You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Hi, I’m Kevin Eikenberry, answering the questions that new leaders ask us. Actually, it’s our goal to help all leaders be more productive, confident, and successful. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss any episodes in the future. And while you’re here, make sure you go back and look at some others from the past as well.
Today I’m answering this question. What if I don’t know everything? Are you ready? Let’s get started.
When we become leaders, there’s a lot of things weighing on our minds. And one of the things that’s weighing on many people’s minds is this question. What if I don’t know everything? And let me just say this. You can’t; it’s not possible to know all that you need to know.
Even if you were an expert, even if you were a subject matter expert before in your individual contributor role, you won’t be, now. There’s too much to know. It’s too broad. The world continues to change. You have all these new things to learn. It’s not possible.
And so, I would say to you that if you think you need to know it all, it’s the wrong expectation. First of all, if you ever had a leader who acted as if they knew it all, they probably weren’t your favorite person to work for.
It’s the wrong thing to expect of yourself now. Number one, it’s not possible. Number two, it’s not even useful. So I would encourage you to let go of that need.
And again, especially if you truly were an expert and you got a lot of value out of people coming to you in your old role because you really knew a lot. Listen, there’s still going to be many things that you know in your new role, and that’s awesome. But you need to let go of the need to feel like you have to have it all.
You have to, like, take the pressure off of yourself, that you have to have all of the answers. And you also need to let go of your ego. Because for some of us, that’s where the problem lies. We think we’re supposed to know. So if we don’t know, we’ll make it up or we’ll sort of bluster our way through. That’s not the right answer.
Someone’s going to bring you a question that you don’t have the answer to. And what I want you to say is, I don’t know. So let’s find out.
So repeat after me. I don’t know. Let’s find out. It’s a perfectly fair statement. It’s a chance for you. Notice what I said. Let’s find out. Maybe you will go find out for your team. Or maybe you will go on the journey together with the person that asked to find out the answer to their question. So that you can all succeed more in the future.
Do you have to know everything? No. If you don’t, it’s okay.
Let me close with today’s Tweet: Thinking you need to know everything as a leader is impossible and harmful. Get rid of your ego and learn along with your team.
Hey, hope you found this useful. My answer to that question.
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in the future, put it in the comments here or send me an email to info@kevineikenberry.com, and we’ll reply with the place where maybe where we’ve answered that question before. Or perhaps we’ll use it in a future episode, and if you have other needs, other questions, other resources that you’d like, go kevineikenberry.com where you will find thousands of blog posts and ideas and resources to help you be a more effective leader, whether you’re new or you’ve been doing it for a long time.
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