A Businessman's View

Some time ago at a previous job, my manager performed a 360 review of my performance. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a 360 review is one where your manager, peers, direct reports, and sometimes even customers are given an opportunity to discuss how well you perform your job. After the interviews had concluded, I was told that someone had commented:  " Larry is incredibly technical, but you'd never know it from talking to him. " Initially, I wasn’t sure how to interpret that comment. After all, I spent the first half of my career in highly technical roles and prided myself on my technical acumen. Was this a criticism or a compliment? And what was that person actually saying about my expertise and how I communicated it? After sitting with it for a while, I came to an unexpected conclusion: mastery, in its highest form, is invisible . Put another way, true expertise simplifies experience without sacrificing substance. It’s like a perfectly baked apple pie fresh out o...