Many of my clients consider me an expert. I am often asked to speak as an expert on a variety of topics. And my tribe refer to me as an expert.
I know I know a lot about the areas that others consider me an expert in. But I really struggle to think of myself as an expert.
I don’t think I’m alone.
Expert is such an absolute noun. For me, it suggests there is no other person who knows more than the expert. That’s a pretty tall order. It suggests (to me anyway) that the expert knows everything there is to know. But how can anyone know everything there is to know about anything?
The way I see it, there are shades of grey – shades of expert grey, where as we acquire more expertise the shade gets darker as we become ‘more’ expert than we were yesterday, last week or last year. But do we ever reach an absolute black? Or do the incremental increases in greyness become finer and finer, until no-one but us can detect the darker shade?
So how dark does your shade of grey need to be before you consider yourself expert? For me, I’ve decided it’s when my tribe and my clients tell me I am. When they come to me for insights, expertise and knowledge in a particular area where their shade of grey is lighter than mine.
What do you think? Do you consider yourself an expert? Or do you struggle with the title like I do? How ‘deep’ a shade of grey does your expertise need to be before you own your expert status?
Or have I got it wrong – do our shades of grey actually lighten with deepening expertise, like a a black-haired young beauty, greying to silver-white as she ages with experience, knowledge and wisdom?
