Here is how a career can play out for your technical experts.
For between 5 and 10 years they enjoy life as a technical subject matter experts. Think experts in IT, Data, Policy, Science, Finance, Engineering, Health, HR, Marketing and many more disciplines. During these early years (Stage 1 and Stage 2) in the graphic, they are enjoying acquiring skills, experiences and knowledge that deliver their technical prowess. For a short while, Stage 3, they build a reputation they are proud of by being needed to fight fires, be the go-to fixer, and be seen as the technical guru in their field.
Stage 3 is a really busy time, so experts don’t have time to build the capability of others who could alleviate this workload and pressure. Which of course leads to these experts being stuck in Stage 4 – The Expert Trap.
Since only they can fix these problems, they are stuck doing this day in and day out. And since they are stuck doing that, they are not invited to work on higher value work, where they could uniquely make a difference. In our work over the past nine years, we’ve worked with thousands of subject matter experts, many of whom have fallen into the Expert Trap.
They are technically brilliant at what they do, and that is what is holding them back from adding even more value to their organisation. The firefighting they are required to do never ends. Their workload is intense. And somehow, despite everything they do, they believe their career feels… stuck. This is when your subject matter experts’ technical mastery becomes both their badge of honor AND their biggest barrier to growth.
The enterprises and public sector agencies that employ these experts are also badly affected by this phenomenon.
Organisations are vulnerable to a single-person point of failure. These experts have no time to build the capability of less experienced colleagues (or sometimes lack the skills). And there is a chance their experts will burn out and leave.
We’ve learned the signs of being trapped.
We’ve designed a simple diagnosis to help experts (a) find out whether they really are stuck, and (b) what they have to do to start the process of escaping from the Trap. The survey takes just 2 minutes and could be a turning point in their career.
The Expert Trap Survey will help your experts:
1) Understand your current position
2) Get immediate, personalised insights
3) Discover strategies to grow their influence, impact, and options
Take the Expert Trap Survey Now to see how this simple test might unleash your subject matter experts.
https://expertship.com/articles/the-expert-trap
And if it turns out your experts are trapped, we’re ready to help. The Expertship Institute offers free, nearly free, and investable options to help your experts fulfil their full potential.
