In my last post, I highlighted a number of ways in which we can all seek to elevate our visibility and authority as experts. My reason for focusing on this topic was that, if you want to sell online courses or start and grow any other sort of knowledge-based business, it helps tremendously to be known as an expert.
The flip side of this effort, of course, is actually being able to deliver the goods.
Based on the many e-mail exchanges I have had with readers, most Learning Revolution subscribers tend to have substantial expertise and experience in their chosen field. I’d like to think I do as well, but I know the effort to maintain and increase expertise is a lifelong process. Here’s some of what I do on an ongoing basis to keep the saw sharp and make sure there is real legitimacy behind my efforts to elevate my expertise.
Curation
I engage in an ongoing effort to track and curate useful insights and information that relate to my work. I have a process for doing this that centers around the use of Feedly as an RSS reader. Here’s a brief video I did about it a while back. I recommend a similar process for anyone who wants to effectively stay on top of their field or industry.
Re-Reading
Every year I make a list of books I plan to re-read and reflect on. I’ve found over time that going deep on just a handful of books and continually revisiting them really helps me to focus my thinking and be more effective in my work.
This is essentially my “curriculum” for baseline knowledge and skills in the work I do. For most of us who are experts in a niche area, there is no established MBA-type curriculum: we have to develop our own over time. My list changes periodically, but here’s what is currently have on the list (in no particular order):
- Influence – Robert Cialdini
- Blue Ocean Strategy – Renee Mauborgne and Chan Kim
- Telling Ain’t Training – Harold Stolovitch and Erica Keeps
- 22 Immutable Laws of Branding – Al and Laura Ries
- The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy – Richard Rumelt
- The Discourses – Epictetus
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari
- The Incerto – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Not all of these, of course, relate directly to business, but I feel it is very important to read outside of topics directly related to my expertise. Doing so often sparks new ideas and perspectives that help me keep my work distinctive. (I also read quite a lot of fiction and biography, though tend not to re-read those quite as much.)
New Reading
As helpful as revisiting books I’ve read before can be, I do also want to make sure I am adding to my knowledge – supplementing and tweaking the curriculum. Here’s what I have put on my list recently. Again, in no particular order:
- Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI – Ethan Mollick (Recently finished. Recommended.)
- Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress – Steven Pinker (On my list for a long time. Need to finally get to it.)
- Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present – Farid Zakaria
- Teaching for Wisdom, Intelligence, Creativity, and Success – Robert J. Sternberg, Elena Grigorenko, and Linda Jarvin
- The Ingredients for Great Teaching – Pedro De Bruyckere
I’ve got many others I am vetting and will definitely add to the list as the year goes on. I welcome suggestions in the comments.
Again, fiction will play a role, as will poetry, though I decided to just stick to non-fiction above. I would have to write a short book to explain my rationale on all of the choices above, but if you are wondering about any of them, feel free to contact me. Also – to be clear – my point is not that these books should be on your list. My point is that, as an expert, you should be maintaining a similar list of your own.
Relationships
Who we spend our time with – whether literally or figuratively – has a huge impact on how we think, what we learn, and the overall trajectory of our personal and professional growth. I’m trying to get a lot more conscious about who I connect with – and stay connected with – and why.
This includes “two-way” relationships – i.e., people I can talk to and who talk to me (whether in-person, by phone, by social media, etc.). It also includes “one-way” relationships – people I listen to (e.g., podcasts, videos, online courses) or read (e.g., see the lists above).
Now, my aim is not to be mercenary about it, but I’m looking for people who can help me grow – and hopefully vice-versa. Professionally, I want to connect with more people who are bit more knowledgeable, skilled, or further along the path than I am – just enough so to motivate me to stretch myself. If you have focused on doing this before, you know it is not easy territory, but I think it is one of the most valuable things that those who want to grow their expertise can do.
Experiments
Significant growth requires getting out or your comfort zone and taking some risks. I equate this with running “experiments,” and I’ve got a number of these in mind. The biggest for me both currently and most likely through the coming year is continuing to push the limits of how generative AI can support my work and the work of my company.
ChatGPT has become a regular conversational partner for me at this point, helping me analyze data and think through ideas. I have not yet started creating “agents” with it, but that is next on the list. We’re in the midst of a growth spurt as a company and my hunch is that AI will eventually both elevate our performance but also become sort of “jack-of-all-trades” additional employee. We’ll see.
It perhaps goes without saying, but if you aren’t experimenting with AI at this point, you are behind. AI poses major opportunities but also substantial challenges – to the point of being an existential threat – to anyone in the business of expertise. Now is the time to learn to work with it,
All the best,
Jeff
P.S. – Be sure to also check out 7 Ways to Elevate Your Expertise.
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