Allowing others to dictate to me in areas where I am the expert weakens my authority.
Last week, I had an experience where the outcome of a presentation was not received in the way I had expected it to be. I was pretty devastated, even though I am conscious of the fact that I never have total control of the outcome. In hindsight, there were a number of reasons for this. One of the key reasons is that I allowed my superiors to dictate the methodology to me even though they are not experts in my field. The minute I did this, I weakened my authority as an expert in my field.
The realisation was a wake-up call. I began to reflect on all the other situations where I was uncomfortable with the outcome. I realised that I had done it in those situations as well.
Next, I asked myself how I can take back my authority because I have allowed this to go on for too long. I have arrived at two courses of action for myself:
- Seniority does not equal authority in all aspects. I must ask more and better questions to understand the stakeholder’s needs and expected outcomes to confidently design the correct study to deliver the result and not let them dictate how to do it. They honestly don’t know.
- I need to work on my self-belief to truly take ownership of my area of expertise.
- I must remind myself that failure is not the end of the world. There is a lesson in it. Learn from it and move on. Do not fear it.
Reflecting on what happened has really helped me get to grips with how to prevent this type of thing in the future.
Have you found yourself in a similar predicament? What did you do to overcome it?
Thanks for popping by. Be blessed.
Grounded African 