To be trusted, SMEs must deliver superior results on a consistent basis. If they do, then they may be trusted, and they do not, then they won’t be trusted. Competence is an essential prerequisite to trust, but it is certainly not sufficient to guarantee trust.
If SMEs are not capable of delivering what is expected, then they are left with three options:
- They can improve their skills and knowledge to consistently deliver services above the level expected. Th is is the ideal. Producing results that surpass expectations and continuously improve is always preferred. Th is is the only reliable path for any person to obtain and maintain performance-based trust. No SME should be satisfied with their performance while failure is a possibility, no matter how remote that possibility may be.
- They can reset unrealistic customer expectations in an honest fashion. SMEs will not be successful if the customer’s hopes are irrational or baseless. Resetting expectations is an essential skill, especially for experts who are routinely asked to be miracle workers. SMEs should help customers and colleagues see the future as it really will be. Not setting realistic expectations virtually assures disappointment or failure.
- They can opt to knowingly under-deliver. As untenable as this approach may seem in some disciplines, it is rational and justified by some experts. The software industry, for example, is filled with experts who have consistently failed to predict timing and resource requirements for software development projects. For decades software experts have failed at forecasting. Their redemption has only been through the utterly abysmal failures of other software experts by comparison. Knowingly under-delivering may be acceptable in some select fields, but it is not a recipe for sustained success, even in software development.
Ideally, experts should provide clear justification for the trust that is granted to them. They should prove, empirically, that they are sufficient for the task at hand and that they will consistently over-deliver. Actor Julie Andrews of The Sound of Music fame, is credited as saying, “An amateur rehearses until he gets it right. A professional rehearses until he can’t get it wrong.”
