Blogger, Careerist

What It Means To Be an Expert, an Authority

Posted by Monica O'Brien on March 4, 2008 at 4:37 am.

Hi! Welcome to Twenty Set. Here you will find 4-5 insightful new articles each week about personal and professional development. I write candidly from personal experience.

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Yesterday was a big blogging day for me. Regular subscribers will know that I had a guest post about how to create a blog growth strategy on Problogger yesterday.  Also, the Brazen Careerist network launched yesterday, and one of my articles was featured on there too.  Between the two, Twenty Set received more hits and comments than ever, from a diverse group of people.

Don’t worry, this isn’t an article about self-promotion.  This is an article about hate emails.  Or rather, disagreement emails, which is what I received yesterday as a result of all this extra traffic.

The emails all basically read like this:

“You are only 24 years old (yes, since the second week of February).  You have less than three years of work experience (actually, less than two; I graduated in May 2006).  You don’t work in Human Resources (nope, software engineering).  What makes you think you’re an expert/authority on HR topics/Generation Y/career development? (… huh?)“

Of course I immediately looked for somewhere on Twenty Set where I put that I was an expert or an authority on any of those topics listed above… and came up with this: Moving Away -Advice From an Involuntary Expert.  Right on.

What Makes an Expert 

I’m not an expert at HR topics, or Gen Y, or careers.  I never claimed to be.  What I am an expert at is myself - I know what I like, I know what motivates me, and I know I’m the type of person you want to recruit for your company.

And naturally, I associate with people you want to recruit for your company.  I have access to hundreds of twentysomethings in all different industries at all levels in their companies, and I talk to them regularly about their careers, their goals, and what they like and hate about their companies.

My experience with Generation Y and the workplace can’t be measured with time.  It’s based on my own life and what I’ve gathered from my qualitative, informal research.  Maybe that’s not good enough for you, and I’m okay with that.  Then again, an expert is someone who has high skill or knowledge on a subject, so I don’t understand why a twentysomething in the workplace can’t be an expert on twentysomethings in the workplace.

Either way, I still didn’t call myself an expert - you did.  Which segways into my next point.

What Makes an Authority

Simple.  You.  You who hasn’t left this page yet.  You who linked to Twenty Set last week.  You who let me contribute to your website.  You who emailed me for advice, or asked me to promote your product, or told me I suck and I’m wrong about everything.

Look at Oprah.  Why is she an authority?  Why does every book in her book club become a bestseller, even though she’s not a publicist?  Why can she make Ugg boots one of the hottest Christmas items every year, even though she’s not a shoe designer?

Because these days, authority doesn’t come from a badge, or a press pass, or a degree, or a date on a birth certificate.  Authority comes from attention.  You’ve given me your attention, and in doing so you’ve given me authority.  You can take away my authority by ignoring me, and then convincing everyone else of why they should ignore me too.

Until then, I will continue to write about why we should take birthday celebrations seriously at the office, or why every company should let their employees develop a Guitar Hero obsession on the clock.  And of course I think I’m on to something, or else I wouldn’t bother writing this stuff down.  That’s why I enable comments, though; so everyone can have their say - criticism is always welcome.

One final note - I’m not in the business of becoming an expert or an authority on Gen Y career and recruiting issues, or anything else really.  If it happens organically, I’m maybe okay with that - but it’s not my goal.

I’m really in the business of generating unique ideas that have the potential to change people, and change myself in the process.

Popularity: 29% [?]

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  • Monica, great post. I'm older than the Millennial generation, but I love reading your blog. I think that so many of us in our 30s and 40s have so much to learn from the twenty-somethings and their approach to life.

    I believe that we are living in revolutionary times in terms of how we as a society view work and its place in our lives. As someone helping folks in their 30s and 40s reimagine their careers as a way to make a life, not just a living, I see more and more people rejecting the corporate-slave, rat-race model and trying to create more meaningful career paths and more meaningful lives for themselves. But it's hard. For those who had bought into the system at some stage, it is all about titles and degrees and the kind of authority that comes imparted by somebody up the ladder. It's amazing how hard it is for some of us to accept that our true authority lies within and that we are the ones who have the answers. It's amazing, too, how willingly we surrender that authority. So... thanks again for your post. I'm a fan.
  • Fred
    Hi, I also think that you wrote a great post and i´d like to congrats also for the post you get published in problogger.
    In fact, in that way I came across with your blog.
    Related what you just wrote, i can say that the status of authority cannot be claimed by someone, but is the result of the recognition of others and as long as the people still read what you post you should be happy.
  • Nicholas Beckloff
    Monica,
    Your absolutely right about being an authority based on people giving you their attention. Anyone with a brain who knows Oprah knows she's not a formal expert on anything, but the fact that so many women subscribe to her ideals makes her something.
  • Monica, I like your style! Excellent points on authority. Your right, attention is essential. My aim is to write on personal development, productivity, etc Yes, I'm a twenty something and proud of it! It is exciting to see another blogger in the same age bracket. Haha I will add your site to my blogroll.
  • I wish I had hate mail / disagreement mail. Unfortunately, if you disagreed with land-use planning, you'd be a real ass!

    Anyhoo, good post. Your blogging world just exploded!
  • Izabella, I checked out your website and I really enjoyed it. I think it's interesting that you say your generation values titles and degrees. I sort of wrote about this in a previous post - degrees and titles only matter if the person behind them draws on the degree or title to motivate others in positive ways. To me, the power of a degree or title still comes from within - from taking that experience of earning that degree or earning that title and applying it to the situation at hand. I think of President Bush here - I don't hate the guy, but his title means very little to me in terms of respect and trust. Thanks for reading!

    Fred, you're right. I tried to make that clear in my post - no one person can claim authority. It comes from others. Thanks for reading! It's nice to hear that ProBlogger readers are supporting Darren's guest posters.

    Nick, I hope it didn't come across that I was bashing Oprah - I really admire Oprah, and wrote in my graduate school essays that I wanted to emulate her.

    Miguel, I really like your blog. Thanks for the recent comments!

    T - That's so funny. And yeah, I think my blog did just get a little bigger. It still has a long way to go though.
  • Monica, first of all - congratulations! I did notice that you were everywhere yesterday (I loved the ProBlogger post), and I thought that was really cool.

    I enjoyed your post today because it's a problem that younger people (and, at times, younger women especially) face not only in blogging, but in the "real" workforce as well. I can't tell you how many times I've been challenged because I was young. Your age has nothing to do with it.

    Thanks for sticking up for everyone 29 and under (yourself included, of course), and keep up the good work.
  • Angela, Yes, this is absolutely something that affects young women. I used to work at a manufacturing facility, and the only people I dealt with all day were 40-50 year old conservative men. I found that I had to change my entire personality to get my voice heard - to the point of talking over people, talking overly loud, and being very forceful with my opinions. But I think (and hope) in the end, they respected me and understood what I was all about, even though they probably wanted me to shut up.

    We need to chat offline sometime... I think I've mentioned this before, but I love your blog.
  • Nicholas Beckloff
    Monica,
    Its ok I understood your point. She is definitely is a leader in the field of personal branding akin to others "superbranders" like Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, etc.
  • Monica, Thanks for visiting! I'm glad you enjoyed the site; I've been at it for almost a month now. what was your undergrad degree? How about your graduate degree? Next fall I'm planning to take grad courses on-line, but I'm still looking at different schools. Thanks again for dropping by!
  • Miguel, my undergrad was in Computer Science and I'm an MBA candidate at the University of Chicago. I just started my website too in January. Good luck!
  • Good for you - don't sweat the malcontents and continue sharing your advice and opinions. I'm no expert either, but feel I have worthwhile advice to share. I really like your content and will share some link love over at my new blog.
  • Very interesting points you make, Monica. However, I'd like to add that authority doesn't come from attention in its entirety - it comes from positive attention. Negative attention, while conducive to popularity, doesn't necessarily add to authority.

    This is assuming that authority is defined as 'the ability to influence others and be referenced as a positive source of information.' If we're talking about authority as power, well, that's a whole new bucket of tuna.

    Oh, and just for the record, I'm a twentysomething too. =P
  • David, thanks for the support!

    Ben, you bring up a great point. I assumed everyone knew I was talking about positive attention, but it's good to make that clear.

    Then again, there's that saying, "No publicity is bad publicity." Look at Britney Spears.
  • Excellent post!

    I've written more articles on pregnancy than I care to count. Short of an obstetrician, I probably know more about pregnancy than anyone.

    I've had no formal training in the area and I've not been (nor will be) pregnant.

    Attribution makes authority. When a foot doctor appears on CNN to talk about smoking and lung cancer, CNN attributes authority to her, even though she she may not have any specialized training in the area of cancer (beyond med school basics, of course). When Darren Rowse says, "This blogger is good enough that their advice is worth putting on my site," that is attribution, as well.

    Attribution doesn't mean you are an expert, only that someone else claims that you are. Can you be an expert and have attribution? I hope so. I think it works in your case at least, Monica.

    Great post!
  • Bob, that's awesome. I agree with what you said about attribution. It's something to think about - who you endorse, and living up to expectations when someone endorses you. Thanks for the comment!
  • Rock on, Monica.
  • Monica,
    I really enjoyed this post and it's something I've thought about too. After starting a blog on the subject of Generation Y, I began using information I gathered on other websites like employeeevolution.com and penelopetrunk.com. I took advice from experts and reiterated it. I also, like you said, take my own perspective and add that in because not everything is statistical and text book. There is always an element of humanity in these sorts of topics. I think you're doing an excellent job and I respect the advice you give as well as admire your success in blogging.

    Like Brendan said,
    Rock on.

    Todd.
  • Brendan and Todd, thank you for your support!
  • "What I am an expert at is myself - I know what I like, I know what motivates me... "  As Socrates said: "Know thyself!" Monica, you rock, I'm your #1 fan, you're my favorite expert,  and I am... 66 :-) 
  • Amadou,

    Thank you! That's very kind. Self-awareness is very important to me.
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