Language to help identify yourself as an expert

We have a lot of people that work at a steel mill, and I’ll tell them, “Look, I know what you do for a living. I know that you work with steel or you’re in quality control, and your job is to do this, this and this. Do I know how to do that job? No. Do I care that I don’t know how to do that job? No. That’s not what I do. What I do is this. I help you do this and this, and you shouldn’t feel embarrassed not knowing what I do, because that’s not your job. That’s not what you’re paid to do. You’re coming for my experience. And if I need to know something about steel making, then I would come to you. I would ask you about it.”

And that really kind of breaks the ice for people, the expectations of “OK, if I have a question, ask it. Any question is fine.” We just try to work past it that way. Some of the big objections I find are when someone else always seems to know something that they want to share with everybody else, and you’ve got to get past it.

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