Building eminence as an up and comer
I should probably rename this blog reflections of a mother and former Cornerstone attendee - as my blogs are almost entirely about one or the other (have I told you lately that I love Cornerstone?). However, yesterday, I was having a conversation with a really, really strong performer on my team who said that they felt like they were happy to work on any type of project because they didn't really have any particular eminence in one specific area.
This comment really resonated with me because it's something that I really struggled with myself -- and if I'm being honest about, is something that I used to feel very self conscious about as an up and coming leader in my organization. I felt like I was "known for" being a hard worker and someone who would see tasks to completion but I wasn't "known for" a functional eminence, which seems to be something that is valued as we talk about thought leaders and experts and branding.
Interestingly, for me, this actually compounded a lot of the insecurities that I had when I was pregnant with Charlie. I've reflected recently that I basically spent much of my first pregnancy in a state of panic about what work was going to be like post-baby. This general sense of that my "eminence" was my ability to work hard and work long hours basically made my paranoia about not being able to perform as well at work much worse, my thought process being - if I'm not known for anything other than hard work, how will I continue doing well when I don't have the capacity to work as many hours?
To that end, I imagine that a lot of late twenty-something, early thirty-something women struggle with this same issue as they are entering the time of their life when they want to have a family; that time is also the same time where you are building functional expertise in your career. It can feel very intimidating - how are you supposed to do both?
Enter: Cornerstone.
One of the exercises in Cornerstone is about defining your personal brand and spending time reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses. Most of the people in the class felt like they were subject matter experts and that was their primary source of value. I remember one exercise where we stood in different corners of the room based on areas that we viewed as our primary source of strength. 2-3 people, including me, stood in the relationship building corner, 25-30 people stood in the expertise corner.
BUT. I had a realization in this exercise. Expertise means that you are better than other people in a certain area. And, my ability to build relationships, ask questions, drive consensus, and drive action was clearly something different in that room... and in many rooms. It is my expertise. Because I can't rely on my years of time spent working on a specific type of problem or challenge, I have to spend time asking questions and listening, which helps me identify issues and gaps that someone who knows the solution or function so well overlooks because it seems "obvious".
That brings me to the conversation that I had last night about this star performer who didn't feel that they had expertise. Why is the person such a strong performer? They are able to be thrown into any situation, make sense of complicated situations (and complicated people), cut through the BS, and get something done. That, to me, demonstrates significant competence and expertise in leadership, project management, and relationship building.
We don't often talk about "leadership skills" as areas of expertise. Nor do we talk about "people development" as areas of expertise. Nor team leadership. Nor being a team player. Nor communication. Nor, nor, nor {insert other soft skills here}.
As a younger leader, I think success often requires reframing the question. That is not meant to discount functional subject matter experts - that is still something that I actively work to develop for myself - and look for ways to develop in my team. However, the question when it comes to having expertise is not what technology do you know better than anyone else, or what client do you know better than anyone else, or what process do you know better than anyone else. The question from an expertise perspective is when there is a room of 30 people, what area is there where you are one of 2-3 people in the corner?
This comment really resonated with me because it's something that I really struggled with myself -- and if I'm being honest about, is something that I used to feel very self conscious about as an up and coming leader in my organization. I felt like I was "known for" being a hard worker and someone who would see tasks to completion but I wasn't "known for" a functional eminence, which seems to be something that is valued as we talk about thought leaders and experts and branding.
Interestingly, for me, this actually compounded a lot of the insecurities that I had when I was pregnant with Charlie. I've reflected recently that I basically spent much of my first pregnancy in a state of panic about what work was going to be like post-baby. This general sense of that my "eminence" was my ability to work hard and work long hours basically made my paranoia about not being able to perform as well at work much worse, my thought process being - if I'm not known for anything other than hard work, how will I continue doing well when I don't have the capacity to work as many hours?
To that end, I imagine that a lot of late twenty-something, early thirty-something women struggle with this same issue as they are entering the time of their life when they want to have a family; that time is also the same time where you are building functional expertise in your career. It can feel very intimidating - how are you supposed to do both?
Enter: Cornerstone.
One of the exercises in Cornerstone is about defining your personal brand and spending time reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses. Most of the people in the class felt like they were subject matter experts and that was their primary source of value. I remember one exercise where we stood in different corners of the room based on areas that we viewed as our primary source of strength. 2-3 people, including me, stood in the relationship building corner, 25-30 people stood in the expertise corner.
BUT. I had a realization in this exercise. Expertise means that you are better than other people in a certain area. And, my ability to build relationships, ask questions, drive consensus, and drive action was clearly something different in that room... and in many rooms. It is my expertise. Because I can't rely on my years of time spent working on a specific type of problem or challenge, I have to spend time asking questions and listening, which helps me identify issues and gaps that someone who knows the solution or function so well overlooks because it seems "obvious".
That brings me to the conversation that I had last night about this star performer who didn't feel that they had expertise. Why is the person such a strong performer? They are able to be thrown into any situation, make sense of complicated situations (and complicated people), cut through the BS, and get something done. That, to me, demonstrates significant competence and expertise in leadership, project management, and relationship building.
We don't often talk about "leadership skills" as areas of expertise. Nor do we talk about "people development" as areas of expertise. Nor team leadership. Nor being a team player. Nor communication. Nor, nor, nor {insert other soft skills here}.
As a younger leader, I think success often requires reframing the question. That is not meant to discount functional subject matter experts - that is still something that I actively work to develop for myself - and look for ways to develop in my team. However, the question when it comes to having expertise is not what technology do you know better than anyone else, or what client do you know better than anyone else, or what process do you know better than anyone else. The question from an expertise perspective is when there is a room of 30 people, what area is there where you are one of 2-3 people in the corner?
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