[From Expert To Authority] - Master These 5 Skills To Establish Yourself As The Trusted Authority

The higher you climb, the less it comes down to your personal technical skills and hands on capabilities for the role. Building and having relevant capability is the cost of entry but the more influence and responsibilities you have, the more it is about looking and working 2, 3, 5 steps because as a Trusted Authority, your job is to stay up to date with the latest trends and topics for your area of expertise so you can be the translator of what they mean for your decision maker.

Committing to life-long learning is essential for maintaining your edge in a highly competitive market. The question is – how do you do it, what skills to focus on to make sure they move the needle to where you want to go, especially when you have enough on your plate already?

This is exactly what we discuss in this blog post as I share some of the strategies that successful authorities use to focus on developing the right type of skills whilst staying fresh and relevant over time, and all the time.

First things first - Learning to become an expert vs becoming a trusted authority is very different. In case you’re new to my world and this show- firstly, welcome! And secondly: let’s take a step back when it comes to the difference between and expert and an authority:

An expert has high level of competence and capabilities. They know how to solve a problem, they enjoy the doing, and they’ve built a deep level of understanding and expertise in a topic. It comes down to acquiring new technical skills, staying up to date with latest trends and research in their particular topic to incorporate it in their work.

An authority on the other hand, also starts with building a deep level of competence in an area but they don’t stop their.

Their additional focus when it comes to skill development is building a reputation and establishing their personal brand as the Go-To around their area of expertise. It starts with becoming the translator of what they know in a way that makes sense to their decision makers meaning they firstly translate their expertise into a desirable outcome that they can achieve based on their credentials and characteristics and then continue translating what those trends, changes and the latest conversations mean for their area of expertise. Depending on their goal, this could be through thought leadership, inside or outside the organisation, speaking engagements, publishing and contributing content to relevant platforms, again – could be internal communications channels or external digital industry platforms and, networking. And that requires different / additional skills which we’re going to discuss in this episode.

The 5 Skills Authorities Should Focus on Learning

• Skill 1: Authority Branding

• Skill 2: Digital Storytelling

• Skill 3: Content Creation and Curation

• Skill 4: Lateral Thinking

• Skill 5: Building a Network and Community

Let’s start with Authority Branding

Whilst back in the day, having credentials and years of experience were the main metrics to progress in a career, nowadays, with not only more competition but also a much faster changing world of work, relying on previous achievements isn’t enough anymore. In fact, your biggest asset can quickly become your biggest baggage because not going with times, continuing to do more of what you’ve always done and ignoring changed customer and employee’s expectations can quickly get you out of the highly competitive market.

In my leadership keynotes, I have a slide which I love and shows a very well-known camera brand that no longer exists and my saying on it is: market leader one day. Gone the next.

It has become more and more prevalent in recent years. Interesting fact- As of 2021, approximately 60% of the companies that were listed on the ASX in the year 2000 no longer exist. This includes companies that have gone bankrupt, been delisted, merged with other companies, or were acquired by other companies. So that goes to show the importance of going beyond technical skill set as a basis for you to future-proof your career and business.

Having a strong message that clearly states your promise, your values, wrapped around with your story makes all the difference why someone would choose you (and that goes for future employees as well as clients) or someone else.

This leads me into my next skill and that is:

Digital Storytelling

It’s no secret anymore that we live in a digital-first world so being able to not only clearly communicate offline what makes you different and get people to buy into your message but also online is no longer a nice-to-have but essential. Whether it's through social media, blogs, videos, or podcasts, digital storytelling doesn’t only help you establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry but also as a leader people want to work for. In the end, these days, more teams are globally distributed so being able to connect with them asynchronous plays a big role when it comes to creating a trusting relationship with potentially never meeting them in person and rarely speak to them 1:1 and in real time. Many of my clients have addressed the challenge that their teams are not engaged and when I did a little audit with them in terms of internal comms, it was quickly clear why … because they still rely on ‘best practice’ from the early 2010’s when town halls, long emails and meetings were the only way the team communicated.

And then technology and social media happened and not only massively cut our attention spans but also our expectations when it comes to how we consume content. Quite a few of my exec coaching clients ditched their town halls (hallelujah) and replaced them with shortly, weekly videos to give the team an update on the week that was and the focus for the week to come. In fact, every department or team leader should consider this type of communication to not only build a strong relationship with their team since video is the next best thing after being in person but also sharpen digital communication skills which will help with building authority beyond the organisation. It could be by adding a short video to a proposal to win over a client, to send a voice note to a new connection or LinkedIn or to be part of an online panel or industry event. You see- this skill has a ripple effect and ideally you practise it internally / on a smaller scale first before you explore the wider world, so you know what resonates and what doesn’t but also to identify your own blind spots like looking on the screen rather than the camera, focusing too much on numbers and not supporting it with relevant case studies and examples etc.

This brings me to skill 3 which shouldn’t come as a surprise and that is:

Skill 3: Content Creation and Curation

As I mentioned in the intro, being able to explain your expertise in a way that resonates with decision makers is the first step in becoming a trusted authority. But it doesn’t stop there. Authorities are the Go-To’s when it comes to a particular area of expertise so staying on top of trends, translating their impact for their decision makers as well as curating content from other sources and support their own point of view is a massive part. It’s not something we learn at school and unfortunately, it shows, in particular on LinkedIn where I spend most of my time on. There is a reason why people think their feed is boring and it’s because they follow their peers who may be dabbling in posting and it ends up with something like ‘yesterday I attended an event and it was great’ or ‘we have a stand at conference X – would be great to see you there’… boring! Of course they won’t get much traction, let along results because no one cares This is a perfect example of them not having done their homework which is skill 1 + 2 that I just mentioned. Creating content that gets traction and supports you in your authority building journey is a result of having a clear message that goes beyond credentials and titles but is an outcome that is in demand. Then, it comes down to connecting stats with stories meaning sharing some personal insights whilst connecting it with a professional topic. You’d never see me posting my workouts or going to the beach or whatever it may be on linkedin as it’s the wrong message that I want to be associated with.

Some tips to create and curate content effectively are:

·       Documenting rather than creating meaning: start with a wrap up post on Fridays and go through some of the experience you had and learnings from that. Firstly, it makes wins less ‘show off-y’ and secondly, it tells your audience who you are and what’s important to you without you having to spell it out

·       Alternate formats: we all learn differently so turning one piece of content into multiple different formats like a graph, carousel post or a video creates already more diversity and also posts for you

·       Comment on other people’s post and use this idea as inspiration for your own post. You can also @-mention this person to get more traction and say that the idea from @-person got you thinking how this applies to your situation which is by the way a skill in itself and brings me to the next one:

Skill 4: Lateral thinking

Clearly, everyone wants innovation and is interested in the latest and greatest. And yet- there is nothing new anymore besides AI which is another level of innovation but also bases their current outputs anyway on previous inputs.

One of the most effective ways to innovate is to connect 2 worlds, which we also do to position you as the Trusted Authority – but that’s a side note. 2 words that often don’t have much in common with each other can spark new ways of doing or thinking about the topic. Think of the iPhone: while the technology and the actual hardware was new, connecting it with known elements like the trash bin or the mail sign makes it less intimidating and more intuitive. I always look at industries (mainly entertainment and tech to be honest) and see what works for them and what doesn’t but also go a step further and analyse it. What are the key elements for their success or failure and how can I implement it in for my clients’ businesses or of course my own. Take Netflix or any streaming channels for that matter for example – why did they see such a growth? It’s because of 3 factors: it’s on demand, it’s highly personable and it’s affordable so looking into barriers or known shortcomings in your own industry or profession can help kick start a new way of thinking. Speaking of- I’ll discuss 3 particular types of thinking in a couple of episodes as in the end, taking certain actions starts with having a particular belief system that stems from how we think and I truly believe (because I’ve experienced it) can be learned so make sure to subscribe to this show so you don’t miss it 

Last but not least, let’s talk about skill 5 and that is: Building a Network and Community

Again, this skill isn’t anything new but the way how we build a network and relationships has changed thanks to technology, the digital-first world and of course, more competition. Many of my clients play a smaller game because they don’t have the network that can make the relevant introductions, open doors or actually make decisions themselves. So they have a peer network. Same goes for career changers: it’s hard to get a chance in a completely new and different industry and profession if you don’t know anyone to talk to, even for informal interview purposes, let alone getting the opportunity. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying; your network is your net worth but I always say that your diverese network is your next career opportunity.

So how do you go about levelling up your network?

Firstly- you need to be clear about your goal: what is it that you want to achieve because that determines the effort and the type of communities and people you want to connect with. Is it an internal promotion and you need the C-Suite / board on your side? Is it to speak at industry conferences that event organisers and influential sponsors would be your decision maker. A quick way to build a more influential network is to get in volved in industry body events and opportunities like volunteering as a board member or contributing content to an industry publication or event etc is the first step of getting your foot in the door. So always think ‘who’ first and then ‘what’s in it for them’ second because this helps you to firstly identify the right type of decision makers and secondly, ‘forces’ you to give and create value first before asking for a favour and this is how you build relationships the right and non-sleazy way.

Of course, creating content on platform like LinkedIn or Medium is another excellent way to network, especially when you collaborate with others and get in front of each other’s audience, it may be through curating their content, giving them the @-mention or creating your own content together through a LinkedIn live, an interview or by summarising their lessons from a conference etc that you attended. What you want to achieve is to get in front of them first, ideally with something that is positive like giving them a shout out etc and then continue the conversations in the DMs etc.

Speaking of – I recently did a LinkedIn live with a collaborator who I met initially through LinkedIn, she then joined my Trusted Authority cohort and has now become a big part not only in creating content together but actually to co-host the next intake of the trusted authority with me Veronica Llorca-Smith is a powerhouse and she has taken every learning and ran with it, made it her own and has seen massive results