Don’t be blinded by your own expertise

When we begin to identify as experts, our outlook can narrow, both in daily work and in times of crisis. We become reluctant to admit mistakes, thus hindering our development. We distance ourselves from those “beneath” us, making it harder to earn their affection and trust. And as the dynamics of our businesses change, we risk being bypassed or replaced by colleagues on the rise, outsiders adept at learning new things, or artificial intelligence algorithms. Over time the very expertise that led to our success can leave us feeling unhappy, unsatisfied and stuck.

Have you fallen into a creative rut? Do you feel out of touch in your job? Do others seem uncomfortable challenging your assumptions and ideas? These are just a few of the warning signs that you’ve fallen into the expertise trap. The solution is clear: Rededicate yourself to learning and growth.

But how? A few extraordinary leaders have developed strategies for escaping or avoiding the expertise trap. We can learn from their example.

Challenge your own expertise: Experts cling to their beliefs in large part because their egos are attached to being “smart” or “the best” in their area of focus. To break this pattern, untether yourself from that identity, cultivate more modesty and remind yourself of your intellectual limitations.

Check your ego: Do you sometimes overshadow others so that you can look good? Do you dictate solutions to team members rather than rely on their capabilities? Do you put pressure on yourself to always appear “right”? How much pride do you take in the companywide accolades?

If you are excessively gratified by the status that comes with your hard-won knowledge, try grounding yourself a little. Michael Bloomberg famously eschewed a lavish private office at his media company for a small, unremarkable cubicle. Some executives I’ve worked with spotlight others’ accomplishments at meetings and industry events and resist the urge to take credit for every success. They also spend time listening to team members instead of telling them what to do.

Methodically revisit your assumptions: You can avoid errors by regularly surfacing and testing your ingrained ideas. At the start of a new project or assignment, jot down three or more “theories” that underpin it. For instance, if your goal is to spur revenue growth by entering a new geographic market, you may be assuming that the market in question is attractive, or that your products or services are appropriate for it. Analyze your assumptions one by one, decide which are valid and which you should discard, and change your strategy accordingly.

Seek out fresh ideas: Learning requires exposure to novelty. But when you’re an expert, it’s easy to become intellectually cloistered. Others don’t or can’t challenge you as often as they used to, and your authority or status can insulate you from pressure to learn and grow. Practiced regularly, the following exercises will introduce you to more diverse perspectives.

Look to teammates as teachers: Set aside a few minutes every month to reflect on the most important lessons you gleaned from your team members, especially those whose expertise is less than or different from yours. Ask them open-ended questions to encourage them to challenge your thinking and give you feedback.

Then make certain that you take their comments seriously. Reward, rather than dismiss or criticise, those who speak up. Aron Ain, the CEO of the software company Kronos, has described his habit of walking around the office to hold impromptu focus groups with employees to get their opinions on pressing business issues.

Tap new sources of talent: Experts become creatively stuck and unable to learn because they surround themselves with people who look and sound just like them. The solution, of course, is to hire people with different functional, industry or cultural backgrounds. Bill Walsh, the San Francisco 49ers head coach, is venerated in the NLF for hiring African American assistant coaches and for creating an internship programme that allowed the league to benefit from this formerly untapped talent pool.

Think about your own team, company and industry. Are any forms of diversity unrepresented? What perspectives might your workplace gain from people with the missing background? Try recruiting some of them through atypical channels and then on boarding them with a light touch to retain their originality and curiosity. If you’re not in a position to hire, seek out new voices at conferences or in your community.

Add a role model or a learning buddy: Is anyone at your company or in your industry unusually dedicated to creativity and growth? Look up that person, follow her activities and ask if you can check in regularly to compare ideas. What is she thinking about or reading? What does she do to broaden her horizons and stay current? You can also cultivate “learning buddies” — colleagues with whom you bounce around new ideas. The CEO of Scripps Health, Chris Van Gorder, consults with a group of “loyal friends” inside and outside the organisation who he knows will provide “honest and sometimes tough feedback about my performance.”

Embrace experimentalism: Leaders and managers stuck in the expertise trap don’t just blind themselves to new ideas — they stop experimenting and taking risks, which ultimately leads to their downfall, because they’re seldom learning anything new. It’s important to push the limits of your comfort zone, even if there’s a danger you’ll fall on your face.

Pose frequent creative challenges for yourself: Challenge yourself to break new ground by welcoming any unfamiliar or unusual assignments you get and treating them as “science experiments.” Give yourself permission to try different ways of accomplishing tasks. Many successful leaders maintain creative hobbies as a way of staying fresh and bringing that mindset back to the office. David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, makes a hobby of DJing at Manhattan nightspots. The former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold writes cookbooks.

Learn from mistakes: The outstanding leaders I’ve studied know that mistakes are to be acknowledged, not swept under the rug — especially when they themselves make them. How self-aware are you in this respect? Set aside time each month to think about the errors you made, big and small. Do you notice any patterns? Did any mistakes result from experiments you were trying? If so, what lessons can you capture?

Exceptional leaders know that learning is a lifelong pursuit. Their greatest fear isn’t that their expertise and authority will be challenged but, rather, that they’ll become complacent.