How Managers can Manage Their Experts

Know Who You Are Managing:

It is a bitter truth that we can't possibly know everything about everything. It were nice but it is not realistic. So, if you are a manager, you will inevitably have to hire people who have more expertise or experience in a certain area than you do. How to handle this essential, yet potentially awkward task of managing experts determines the ultimate success of your team.

Learning following management strategies, if you apply these principles, I am confident you can maximize your expert's contribution, and see tangible results. You will cultivate right environment for your experts to thrive, and pave the way for them to participate at a higher level.

Even the greatest advantage tend to come with potential downsides. The pros and cons list is inevitable, but when it comes to managing experts, you can minimize the con side of the equation if you understand their mindset and perspectives.

3 Common challenges associated with the task of managing your subject matter experts:

1. First, experts don't always see the big picture, which makes sense. Their intrinsic value is being completely immersed in one area, knowing every detail inside and out within their given silo. That's what that makes them an asset. We hire them for an specific job, and we might assume they don't need to know about the big picture or the broader context. The problem is your experts may feel disconnected from the overarching business strategy, or the purpose behind their work. If managers don't take time to help them understand how their jobs fit into the overall scheme of things, subject matter experts may completely disengage, and could even begin working counter to the organization's goal and priorities.
2. Second, experts may get defensive when challenges. They take pride in being the go-to resource for knowledge in their area, and the truth is they probably do know more about the topic than most or all of their coworker, so if someone questions their expertise, they're likely to feel offended. That reaction escalates if the person questioning them is their manager. Some leaders may feel uncomfortable with not knowing as much as the experts, even threatened or intimidated. If managers start openly challenging experts or testing them in what might appear to be an effort to trip them up, the whole team loses.
3. Third, experts generally have a low tolerance for inadequacies. They're smart and they're fast. So if they have to deal with people who are misinformed and unprepared, your expert may get downright testy. Experts don't need sugar coating or pampering. They don't even need nice, just people who are, from their perspective, logical in doing things the right way. Experts provides significant value for teams and for organizations, but managing them effectively required understanding common challenges they face, and taking active steps to neutralize them. When leader do that successfully, the results can be extraordinary.

Understand their expectation:

Experts are huge asset for your team. But keeping them, and keeping them happy means understanding the expectations they bring to the table.

4 Typical Expectations found among subject matter experts:

1. They need to dive in without distractions. Since they know the rope experts are usually ready to hit the ground running. Naturally they need a general source of direction and a sage sounding board. Other than that, they expect us to get out of the way and let them get started. They want to work for managers who can clear out their bureaucracy and rotate. Whatever might be standing in the way of their progress. When experts get bogged down in administrative or procedural road blocks, they can quickly become annoyed by the distractions, and that takes a toll on their performance.
2. They expect to have the freedom to work independently. Experts want autonomy throughout the work process. They want to be trusted to complete assignments in their own way. Based on their own successful track records. In fact, there's nothing they hate more than micromanagement. Even a hint of it.
3. They expect to have opportunities to learn and grow. Experts have worked hard to be perceived as knowledge leaders, and they're highly motivated to retail that edge. If an organization doesn't want to support them in that type of growth these exerts may want to share their wealth of knowledge with a different company.
4. Finally, they expect to be consulted for their advice. These experts want respect. They've likely spent years becoming a domain expert. They're a goldmine of information and they're doing things right. That's why they want to be positioned as someone with a valuable story to share. They want to be invited to contribute to vision and strategy sessions, and they want managers and colleagues alike to seek them out for their advice, their insight, and their recommendations. They need to feel like they matter in the greater scheme of things.

Managers who want to keep their experts engaged and inspired need to understand and address these typical expectations. And they need to be aware of the ramifications for ignoring them. When experts are considered powerful, respected resources and provided with the tools and freedom they need they will enthusiastically share their expertise so that their organizations can achieve greater success.