How to cultivate expertise in an age of obsolescence 

Deep expertise has long been seen as important for supporting progression to more senior roles. Research has shown that expertise is linked to sustained superior performance and innovation, helping leaders to create value through exploiting current organizational capabilities and exploring opportunities for new sources of revenue. Whether depth of knowledge in a discipline such as finance or cybersecurity or a sector such as construction or luxury retail, a robust understanding of the context in which the leader is operating has traditionally been seen as a prerequisite for success.

However, rapid changes in the environment mean that expertise and skills are becoming redundant more quickly. Skill obsolescence is running at the fastest rate ever, with some areas of expertise becoming irrelevant within 18 months, according to the EU’s European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, while new areas of expertise emerge, making it harder to define, develop, and…