How SME’s grow their impact and careers

95% of technical subject matters experts report huge benefits from developing their non-technical skills through Expertship programs.

While every experts’ journey is uniquely different, there are six outcomes reported back to us by managers of an expert and by the participants themselves, which are very common - and powerful - outcomes.

A renewed sense of purpose

Many experts nominated for our programs are ‘stuck in a rut’. By which we mean have been in the role for several years, are doing the same work repeatedly, and have started wondering “what’s next”?

Expertship programs enable experts to do a career and capability audit - and via the stretch that is the Expertship Model - see a level of performance and value beyond where they currently are. Experts return re-energized, and with a plan on how to grow their career, and have more influence and impact.

Seeing the big picture

Experts, being highly technical, have a propensity to get stuck working in their own ‘bubble’. And this creates a raft of problems for them - inability to engage easily with the rest of the organization, appearance of aloofness, apparent disinterest in what is going on outside their bubble.

Expertship programs burst this bubble aggressively. Our focus on the Market Context capability in the Expertship Model, helps experts see that without a much broader view - seeing the Big Picture - they can’t create the new value they are capable of.

Clarity about current and future role value

When you spend all days fixing problems - the same problems as last week - as experts do, your sense of perspective about the value of your role diminishes. This decreases motivation and engagement and can leave some experts feeling bitter over the apparent lack of value the rest of the organization associates with their work.

Expertship programs help experts re-evaluate what value they add currently, and think about what value they could add in the future. We work with experts to help them see the value of their contribution, and be able to articulate it effectively to non-technical colleagues. This generates energy and reignites their passion for what they do (and can do) back in the workplace.

Enhanced communication skills

Experts around the world and in all technical domains have a reputation for being extremely confident in talking about stuff they know really well (they are expert in), but struggling to hold a conversation with colleagues about anything else to do with the organization. Partially this is because of the number of experts who are introverted, but also because they simply don’t have a bank of questions or confident inter-personal skills to carry on these conversations.

Expertship programs help experts see how critical having these conversations with colleagues really is - how vital a contribution they make to the experts doing great work. the Mastering Expertship program in particular focuses heavily on question techniques, advanced listening skills, expert networking techniques, and appreciative inquiry. We experts put their natural curiosity to work effectively, with confidence.

Enhanced relationship skills

Experts inter-connect with a complex web of colleagues - senior, junior, internal, and sometimes external - in order to get their jobs done. We call these their stakeholders. Their relationships with most stakeholders tend to be very transactional, and fast - experts are almost always under high workload pressure. This isn’t a good combination to generate positive stakeholder relationships.

Expertship programs help experts get a real grip on who their most important stakeholders are, and why, and helps them generate a plan for managing these relationships in a win-win manner. We introduce them to tools and techniques which completely transform relationships back in the workplace.

Elevated knowledge transfer skills

Long-serving experts often end up being the go-to person for a whole range of tasks that no one else knows how to do. This lack of redundancy is dangerous for the organization, and irritating for the expert (they are constantly interrupted with requests to do low-value work).

Expertship programs help experts build elevated knowledge transfer skills - that is, successfully training others to do low-value technical work, enabling them to focus on the bigger picture, high-value work. This often involves a change in mindset - persuading experts that they can take the time to train others and that they will eventually understand how to do things if the experts teach them properly, and yes, hoarding your knowledge is eventually career-limiting not career-saving).

The data tells a story

Our clients have sent us accountants, actuaries, chemists, coders, consultants, economists, engineers, financial experts, hardware specialists, heads of compliance, information architects, insurance experts, lawyers, medical experts, risk managers – the list goes on.

One client saw such a strong return that they’ve enrolled more than 100 of their most critical staff through the program.

But the most telling feedback we receive is at the end of an expert’s six month Expertship journey. Was that difficult challenge worth the time and energy invested? Did it make a difference?

Respondents are overwhelmingly positive. Read what experts have to say about expertship.

We have three forms of programs, and one - Public Programs for Subject Matter Experts - individual experts can join. These Mastering Expertship programs have an average NPS score of 70-90%. That is, at least 70% of participants scored their program a 9 or 10 out of 10.

See what these six experts had to say about what they got out of attending the Mastering Expertship program.