Being an expert on your discipline or subject matter can only take you so far. As your business expands or you rise in seniority, you must become an expert on something else — judging expertise itself.

Even within a small business you can’t master everything that matters — marketing, accounting, IT, etc. Delegation is essential if you want to succeed (and stay sane). And nobody can be intimately familiar with every aspect of a large enterprise, let alone possess all the skills required to operate one.

We have no choice then but to rely on other people’s expertise, and the higher we rise the more reliant we become. But there’s a problem. Judging other people’s ability is often difficult — unless we’re also an expert ourselves — and it isn’t really a “skill” we’re taught. So how should we approach this tricky task? I use four basic heuristics as a starting point:

1. Do they have a demonstrable track record of success? This isn’t an infallible indicator, but it’s a good place to start.

2. Can they explain the ins and outs of their work in simple language? Real experts use little if any jargon in my experience.

3. Do they like questions and can they answer them? If people are evasive, vague or hostile when you ask them questions it’s generally not a good sign.

4. Have they ever changed their mind? Facts have a half life. If there’s no evidence of them ever having changed their tune, they’ve stopped learning. Run for the hills!

See this post on LinkedIn