Become The Expert In Your Field
“Anytime you can become an expert in an area, you become the person that everyone goes to for information, and that immediately makes you invaluable”, Mary Crane, president of Mary Crane and Associates, says. “So join organizations or make sure they are aware of your existence and that you are an expert in a particular field.”
Become your organization’s resident expert by trying to stand apart from your colleagues while protecting your job. The mantle of expert is granted the old-fashioned way-you earn it. You do that by soaking up, digesting, and employing every speck of information about your field. So read, watch, write about, and listen to everything you can get your hands, eyes and ears on concerning your industry or the specialized aspect of your job. Attend lectures, conventions, and symposiums, even if you have to pay your own way. Join industry-related organizations and club. Give presentations and speeches. Author articles and develop Power point presentations.
An Expert Exceeds His Job
Majority, people don’t willfully strive to become experts. They attain that level of respect because their interest in the field exceeds their job. Their work becomes a way of life that they continue to develop and explore. Amid today’s tight marketplace, ask yourself how you can become the go-to person in your field for your company. You could probably learn something from Michelle, a basic business trainer who became her company’s employee assessment expert.
Michelle, The Assessment Expert
Michelle’s job was developing and teaching training programs for her company. But what she really enjoyed was doing leadership and management assessments. One time she walked into her manager’s office and announced that her professional goal was to be the company’s assessment expert. She said that she wasn’t seeking a raise, didn’t want a promotion, would gladly continue performing her current job, and didn’t expect the company to pay her advanced education. All she wanted was the chance to do management assessments after she was properly certified. Her manager thought the idea was great. He said if she took the classes and got certified she could pursue her dream.
Subsequently, Michelle spent her own money to get certified in the three leading assessment instruments. She created a series of pilot courses to see if there was an interest at work. There was. To prove the classes were beneficial, Michelle analyzed her findings and presented the results in a report.
Meanwhile, she also joined national and local assessment organizations to start building a professional network, and took more courses.
At work she was a one-person marketing group. She produced and sent out to every department a series of one-page white papers that outlined the value of assessments and offered some how-to-tips. Then she visited every group in the company and asked to speak at each department’s meeting. All the while she continued to do her job developing and teaching basic training courses.
It paid off. Today Michelle is the company’s assessment expert. She has her own group of employees who do nothing but assessment programs.
