The "Expert Trap”: Why Stepping Back Is Your Best Move Forward
I had my last coaching session with David as his participation in the Mastering Expertship program draws to an end. He shared with me some recent successes, and it nearly brought a tear to my eye. I asked his permission if I could share his story, and he said yes.
David’s Origin Story
Firstly, David is not his real name, but you likely know a David - the person who can get the job done faster, better, and more efficiently than anyone else. The “go-to” expert who knows more than anyone else.
It feels great to be a David. Until it doesn’t.
After 30 years in the banking sector, David is the definition of a guru. David is far too humble to say so, so I’ll say it for him. He knows his area inside and out. Back to front. His manager said David is the recognised leader in his field. But he hit the classic expert trap: he is so good at doing the work that he became the bottleneck. When you are the “go-to person”, everyone goes to you.
EVERYONE. Get a number. Get in the queue.
He is brilliant at getting it done, but he struggled to delegate, coach, and mentor. In part because he told himself the same thing we all tell ourselves about the things we are good at – “it would take him less time to do the thing himself than it would to delegate and coach the thing”. Also, like most gurus, David is passionate about what he does. To become a guru requires a significant investment of blood, sweat, and tears. And passion fuels that.
The downside? His passion led to a laser focus on fixing the problem, often multiple problems, and fixing them fast and permanently. He was completely focused on, and these are his words, “being reactive, putting his head down and just doing the work”.
The Shift: From “Guru” to “Master”
David wanted to be more strategic and have greater influence on the decisions that matter, across his organisation, but also nationally. But the same strengths that got him to guru status, i.e., the speed, reactiveness, the hands-on approach, being single-point sensitive, were the things holding him back.
As his expert coach, we started working on a simple mindset shift - To step up, first step back:
Let it go: Coaching, mentoring, and developing others is the cliché short-term pain for long-term gain. Yes, in the moment, it will take longer. But it pays off in the long run. In fact, like in David’s case, it started paying off quickly by creating more capacity to work at the strategic and national level.
To be interesting, first be interested: It may seem counter-intuitive, but if there is a magic trick to real influence, then it is to speak less and listen more. Good salespeople know this. So do good negotiators. This was not a large gap for David, but the small shift allowed him to delegate more effectively and also expand his network further among the executive cohort of his organisation and externally.
Get to 70,000 feet: By reframing his role to focus more on system-wide and national risks rather than just reactive problem-solving, David significantly elevated his presence, increasing his engagement with executive leadership and is now being asked to represent his organisation at national forums.
Gurus don’t know everything: It is OK to say “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” or “This is what I think, but…” Nobody expects anybody to be able to answer every question. If you know your stuff, how wrong are you going to be anyway? Furthermore, to influence at senior levels, you are expected to share your opinions and insights about how your field of expertise relates to other areas where you are NOT the expert. That is the price of admission to the table. David has become much more confident in speaking about things outside his sphere of expertise.
We own our own situation: The expert trap is real. The more an expert knows in comparison to everyone around them, the more likely that expert will become stuck in a silo, unable to move out. Organisations don’t do this to their experts consciously. It is simply the nature of expertise in large organisations. Unfortunately, because the organisation doesn’t knowingly trap their experts, their organisation is unlikely to address it. I worked with David to explore options and how to turn options to escape the trap into reality. David isn’t waiting for a job opening. He is making one happen.
The Outcome for David
It wasn’t overnight. It was five months. But in the grand scheme of a 30-year career, 5 months is as close to overnight as you can get. Also, David was an ideal client. In our five months together, he was willing to be vulnerable, experiment, be proactive, and do the work.
David has launched and is now leading an innovative approach to emerging risks in the banking and finance sectors on behalf of his organisation. So much so that a senior leader of an American-based global financial services firm said no one else in Australia is talking about these new risks the way David is, let alone doing anything about it. David is now looking at leading this not just within his own organisation, but across Australia. He is considering writing the business case to create a new team to take on this work.
David’s story is a powerful reminder that mastery isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about building the smartest room. And that room can expand beyond the boundaries of a team, a division, or even an entire organisation.
