What Do Experts Do Differently to Acquire New Skills?

Zuperly
3 min readMar 4, 2022

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Growth is a continuous process. Whether it be learning a new skill or improving on old skills, learning and upskilling is an opportunity. This kind of learning is life-long, and professionals utilise this process of learning for professional growth.

Developing skills needs time and effort. There are no shortcuts in developing genuine expertise in a field or skill. It takes steady improvement, which only takes place with practice and dedication.

So, how do we determine whether one is an expert or not?

Expertise is determined with steady performance in whichever environment they are trained in. In the workplace, experts would excel in the tasks for which they have trained. Although expertise is measured differently in different fields, for example, in the field of sports, it is easier to ‘prove’ expertise. The competitions are standardised, and everyone has an equal opportunity to perform.

In the field of business, it becomes a little difficult to standardise. Profits and losses can be due to various external factors like location, season et cetera too.

The key to life-long learning is to never stop learning. Even when you have reached a certain point in your career where you can be called an expert in your field, new skills can always be a cherry on top.

Everyone is aspiring to learn new skills for professional and personal growth. What do experts do differently to add to their rich experience?

  1. Find Mentors and Coaches

Learning a new skill requires you to begin from scratch. Even experts may feel lost when trying out new things. It becomes infinitely easier to seek guidance from someone who is well versed in that skill.

It has been seen that the quality of teaching has a direct correlation with the way they learn. It has also been seen that different kinds of teachers are required at different stages of development. Having invaluable mentors truly hastens the learning process.

Experts know that the learning material needs to be presented in a workable manner. Coaches, who themselves are experts in their fields, know exactly how to present this.

Read about an interesting learning technique to make learning easier: The Feynman Technique.

2. Accept Constructive Criticism

It is important to realise that making mistakes is an excellent way of moving forward as long as we rectify them in the future. Experts have reached a point in their lives where they know the importance of guidance and the opinions of others. Taking help from mentors and coaches automatically would mean that they would be critical of your work at times. Instead of taking it wrongly, it is essential to introspect and improve.

This readiness to adapt and learn is what differentiates experts.

Often, there is a lot of content to refer to. Read about how to manage this: Drowning in Content.

3. Constant Practice

Practice makes perfect. This applies to most situations. Experts are not born but made. It takes a considerable amount of time to master a discipline. Experts are aware of this; they are willing to devote the necessary amount of effort required. Skills cannot be expected to be learned overnight; sometimes, they require constant testing to judge which level you are on.

Utilising all resources you have access to is also beneficial. Whether online courses, asking a colleague for assistance, or being in touch with what you are learning keeps you on your toes.

Experts, in general, have an innovative approach to new situations. They showcase varying levels of flexibility due to their experience and knowledge. Needless to say, they are well versed in their discipline and realise that to reach a certain level of expertise, they need to work accordingly.

Moreover, there is an understanding that developing certain skills would help them in hastening their old skills better and would increase their productivity. A deeper understanding of the subject matter provides better quality output.

Anushka Das, content writer

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Zuperly

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