“The challenge is that they know all the answers but they don’t know the questions!”
I still remember my professor saying that during my undergrad days. He was referring to the people who possess all the education and skills, all the knowledge and formulas, and all the answers to succeed, but they don’t yet have the experience.
He was right. I was the perfect parent BEFORE I had children. I could dish out the advice I was taught in my classes and sound like a pretty smart guy. And then my two children came along. I struggled with the formulas and wrestled with what I had been taught. The cookie cutter approach didn’t work. It was much harder than I thought, but the experience created questions. Those questions made me search for the answers that I hadn’t learned and helped to apply the ones that I had. The “doing” coupled with the knowledge made me a better parent.
The best experts in any field are the ones who have both the knowledge and experience (which means they have had a lot of failures along the way!) I’m surprised at the inordinate amount of Authors, Consultants and Coaches who proclaim themselves a “guru”, write a quick eBook and put it on Amazon. Their rationale? They have done the research and people are paying them for their knowledge but regurgitating information doesn’t make one an expert.
So before you hire a Consultant/Coach, buy that course or book, take that next seminar, ask someone to be your mentor or tap into that speechwriter (okay that was a shameless plug!), ensure that their knowledge has been hammered out on the anvil of experience. How can you really know? Following are four questions that will help in that process.
- Are they knowledgeable? Knowledge can be acquired through several paths. There is the traditional route of academic degrees and professional certifications which is always a plus. But don’t hire or listen to someone just because they have the credentials. Ensure that their knowledge is transferable and workable for your purposes.
- Are they experienced? This is a bit of slippery slope. Mark Twain said, “Knowledge without experience is just information.” Experience isn’t a matter of time but more a matter of effort. Think about it like this. Someone can have forty years of the same experience or two years of multiple experiences. In this case, the latter has more “experience” than the former.
- What do others say about them? Websites are good and everyone should have them but I’m more concerned about what others are saying about them, i.e. third party validation. A friend of mine once purchased a “marketing kit” to help him sell a specific product. It was a ripoff, to say the least. He started to research said “guru” after the fact and found that most everything said about him was negative with the exception of what was on his own website.
- Do they seem authentic? Authenticity is more than just a new buzzword and at its very foundation, subjective. Spend some time reading what the person has to say, listening to them speak or chatting with them one-on-one if possible. Try to determine if what they say seems consistent with who they are.
It is important to choose your “experts” carefully. The ease of self-publishing and the speed at which one can put up a website allows for “anyone” to declare themselves as such. If you see someone that says they are, just check them out before you buy, hire or otherwise create a relationship. It could save you a lot of money, time and aggravation later.
Leave a Reply