In many commercial roles, individuals progress by developing their expertise, be they engineers, accountants, lawyers or marketers. When I think back to my career and the progress that I made as I rose through the ranks in my career in professional services, I was frequently asked, ‘What is your area of expertise, where will you specialise?’ This is a common phrase that I hear with clients that I now work with as an executive coach.

I work with many experts across professional service firms as well as leaders taking on broader roles in their firms, overseeing new areas of the business, that are perhaps less familiar to them.

The ‘expertise trap’ is a phrase used to describe a place where being an expert no longer serves people. Moving beyond their area of knowledge requires individuals to step out of their comfort zone, which can be unsettling and can lead to anxiety and stress.

The expertise trap tends to be particularly profound in professional service firms, where, for the most part, a deep level of expertise is required to build your career – and indeed, the expertise is what clients are paying for. Yet, to be successful in today’s world, where problems are increasingly complex and multidisciplinary, these experts must be able to let go of their need to know and get more comfortable with the unknown, especially as they move into a sales role as a partner or leader of the firm. Easy to say, much harder to do.

Experts, by their very nature, are guided by their knowledge and experience and often have a desire to get things ‘right’.  This natural bias and focus on certain outcomes can exacerbate the expertise trap and make it harder to let it go.

So, what can be done if you recognise this in yourself and know that you need to step out into the unknown?

It is where I spend a lot of time working as an executive coach, supporting others to understand what they are fearful of, and what is holding them back – and finding strategies and new muscles to help them shape bigger, broader conversations with their clients and teams.

1. Be honest with yourself, get comfortable with saying ‘I don’t know’

Break it down into bite-sized chunks. When you boil it down – what is really going on? Very often it comes down to a fear of not knowing the answer, being ‘caught out’ or saying something wrong. The fear of reaching beyond your expertise could be a form of imposter syndrome. According to the Harvard Business Review, around one-third of young people suffer from it, and 70 per cent of everyone else is likely to experience it at some point in their lives. Ask yourself what you might say instead. Owning ‘I don’t know, but I can find out’ is a way of being transparent and building trust.

2. Find a buddy to attend meetings with, someone with a different skill set to your own. 

I often advocate that people double up in meetings, someone to lead the conversation and the other in support, firstly bringing a different lens and area of knowledge to the discussion but also having two means that you can also read the room and follow the interest of your client. 

3. Acknowledge the uncertainty and embrace the vulnerability

This will feel uncomfortable at first but use the muscles that you have built through your life. Think back to other ‘firsts’, where you might have been scared or worried, and remind yourself how you dealt with the situation and what you might do as you step out of your comfort zone into new areas of leadership or conversation. Having the ability to be vulnerable and humble in recognising that you may not always have the answers allows us to reflect more and deepen connections with others. 

4. Focus on being present and following the conversation, ask great questions

Be curious. I always help my coaching clients start with this. Focus on the other person. What might be going on for them? What are they interested in? Very often a really good conversation, with deep listening and relevant questions that follow the flow, can offer insight to others.  Being genuinely interested in the success of another person can alleviate the concerns of ‘not knowing’ and help you to build a human connection and personal relationship, that will enable you to feel more comfortable with not knowing all of the answers in the moment.

5. Consider finding a mentor or working with an executive coach

Find someone that you know and respect and who you have seen has moved through the zone of expertise to a broader leadership or commercial role and can act as a mentor. Often though, these challenges are internal to ourselves and in many instances working with an executive coach can help to get to the heart of the challenge, in a way that a mentor may not.

An experienced executive coach can help individuals to unlock what is really going on for them. Working not just with the mind but with the senses in the body as well, can offer experts the opportunity to explore in a confidential setting what they are nervous about and work to find coping strategies that will work for them. By stepping out of their comfort zone, learning and experimenting, they can begin to enjoy and thrive in a broader commercial context.

Helen Wada is the founder of The Human Advantage.

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