Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re joined by LeeAnne Rimel, Principal Admin Evangelist at Salesforce, to talk about her latest viral tweet: “No matter where you are in your technical skills journey, you have something valuable to share & teach. Get rid of the imposter syndrome that you have to be an ‘expert,’ and find the spaces where it adds value to help others on their trail.”
Join us as we talk about sharing your unique perspective and teaching others what you do know both empowers others and teaches you even more.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with LeeAnne Rimel.
Uncovering what you have that’s valuable.
“That’s a conversation I’ve had with a lot of people in person, with people in our community and with my own mentors and teachers throughout my career,” LeeAnne says. “Sometimes, when we’re in teaching or mentorship roles, it’s not just about teaching what you know but helping others uncover what they have that’s valuable.”
You also want to cultivate that confidence in yourself, and ideally, make the internal realization that you’re bringing something new to the table. However, that’s something that’s easy to say and harder to do. What can help is to realize that we can help each other to see that in ourselves. It’s valuable to share how you solved a particular problem, or how you got started on Trailhead in the first place, and the community benefits.
The Curse of Knowledge.
Once we have deep expertise in something, Knowledge Bias can make it difficult to appreciate and understand what it’s like to not have that expert knowledge. We forget what it was like to be where we were in our journey 10 or 20 years ago. “That means that there’s very much a space for people who have recently walked that path to teach,” LeeAnne says, “because there’s that empathy of ‘here’s the things that I learned and how I’m able to speak to you where you are today.’”
At the same time, “it can be really scary to acknowledge there was something that you didn’t know and you learned that thing,” LeeAnne says, “especially if you’re battling Imposter Syndrome or come from an underrepresented group.” There can be a culture of elitism around knowledge in tech, and we’re often looking for every bit of credibility we can get in professional situations. However, that beginner’s mindset is so valuable and can benefit everyone. Learning is cool, and it’s important to encourage that in others and make sure that you’re not falling into those traps.
Why you learn more from teaching.
“When I started as an admin the tools I used to learn were super different,” LeeAnne says, “I bought a physical book on eBay and printed things out in binders.” That means that while she can be supportive of someone learning today, she doesn’t have the same insider knowledge of someone who has become an admin in the last 12 months. They’re going to be able to share which groups they joined, which Trailhead content they went through, or who they followed on Twitter.
When you share what you’ve learned you also learned more. By the time Gillian had finished teaching her first Girl Develop It class, she had learned different ways to describe the platform, make analogies for people who had never touched Salesforce before, and connect information in new ways. “You can talk advanced concepts all day,” LeeAnne says, “but it takes real expert knowledge to meet students where they are. 90% of the teaching and advice I give are things that other people taught me.”
Join us for the Salesforce Admins Keynote at Dreamforce!
Tuesday, September 25th at 11am PDT: Parker Harris, Mike Gerholdt, Mary Scotton, Gillian Bruce & special guests will share amazing admin stories, incredible demos, and fun surprises. Join us live in Moscone West or watch online. Bookmark now! http://sforce.co/df18adminkeynote
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