Whether you are looking for help with innovation, seeking solutions to a problem, or facing an important decision, the hiring, consulting, or requesting of opinion from an expert is your logical next step. But how does one measure the expertise of an individual? There are no official guidelines that labels someone as an expert and an expert might not even proclaim themselves to be one.
"Expert" is defined as "a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area." Assessing the amount and quality of knowledge someone has is not something that can be quantified. Therefore, the title of "expert" is a relative one and what we must do is assess credibility.
The first thing you need to do is look at the reasons you are seeking the input of an expert. Understand what kind of insights you are looking for and what kind of information you expect the expert to have. From there, you must decipher what kind of qualifications, successes, experience and other credentials your expert might have.
At Tier One Executive Search, we help our clients identify the experts that they need to advance their business. There is no specific formula that works to uncover experts - each scenario is different. The following list of qualities is not all-encompassing but an individual should have at least a combination of a few:
1. Knowledge
Knowledge can come in the form of education or accumulation of working knowledge. An expert might also have some specialized certifications or licenses of a certain professional standard. An expert will know the proper resources to use if they do not have the knowledge.
2. Experience
An expert will probably have spent a significant amount of time applying their knowledge to the real world. Look at the person's career and the number of years they have spent in a certain line of work. From lengthy experience, an expert will have intuition. They will be able to apply their knowledge successfully to new scenarios and accurately anticipate results.
3. Acknowledgement from Peers
Respect from peers is a key piece of evidence. You might already have an expert or expert-in-the making on your team. Ask your team members who they go to for knowledge. After asking several people, you might hear the same name over and over. This would be your internal expert.
For an external expert, think of the person you know with the most expertise on the subject. Ask that person who they know that has more expertise than they do. Go to that person and ask the same until you can go no further. This will be your top expert.
4. Communication
Analyze how the person communicates their knowledge. Are they eager to share their knowledge? Can they share their knowledge in a way that is easy to understand? Do they convey some level of authority in how they communicate? Do they share evidence to support what they are communicating?
5.Personal Qualities
An expert usually does not claim complete and sole authority on a subject. They are usually aware that there is always more to learn. They accept that they could be wrong or make a mistake. They are open to opposite opinions and they tend to promote their field of work rather than themselves.
Conclusion
There are always exceptions to the rule. Not every expert will have all of these attributes. These are just general guidelines to help you find the expert that will help your business. If all else fails, consider reaching out to an expert in finding experts: Tier One Executive Search.
