All too often, people automatically equate mere experience with actual meaningful expertise. While some experiences positively impact the process, many people who have had experience are far from being experts. Unfortunately, many individuals get a false sense of believing they are experts because they have experience, but unless they have learned the important lessons, and perfected or enhanced their skills, analysis and abilities, they are nowhere near being experts. Oliver Wendell Holmes stated this perfectly, "A moment's insight is sometimes worth a lifetime's experience."
1. I have spent well over thirty years training and developing over a thousand leaders and potential leaders, as well as professionally negotiating, organizing, coordinating and consulting in the events planning/ management industry. Nowhere is the difference between being an expert and merely having experience more readily available than when it comes to the events planning and coordinating processes. Many individuals falsely believe that they are experts merely because they have had experience in some aspects of the process in the past, but unless those individuals truly analyzed the process, learned from it, and gained the necessary insights, they are far from expert. In my experience, more waste and error have been made in this industry because someone considered himself an expert who was not, and made either actual errors or errors of oversight and/ or omission.
2. There are many reasons that even the best and professionally organized, coordinated and conducted leadership training does not automatically create real leaders. These, of course, include the process of identifying and qualifying potential leaders, as well as being upfront with potential leaders about the necessary commitment of both time and other resources, as well as transparently explaining the potential obstacles and challenges. However, even if these things are done and the training was as professionally done as possible, the issue of experience versus expertise has a major impact. I have observed far too many potential leaders fail to achieve to their potential because they cling to their my way or the highway type of philosophy, and feel they know more than others because of all their supposed expertise. These individuals generally believe that because they may have had significant amounts of experience, but unless this experience produced the needed insight, they never became experts. True experts realize that, despite their prowess, they still never know it all, and that because things necessarily evolve, so must they. Often, this becomes extremely challenging to many individuals.
Few people are as expert as they believe, nor even as expert as others believe they are. Expertise comes from experience and gaining the insight to be able to use that experience in the proper and relevant context.
1. I have spent well over thirty years training and developing over a thousand leaders and potential leaders, as well as professionally negotiating, organizing, coordinating and consulting in the events planning/ management industry. Nowhere is the difference between being an expert and merely having experience more readily available than when it comes to the events planning and coordinating processes. Many individuals falsely believe that they are experts merely because they have had experience in some aspects of the process in the past, but unless those individuals truly analyzed the process, learned from it, and gained the necessary insights, they are far from expert. In my experience, more waste and error have been made in this industry because someone considered himself an expert who was not, and made either actual errors or errors of oversight and/ or omission.
2. There are many reasons that even the best and professionally organized, coordinated and conducted leadership training does not automatically create real leaders. These, of course, include the process of identifying and qualifying potential leaders, as well as being upfront with potential leaders about the necessary commitment of both time and other resources, as well as transparently explaining the potential obstacles and challenges. However, even if these things are done and the training was as professionally done as possible, the issue of experience versus expertise has a major impact. I have observed far too many potential leaders fail to achieve to their potential because they cling to their my way or the highway type of philosophy, and feel they know more than others because of all their supposed expertise. These individuals generally believe that because they may have had significant amounts of experience, but unless this experience produced the needed insight, they never became experts. True experts realize that, despite their prowess, they still never know it all, and that because things necessarily evolve, so must they. Often, this becomes extremely challenging to many individuals.
Few people are as expert as they believe, nor even as expert as others believe they are. Expertise comes from experience and gaining the insight to be able to use that experience in the proper and relevant context.
With over 30 years consultative sales, marketing, training, managerial, and operations experience, Richard Brody has trained sales and marketing people in numerous industries, given hundreds of seminars, appeared as company spokesperson on over 200 radio and television programs. He's negotiated, arranged and organized hundreds of events.