{"id":7634,"date":"2022-10-13T19:02:40","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T00:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/?p=7634"},"modified":"2022-10-13T19:02:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T00:02:42","slug":"3-times-when-saying-i-dont-know-is-a-terrible-leadership-response-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/13\/3-times-when-saying-i-dont-know-is-a-terrible-leadership-response-2\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Times When Saying, \u201cI Don\u2019t Know\u201d Is A Terrible Leadership Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">When a leader responds to a question by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, it can reveal transparency and authenticity. But sometimes, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d is the very worst thing you could say as a leader.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Increasingly, leaders are being coached that \u201cIt\u2019s okay to say \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019\u201d. This is a largely positive trend and, in the right context, can indeed point to a leader\u2019s sense of security and desire to be\u00a0transparent.<\/p>\n<p>Today I Googled the phrase, \u201cIt\u2019s okay to say, \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019\u201d and the search result returned 3,120,000,000 hits, with the top articles carrying the titles,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>The Power of Saying \u2018I Don\u2019t Know\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>It\u2019s Okay to Say \u201cI Don\u2019t Know\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>4 Reasons Why It\u2019s Okay to Say \u201cI Don\u2019t Know\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Learn To Say \u201cI Don\u2019t Know\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Truly, a leader can often engender trust by acknowledging that they simply do not know the answer to a question.<\/p>\n<p>But leaders must also be careful not to misuse this phrase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Because there are at least three times when saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d can be a terrible leadership response.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>1. When someone asks, \u201cHow is the culture of the team?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If someone were to ask about the health or welfare of the team, a leader dare not be so removed as to have to answer, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>One of the first and primary jobs of the leader is to nurture a healthy team culture, and this begins by remaining vigilantly apprised as to the team\u2019s emotional state.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2. When someone asks, \u201cWhere are we going?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A directionless leader will not be followed for very long.<\/p>\n<p>How the focus and direction of the team is established can certainly be a collaborative process, but ultimately the leader must be able to point definitively to the destination on the horizon. To say, \u201cI don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going\u201d is not an acceptable response.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3. When someone asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s our strategy?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Once the goals are established, the next reasonable question becomes, \u201cHow are we going to accomplish this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At this point, the leader best not say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d It\u2019s fair game to say that the team will work together to devise a plan, but a shoulder-shrugging \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d won\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to acknowledging that you don\u2019t yet have sufficient information, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d can be a reasonable, even a strong, answer.<\/p>\n<p>Just remember, sometimes the leader must say with confidence, \u201cI DO know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a leader responds to a question by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, it can reveal transparency and authenticity. But sometimes, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d is the very worst thing you could say as a leader. Increasingly, leaders are being coached that \u201cIt\u2019s okay to say \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019\u201d. This is a largely positive trend and, in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1033,1017,1032,478,7],"tags":[984],"class_list":["post-7634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authentic","category-communication","category-credibility","category-featured","category-leadership","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7635,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7634\/revisions\/7635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}