Major League Baseball players are some of the most highly measured experts in the world. They are evaluated publicly in hundreds of ways. They are scrutinized for virtually everything they do on the field, and many of their multimillion-dollar contracts contain incentives reflecting these metrics.

In offensive play, teams want to see home runs, bases on balls, and runs batted in. They don’t want to see strikeouts, ground outs, or runners stranded.

Individual players in the game know how they are doing throughout the season. They know how their metrics compare to their teammates and their opponents. They are reminded frequently when they are doing well and when they are not. There is no hiding from the metrics that follow them. For good or bad, these statistics will dog them for the rest of their lives on league websites and collector baseball cards.

All organizations have productivity measurements. Few are as public as Major League Baseball, but all organizations track and measure performance. They compare their performance with competitors, industry norms, and projections. They do it for the benefit of the organization, its divisions, teams, and even for individuals.

As we previously discussed, experts should seek to understand their own productivity. Unlike professional baseball players, most experts have no idea how they are being measured. They have a general sense for how things are going, but they rarely know the specific metrics. They are like a professional baseball player who does not know his own batting average or who hasn’t counted his own home runs.

Ironically, many of these same experts are emphatically scientific in other areas of their professions. They track the performance of their products, equipment, and services. They know how to measure almost everything except themselves.

Great experts understand and know how to measure their own performance. They know which of their performances are key to their success, which of their actions make a real difference, and how to measure the efficacy of those actions. Obviously, not all expert performances can be measured as easily as in Major League Baseball, but all expertise can be measured in some way and should be.