and an archive of his
National Public Radio San Francisco show plus excerpts from his
book, Cool Careers for Dummies,
which, in the Reader’s Choice Poll was rated the #1 most useful
career guide, are free on www.martynemko.com.
Copyright 2005 Marty Nemko, all rights reserved
