Sometimes the smallest words are the hardest to say:
“I don’t know.”
Senior leaders rose through the ranks by being experts with the right answers. Admitting you don’t know feels like it directly undermines your credibility.
However, those three words are incredibly important, because the more senior you become, the broader the issues you face. You’ve moved beyond a narrow expertise into enterprise-wide challenges. There’s no way to master every issue.
Plus, the world is changing faster than any human can adapt to: the amount of geopolitical, economic, and technological change makes it impossible to have all the information you need.
Examples from the field
I’ll never forget a leadership offsite, where one of my team members started her segment by hedging her words, saying, “I’ve never done this before.”
My response: “I’ve said those words every single day since I founded this company.”
Regardless of the size of your organization, you are constantly facing challenges and tasks you’ve never done before.
A senior banking executive I advise once told me, “Every single day, I say ‘I don’t know’ to someone.” I’ve heard another executive I work with, at a leadership offsite, field a question from her team on stage and say, “Actually, I know who can answer that, and they’re here in this room. [Name], why don’t you stand up and take that question?”
A few years ago, I delivered a keynote for the AdTech industry. During a panel presentation, the moderator received a question about, “first party data to help buttress signal loss”.
Sitting in the audience, I assumed I was the only person who didn’t understand the question.
But it turns out most people on the panel didn’t know either, including the moderator. He turned to the panelists and asked, “Does anyone on the panel know what that means?” One person responded and answered the question. The moderator was unfazed; he didn’t let his lack of understanding the question affect his credibility or confidence.
How to Say It with Strength
So how do you say, “I don’t know” without losing your credibility?
Having language that feels comfortable and natural is critical. Here are some ways you can phrase it:
- I don’t have that information, but here’s what we’re doing to find out.
- I believe there is no right answer to that question.
- Actually, I have a feeling others in this room could answer this question. Who here would like to weigh in?
My favorite, sophisticated answer to this question comes from Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. In a podcast interview, he was asked about the debate in the AI community about the danger of AI.
He said (and I’m paraphrasing), “The fact that so many smart people…have completely opposite views…shows that there’s no one right answer.”
The more senior you become, the more you need to employ the phrase, “I don’t know” in the right way. It signals transparency, invites collaboration, and creates space for better answers to emerge.
Use these strategies to empower yourself and embrace your uncertainty without letting it affect your confidence and credibility. The higher you rise, the less certainty you’ll have. That’s not a weakness.
Saying “I don’t know” with confidence is a leadership skill. Use it wisely.