We All Have An Experience with Expert Ego
I have absolutely no doubt that you have encountered this at least once in your life, either professionally or personally. These “experts” know EVERYTHING. They will talk your FACE OFF, puff their chest, and tell you all about how great they are. They won’t let you get a single word in edge-wise unless you are also an “expert” (according to them). Don’t get me wrong. Most of these “experts” really ARE experts and actually DO know what they are talking about. The problem is that people are put off by their ego and their inadvertent way of being so damned condescending when they speak to you. They also seem to have a strange way of not actually executing on tasks and strategies that they are telling you should be done. This, my friends, is what I refer to as “expert ego”.
Experts talk, preach, take all their time and everyone else’s too. They dictate, spew facts, and command your respect. But they don’t seem to actually DO anything. In my decades of experience with “experts”, I’ve learned a trick or two. I let experts be experts. I let them talk and I take in every bit of information they are willing to share with me. Hey, what have I got to lose? Absolutely nothing. Then I secretly take everything they’ve shared and turn it into a more consumable message, a more organized project, a more profitable plan, and present it back to the business. Okay. Not secretly. It’s clear what I’m doing, but I give them ALL the credit when I’m done.
I let experts be experts. I let them talk and I take in every bit of information they are willing to share with me.
Okay, don’t get all upset about that. I can hear you now “But you did all the work!! Take the credit!” Yes. I did do the work, but I couldn’t have done the work without the “experts”. It is WAY more important to them to get credit than it is to me. I would rather see my work be used as an integral contribution to positive change within an organization than to “take the credit”. And another thing? The “experts” know I did it. It would kill them, and their ego, to give me that credit. (I don’t know if you’ve ever seen what happens when an “expert” has to give credit to someone else? It’s almost like a physical reaction to being punched in the gut. Their face looks like they are in excruciating pain. As comedic as this can be for an audience, I’d rather not have to deal with the discomfort of an “expert” and their wounded “expert ego”.)
I would rather see my work be used as an integral contribution to positive change within an organization than to “take the credit”.
The difference between “experts” and me is that many times, “experts” live in the black and white, the right and wrong. To them there is absolutely no gray area. They spend a lot of their time trying to fit whatever is in the gray area into either the black or the white. They like to put things into clear, black and white categories, often times leaving out important and critical items that are actually supposed to be in the gray area because it would take too long to understand it or explain it. Their “expert ego” is too fragile to be in the gray area. For “experts”, gray is uncomfortable and new and confusing, and is it even really a color? For me gray is a magical place where businesses succeed or fail.
“Expert ego” is one of the reasons I don’t know if I should call myself an “expert”. I don’t have all of the usual and noticeable characteristics of an “expert”, and I certainly am not afraid to be challenged in my thoughts and ideas. I’m REALLY comfortable in the gray area so if I thought I was an “expert” I would say I was a “gray area expert”. I have a highly successful track record of working on a wide range of projects in the gray area and making sure they were completed on-time, on budget, and with accurate and actionable outcomes. This alone should qualify me as an “expert”. But that “expert ego” part…. Nah. It’s just not me. I’ll stick with “non-expert”. For now at least.
Everyone needs a non-expert to support their business. What gray areas do you need help with? Contact me today!
Segovia Consulting 