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Utilization rate this time of year?
35 F🐟, Boston, 🙋
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Yes, it’s generally the better thing to do.
Nobody should expect you to know everything and those that do either choose to have less than realistic expectations or don’t realize that they do.
You should typically be honest when there’s something you either need to look into or bump up the chain or off to another stakeholder/colleague for more information/detail/clarification.
I think some leaders do feel that imposter syndrome that you’re taking about, just not knowing everything and/or being able to do everything. You’re not there to be the all knowing all doing impossibly perfect being. You’re there to guide and lead and provide those around you with the tools and resources necessary to be successful in their roles. That does not mean you have the exact tool the person in front of you in each and every moment is asking you for right in your pocket. Sometimes you will need to figure out what tool it is they need before you can even check if you have it or need to figure out how to get it or if there’s a workaround if you can’t get it.
Yeah totally. You can't know the answer to literally every single question. You have to ask for help like anyone else. I agree with people here saying that your team can feel when you are making up an answer too. Not worth the risk
Mentor
I value two traits in my team members and colleagues over all others:
1. Confidence - that you have the right to be in the room and to make a decision.
2. Self-awareness - the ability to recognize ignorance or a mistake and do something about it.
Always admit if you don’t know - and view it as a learning opportunity. Someone who thinks they know everything may be helpful today, but they are likely useless tomorrow.
💯. Your team can sense when you’re full of it vs. being vulnerable and empathetic. Especially, if you say,”I’ve asked that too and haven’t got clarity either” so we will see.
Yes. You will learn more, and have more to offer your team as a result. Showing you can check your own ego is a skill. Rarely can you be a know it all and excel in leadership, in my experience.
Oh absolutely I think it helped Bill trust with your team if you admit you’re not positive on something. It looks like you’re trying to be arrogant or you know trustworthy when you pretend to no answers you don’t have. So when I don’t know an answer I like to say something like well that’s a good question. I’m not entirely sure. Let me look into that for you and get back to you. And then the follow up is what’s important there.
Agreed! I do the same, "Good question, I'll see what I can find out." Then yes yes alwayssss follow up or circle back even if it's with "still looking into it, haven't forgot about you" type FYI. Sometimes I get answers super quick and sometimes not so much, you just do what you can, like ALL of us. :P There's also times when you reach out and you exhaust every avenue you can think of to get an answer and you try to even think out of the box and still just nothing! I try to be honest about continued efforts with lack of response so that my teams know I don't ignore what's important to them. I do also try to be honest with my teams when they come to me with something that they could honestly try to figure out themselves and let them know that I have some other high priority items I'm working on right now but if they have a little bandwidth to prioritize looking into it and report back to me that will definitely be the quickest way to attmept some resolve in their concern. I don't take every box of problems someone hands me, otherwise I'd spend half the day just organizing the tower of problem boxes :P so that's a little gem of insight one of my earlier mentors bestowed upon me. One in which I have never forgotten and has saved me a lot of time and headache! & also created some buy-in from my people, seeing that I trust them to be able to problem solve and be part of the solution!
You absolutely should say so when you don't know. If you try to fake it, you'll lose trust and credibility.
Yes. Leadership is not about knowing everything. As a leader, you have the opportunity to tell people what you don’t know (versus leading them down a path of false information), and then help them figure it out.