Every professional eventually faces a moment when credentials, experience, and confidence are no longer enough. Mine came on an expert witness assignment that nearly taught me the wrong lessons.
A few years ago, I made a choice to shift the direction and trajectory of my business. I decided to consciously become a subject matter expert and apply that knowledge as a full-time consulting arborist.
One of the arenas where I decided to throw my hat in the ring was to search for opportunities to become an expert witness. I began to seek engagements of substance and challenge, engagements that would present opportunities to learn and grow.
After several years, I was engaged in a significant case to perform a complex onsite assessment and write an expert witness rebuttal report. This is a story not about how I triumphantly won the case for my client, but rather how failure taught me core lessons about professional behavior.
I performed the onsite assessment which was indeed challenging. I worked without an assistant and began to observe and document the numerous trees on the large subject property.
After several days onsite, I began to process my observations, research industry standards, and pour over the other expert’s report. I was working on a deadline and as the deadline approached, I completed my report. In my heart I knew that the report wasn’t up to professional standards. Fortunately, I had exercised the judgement to ask an experienced colleague for a peer review before submission.
At literally the 11th hour before my review was due, I received the peer reviewed report and had an opportunity to discuss the report and his professional opinions. It quickly became clear that my report fell well short of the professional standard I believed an expert witness should meet.
He objectively and calmly showed me where the report failed to provide a logical bridge between the observations, analysis, and conclusions. He showed me how my report lacked credibility and ultimately was a non-industry standard work product.
It was past 8:30 pm when we completed discussing his review, and the report was due at 9:00 am the next morning. I was faced with hard choices. I could choose to turn in the non-industry standard report or simply report to the client that my report was not up to standards, and I wouldn’t be able to complete the assignment.
What do you do when you discover that your work does not yet meet the standard you aspire to uphold? Here were a few of the options:
- Defend it.
- Make excuses.
- Hope no one notices.
- Begin again.
In that moment a north star value shined through and began a change in my attitude and commitment. Professional credibility is earned – not by never making mistakes, but by having the integrity to recognize them, the discipline to correct them, and the courage to let them shape the professional you become.
Here are some of the other principles of professionalism that began to emerge from that night re-writing the report:
- Professional standards matter more than pride.
- Peer-review is a strength, not a weakness.
- Credentials do not make an expert; disciplined thinking does.
- Deadlines do not change the standard.
Looking back, I no longer believe that the most important work I completed that night was rewriting the report. The more important work was beginning to rewrite the professional I intended to become.
