Is being an expert getting in your way?

If you intend to create lasting impact from a business change, cultivating a mindset of open-mindedness and humility in yourself and your team will be necessary.

In his book Principles, author Ray Dalio says that when we are kids, we start off life not knowing much and not being very open minded - in the bottom left corner of this picture. Many people will go on to remain stuck in that bottom quadrant for the best part of their lives.

Be here! Know lots and still be open-minded

Adapted from Principles: Life & Work, by Ray Dalio

This is because the combination of our egos and our blind spots make it hard for us to accept our mistakes and weaknesses and cause us to want to BE RIGHT! (And to want everyone else to know that we are right, too.)

It’s a life’s work to continuously cultivate open-mindedness, and I’d argue it’s a journey that is even more crucial, challenging, and nuanced for those of us who derive professional value from expertise.

From having answers, to having questions

As we learn, grow and have more experiences, it can become harder to maintain an open mind.

So, we need to practice. A lot.

It sounds straightforward, right? But in my experience people often get tripped up in the process of trying to suspend their judgement. Genuinely seeking to understand another person’s perspective and interests is not the standard way we humans approach interactions.

Typically, we listen while we wait to speak.

A traditional, non-squiggly, career path has led many highly trained professionals to a point where they perceive that the only value they add is through their technical expertise and knowledge of operations, processes, systems, plant or technologies.

It’s important to recognise that many professionals (certainly most of the engineers, technicians, lawyers, and consultants I’ve worked with) have been trained to think their value lies in this subject matter expertise. In having the right answer, and therefore in being right and knowing the right way that any particular problem should be approached.

Because you can’t be an expert and not have the right answer, right? When we are engaged to provide our technical expertise this can certainly seem to be the case.

But what if someone with deep expertise in a certain area - let’s say electrical engineering, for arguments sake - is tasked with implementing change or performing a leadership role?

It then becomes essential that we can overcome the self-created view that “I am an expert who should have all the answers”.

Why? Because having all the answers is not the role of the leader, facilitator or change agent.

Lighting the way for others, sure. Supporting people to navigate to solutions, yes. But there are rarely right answers when it comes to navigating change and leadership. And pretending that there is a right way, and you are the one that know what it is, quite frankly, will not win you many friends nor afford you much influence.

It doesn’t always come naturally to be open-minded, relaxed, and empathetic to another person’s view - particularly if that other person is being openly critical or if you have a radically different perspective.

These moments require intentionality; to bring forward the skill of open-mindedness and curiosity means that you have to believe that questions will serve you better than answers and opinions.

It is only in allowing ourselves to let go of limiting world views and pushing ourselves towards knowing lots and being really humble that we can effectively facilitate of change.

I will continue to keep practicing being open-minded and humble for the rest of my life. Sometimes, it doesn’t go perfectly. I still act in ways that don’t get me the outcomes I want or need. My ego sometimes gets in the way.

One observation I have made is that at times being intentionally humble has had people underestimated me, at least initially, and assume I was weak, lacking confidence, intelligence, or skill because my immediate position has not been to assert my dominance, perspective, or importance over others. I have actually had people tell me this years after we’ve starting working together.

There was something scary about this being the case at first. But I have belief in my own abilities. And I have belief that those who get to know me will see the whole me. So I remind myself that there is no need to be afraid of what others think. And with that knowledge, over time I have created the space to be show up more frequently as humble, less defensive, and better able to suspend judgement.

And the rewards of having those skills, in terms of being able to produce tangible outcomes that are good for people, far outweigh the risk that someone might initially underestimate your abilities, I reckon.

Hi, I’m Kristine Posthumus.

I’m an advisor, facilitator, coach, and doer with a background in strategic change in large organisations.

I’m also a recovering bureaucrat who writes about my experiences of unsquiggling complex business problems, with people in mind.

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