KIH Re-PlayWhat Do I Tell Them? (When I really don't know!)

Leaders are not people that have all the answers. In fact, we have an entirely different name for people who have all the answers or think they have all the answers. It starts with an A, ends with an EA. I think you get the point. None of us has a crystal ball. You know, leadership isn't about predicting everything that's going to happen in the future. You can't do that. It's about helping people deal with the situation even when the future is uncertain or unclear. Now isn't that when people need your leadership the most? Now whenever I'm working with new leaders and emerging leaders, the greatest fear usually isn't that they don't know something. It's they're afraid other people might think they don't know. I know for most of the people that I work with, and I've certainly had this experience myself, this fear pushes us into 3 very bad choices. We might pretend to be more certain than we really are. Or the opposite, we might say or do nothing until we have all the answers, or we think we do. Worst of all, we're tempted to dump every concern, every possibility on the shoulders of our team. The plain fact is that silence doesn't create calm, not most of the time. It creates a vacuum, and people fill that vacuum with rumors and fear and imagination. It's— the monster's always bigger in the closet. We've got to open the door and let some light in. Confidence is not absolute certainty, not true confidence anyway. Confidence is the ability to say, Hey, here's what I know. I might not have all the answers, but I know that together we can work through this. Confidence is also being able to trust the people around you, especially if they have more experience and knowledge than you do. Along with being transparent about what you don't know, you also have to be open with people and say, look, here's what we're going to do right now. It's the best we can do with what we know. And when things change, I'm going to keep you in the loop. I'm going to update you. And then make sure you follow through on that promise. So listen, I know this is hard, but do your best not to base your confidence on surety of an outcome. That's another place where certainty can get us into a lot of trouble. True confidence, and I learned this through my life in martial arts, true confidence is based on training and preparation. I don't know what the outcome is going to be. I don't know if I'm going to win or lose, but I do know that I've trained, that I'm prepared to be in this fight, that I'm prepared to meet this challenge. And if I'm not, I'm I know I can learn what I need to. I can develop the skills and talents. I can discover skills and talents. That's why uncertainty is such a special place for opportunity. It all comes down to this. It's training and preparation that opens the door to these opportunities, even when things are chaotic or uncertain. And it's that training and preparation that gives you the confidence to know, win or lose, you're ready to face whatever's in front of you. And we're going to call this the 4-part confidence brief. Part 1. What we know. Here's where you want to avoid speculation, guessing, interpretation, or promises that you just really can't back up. Stick to this: here's what I can reasonably confirm, or what I'm reasonably sure about right now. The leader's job is to separate the facts from all the noise. What we don't know yet. Here's where you can share with people, these are the issues that we don't understand fully yet. And don't be afraid here to reach out and ask for help from all levels. Remember, there are people at different levels of your organization that have a lot more direct experience and knowledge about a situation than you might have. And the higher you go up in the organizational chart, the tougher that gets. You just can't know everything about what's going on at all levels of the organization. You've got to trust the people. Now remember, we started this by saying what we don't know yet. That little phrase, not yet, matters a lot. You're communicating that the question or the challenge is active, not ignored. Part 3, what we're doing now. This is where you explain the work that's already underway. You talk to people about the answers that you're trying to seek out and how you're doing it. And again, this is a great opportunity to solicit their help to get as many people involved in the process as possible. When the people are more involved, then they own the process. You don't have to go and try to sell them or get them to buy in. They're part of it. They're part of the solution. And that's an incredible way to build trust, loyalty, and ultimately respect. And if you really want people to be comfortable with uncertainty, they're going to manage it a lot better when they see evidence of responsible action. Part 4, when will they hear from you again? This is critical. You've got to walk the walk. Commit yourself to some sort of timetable as far as how you're going to communicate and when, and stick to it. You know, if you say, I'm going to update you by Tuesday, well then you better do it Tuesday, not Wednesday, not Thursday, not next week. But never make people chase you for that next update. We can't predict the future. So as we said just a few minutes ago, sometimes the worst-case scenarios can fill in the blanks, right? What can help here is if you can find a real example from your experience or some— someone on your team and talk about how you managed it before, how you managed something similar before. It doesn't have to be exactly the same. But if you can make it a little bit more concrete, a little bit more tangible, all right, then people can focus on what's really in front of them and the real possibilities. And it's kind of a proof of performance, right? You've been there before, or you've been through something similar. When you can rally the troops behind that, you really bring people together. Here are a few questions that can help you lead when you don't have all the answers. First of all, after people hear from you, do they understand the situation more clearly? Do they know what they can do right now? And do they know when they're going to hear from you again? I said it before, I'm going to say it again. Leaders are not the people that have all the answers. Trust is not built by having all the answers. Trust is built by showing people that you can handle uncertainty with courage, with confidence, with honesty and competency. We've built this framework and a lot more into our leadership field guides, and there's one specific to this situation: How to Lead When You Don't Have All the Answers. Now, the best way to get these field guides and to have access to our, our live leadership labs is by subscribing. Subscribe on our Substack, subscribe on our LinkedIn newsletter. You don't need all the answers to lead effectively. You need the courage to tell the truth, Do the hard work and keep communicating with your people, the people who trust in your leadership.