How To Grow In Your Specialty 

You work in a particular field and you’re wondering, “how do I grow to be more successful in this specialty?” 

This could mean a higher promotion or a larger salary. 

There are many ways to grow in your specialty. 

If you’re not growing, you’ll be yesterday’s news. 

Many people get leadership positions, become comfortable and decide to coast.  

Frontline healthcare workers will get to a certain level, then stop. 

They’ll move to management, then to director and then stop. 

The director level becomes the comfortable level. 

You’ve got a team that works for you and a really good salary, living the lifestyle you want. 

Then you look up to notice you’ve been in the same role for 15 years. 

If you’ve been in the same job, doing the same thing in the same organization for 15 years, then you’re not really good at your job. 

If you were good, you would’ve outgrown the position. 

Someone would be looking to give you a higher position or you’d be tired of doing the same thing and seek a new position. 

If you’ve been in the same job, doing the same thing in the same organization for 15 years, you’ve gotten good enough to get by and that’s the worst place to be as a leader. 

You’re comfortable and eventually will be replaceable. 

The people that grow in their role focus on advancing and become indispensable in their organizations.  

When you’re indispensable, you’ll always be valuable to the people you serve.  

Here’s how to grow in your specialty 

Become an expert.

Do you know the last five books written about your specialty? 

Do you know the last five articles?  

Have you met the people in your industry who are doing the most successful work? 

If you don’t know who they are, if you’re not reading what they’re writing, if you’re not studying the articles and the journals that have been written about your specialty, you’ve got some work to do.  

That’s how you become an expert.  

You need to know more about your industry than anyone else.  

People hire experts; they don’t fire experts.  

People depend on experts; they can’t do without them.  

Once you become an expert, you have to figure out how to articulate what you know to people.  

You can be an expert in something, but no one will know if you don’t tell them.  

For example, I’m a hip hop expert.  

I love hip hop music and culture.  

I read about it and could teach a history course on the origin and development of hip hop.  

I don’t tell a lot of people because it’s not my day to day business.  

My point is: become an expert and talk about it.  

And don’t just learn how to talk about it, but learn to share valuable aspects you’ve learned.  

Once you do this, you’ll stand out.  

When you stand out, you start to grow.  

When you grow, people seek you out for greater opportunities! 

If this message resonated with you, share with everyone you know, and come back for more value as I continue to help you be a better leader.  

The executive that everyone will admire. 

Anton

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