“I don’t know” can be one of the hardest things to admit at work. But if you can bring yourself to utter those words, they can make you look confident, competent, honest – and occasionally even elevate you above those who do know.

1. 18/09/12 The careerist: Say ing ‘I don’t know’ - FT.com
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FRONT PAGE September 16, 2012 6:17 pm
The careerist: Saying ‘I don’t
know’
By Rhymer Rigby
“I don’t know” can be one of the hardest things to admit at work. But if you can bring yourself
to utter those words, they can make you look confident, competent, honest – and occasionally
even elevate you above those who do know.
Why do people worry so much about not knowing?
“In some industries, such as banking, you are encouraged to appear as if you understand
everything and [to] develop an air of omnipotence,” says Robert Kelsey, a former banker and
the author of What’s Stopping You?
Sandra Cunningham, an executive coach at Outside In, adds:
“Many of us carry the belief that it is our job to have all the
answers and that we’ve failed if we don’t.”
What problems does this cause?
“Believing you should know everything can be very restrictive as it closes your mind to other
sources of knowledge and other opinions,” says Ms Cunningham. “It can stifle your potential for
creativity and be quite stressful. Letting go of this idea can be very liberating. If you’re a leader
and manage others, it can also empower them and help them develop.”
Mr Kelsey says: “It can be very dangerous. You can wind up in meetings talking about things no
one understands, so the meeting is useless. On an organisational scale, it can lead to disasters
like Enron. I worked with them – when you’re claiming you’re the smartest guys in the room,
you can’t just admit you don’t know.”
Pretending you do know is a potential minefield too, says Hazel Carter-Showell of CarterCorson,
the organisational psychologists. “Sometimes it’s very obvious you’re faking it. Or you might be
in a job interview, where the person interviewing you knows the area far better than you do.”
What do I gain from saying I don’t know?
“It’s actually incredibly effective admitting not to know things as long as you do it confidently,”
says Mr Kelsey. “It’s the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. A growth
mindset is where you have an attitude that you can learn.”

2. 18/09/12 The careerist: Say ing ‘I don’t know’ - FT.com
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It’s not just you either.
It can be good for building relationships. Ms Cunningham says: “Allowing [others] to help you
engenders trust and helps you to be more collaborative. It’s very flattering for the other
person, too.”
It can also make you look very confident.
Ms Carter-Showell says: “If you’re in a situation where nobody understands what’s being said
and you’re the person who puts up their hand, you look brave and everyone else will say:
‘Thank goodness someone asked what that meant’.”
Are there times when not knowing is bad?
“A lot comes back to what is reasonable to expect,” says Ms Carter-Showell. “If you’re at a
board meeting and you were sent a report beforehand to read, it’s reasonable to expect you to
know the report’s main points.”
Once again, it is better to admit that you do not know than to feign knowledge – and this is
unlikely to do you any long-term harm as long as it is an isolated incident.
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