EVALUATING EXPERTISE
The word ‘expert’ comes from the Latin ‘xperiri’ — which means experience. Experience is fact — anything else is yet to be proven!
|
It is a shame that a QBE (Qualified By Experience), isn’t worth anything compared to a PhD or a BSc or even a Dip.Cl.Hyp. I would prefer to go into the desert with an Australian Aboriginal or a Kalahari Bushman any day than with a PhD geek that knew detailed weather patterns and climate change of the past, present or next 10 years etc.
However, your expertise is all for naught if people don’t know you are the expert they can turn to. Figure out what you are inherently the expert on, then position yourself as such. It is not a matter of ‘who you know’ but 'what your know' — and this can only come about by your experience(s). YOU — that’s what people want, you as a person, NOT your topic, but the way you think — THAT is what makes the difference, THAT is YOUR expertise.
|
|
|
|
You must also be perceived as being the expert — the obvious, the ‘first that comes to mind’, the best in the minds of your customers, your colleagues and the MEDIA. Your expertise may only need to be a fresh take on an old idea. It is not what you have done, it is what you have learned from experience. Experts are readers and learners, and are very much aware of what other experts say. No matter what your area of expertise, people have to know that you are an expert for you to have any influence.
Having said all of that above — why bother to study, why all the emphasis on letters on your shield? The letters merely say — you have done this, studied that, learnt this, passed that, have been good enuff, cunning enuff, memorised enuff, politically aware enuff, to have passed. They don’t say — you are an ‘expert’.
Armed with your knowledge (a load of memorised or accessible information) you now venture forth. Pretend you are a consultant, a therapist, or any other type of listening-based, advice-giving professional. Your first client walks into your office. How well are you prepared for the unknown?
What can you draw on to reach a successful conclusion to this consultation?
EXPERIENCE — the only FACT — anything else is supposition.
If you have experience in anything relative to this on-line magazine we would like to hear from you. Yes YOU, the owner, the breeder, the expert, the QBE, the new-age thinker, the producer, the maker, the creator — this is your forum, your opportunity to be seen / heard / read by / exposed to!
Forward your ideas to: info@animalhealthmag.com
|
