by Kelli Thompson / © 2025, Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

5

“Who am I to tell them how to make decisions?”

  This anxiety-induced thought played like a broken record in my head as my first leadership training event approached in my new role as a training director. Talking in front of 40 leaders, most of whom were older than my ripe old age of 30 at the time, felt like the perfect opportunity for them to see right through my lack of expertise and expose me as the fraud I was.

The sky parted

  That first event was tough. Afterward, I admitted to my manager, “Who am I to tell them what to do? I’ve been a manager for about five minutes, and most of these leaders have been managers for 15 years.” 

  The question she posed to me next transformed my relationship with expertise for a lifetime. She asked, “What if your job is not to be the expert up there but to facilitate the expertise in the room?” 

  It was like the sky parted and the sun emerged. Because I had been promoted throughout my career due to my level of expertise, it was natural for me to assume that in my new role, expertise was the only way I could add value.

  Instead of being the expert, I had to rebrand myself as a leader who could facilitate, promote and grow the [surrounding] expertise.

  Here are some common situations that can keep you stuck in the expert identity trap and some strategies to avoid it.

The guilt trap

  Moving into a new leadership role can sometimes unsettle colleagues accustomed to our old ways of working. They may (intentionally or not) attempt to elicit guilt, saying things like, “You used to do this for me” or “People are going to be upset about this change.”

  While these concerns may be valid, your role is to redirect any resistance toward productive outcomes. A helpful response might be, “That’s true, and moving forward, my focus is on working on this strategic project development for my team.” 

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