Surrounding yourself with experts — up your game

Check your ego at the door, please. It is time to wake up and realize you are NOT the smartest in the room, and you really should not be if you wish to be successful. If you are the smartest in the room, maybe it is time to change rooms.

Remember in grade school when picking teams? You knew who the good kickers were. You knew those that could roll a perfect pitch. Everyone had the ringers recognized. Why should that be any different at work?

Before everyone starts squawking about wanting to have inclusion, I am talking about surrounding yourself with experts. The smartest people available that will force you and the rest of your team to up their game.

We talked about the Hawthorne effect in a previous post; how does that affect you when you’re working at your job? The observer effect makes you change your behavior. You find yourself working harder and being busier (yet maybe more inefficient) because somebody is watching you. When you notice your change in behavior because of the Hawthorne Effect, were you actually doing your best possible work or were you doing just enough to look like you were busy? What if that observer was an expert in your field? Do you think you would do mediocre work when she was near? Hardly.

The intent here is to increase the capability, productivity, and overall skillsets of your team by surrounding yourself with true experts. No, not someone to agree with you. Yet also not the person that wants to argue everything because they think they know everything. Nor do we want the one that truly disrupts the culture of the organization (culture matters, because relationships matter). You want the true experts. The ones you can delegate to and not have to babysit. The ones that will take the ball and run with it. The ones that will know that subject matter better than no one else but can work with your team and be willing to help the team grow and expand — which includes themselves also growing and expanding.

Where are those people, the experts, the ones that you look up to, the ones you wish you could mentor under, the ones that you recognize are freaking awesome at what they do? If they aren’t in your building, or even within your company, you need to find them. Find them in different arenas. LinkedIn, Wahve, YourEncore, SCORE. Peer referrals. You need to hunt around. You probably won’t find them sitting at Circle K waiting for you to drive by (and if they are, there are other reasons why you don’t want them near). Once you have found them, and convince them to help, what do you think your level of productivity and your skill level will do after you surround yourself with those true experts?

There are a lot of really amazing people out there that have some incredible skill sets — this was readily apparent after attending the altMBA. There are fellow Ravens out there that are awe-inspiring at what they do. If you are not a past attendee, find an altMBA alumni and learn how to create and grow your relationships with those people. No, not to take advantage of them; you need to be willing to help grow their skillset through reciprocity. Trust me, you will gain something from that symbiotic relationship! If I learned anything from the altMBA, you need to up your game. If you are staying with the status quo, trending toward mediocrity, you are falling behind. At a minimum, get on the same playing field with them. Find that opportunity to work alongside them.

If you don’t, then you’re going to be left behind. Up your game.