If you want to be a respected leader, it helps if you are regarded as an expert in your field; someone who really knows what they are doing. When you are an expert, you gain respect, and when you are respected it is much easier to get people to follow you.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you can do to become an expert in your field and be the leader you know you can be:
- Practice, practice, practice
According to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in pretty much anything you can think of. Whether this figure is accurate or not, it is true that the more you do something, the better you get at it. So, if you want to be an expert in your field, you need to put the work in and practice, practice, practice.
- Spend time with other experts
You are the sum of the 5-10 people you spend the most time with. So, if you want to be an expert in cybersecurity, start networking and spend more time with other cybersecurity experts or if you want to be a great CEO, spend more time networking with other successful CEOs and their knowledge and experience will rub off on you, inspire you, and help you to be the expert you know you can be.
- Write about your chosen subject
Writing about your chosen subject is a great way to learn more about it and solidify your understanding of the topic. Not on,y that but if you write online and pay attention to best SEO practices, then your work will find an audience and those audiences will come to look upon you as being an authority in your niche, which will help to cement your position as an expert in your field.
- Get a mentor and be a mentor
Having a mentor who is already an expert in the field is a good way to learn more about your niche and how to master it. Once you have some experience, then mentoring someone else who also wants to excel in your field can help you to work through the various aspects of the sector, while again, helping to cement your status as an expert and thought leader in your chosen niche.
- Keep up to date
If you want to be an expert in your field, you have to keep learning. Things move on all the time and if you do not move with them, you will eventually get left behind, losing your status as an expert and leader, read journals, attend conferences, and basically keep your finger on the pulse of your chosen sector and you will always be able to keep your expert status.
As you can see, becoming an expert in your field takes time and commitment, but it is perfectly possible if you are willing to put the work in, so what are you waiting for?
