Cathy's blog

The problem is, she said: I don't know everything yet. This was followed by a dramatic pause.

My client is a smart, fun, ambitious woman, who has only been in her new role for a couple of months. And she wasn't pleased with her own performance. She'd worked for 10 years at her previous company, where she knew everything - and she'd enjoyed her go-to-person position very much. Now, she was confronted with the new and the unknown. And even though she's always looking for a new challenge - not having all the answers made her feel vulnerable. And incompetent.

Funny how much value we give to *knowledge* - especially in this day and age, where information is broadly available.

Remember when you had to have an encyclopedia (do they still exist) or go to the library to find information?

But now that there's Google, knowledge is losing power really fast.

And yes, I know, there is still a lot of pf value in knowing all the little ins and outs that no one ever documented.

But the best way to build your credibility in a sustainable way, is by adopting these 4 leadership principles:

1. Knowledge should be available to everyone

If you don't have all the information yet, that means that other people are dealing with the same issue. Knowledge shouldn't sit in 1 person's head. Everyone should have direct access to it. And when you're building & growing your organization, you need an effective system to capture & share information. A new team member shouldn't depend on you or *the keeper of the secret information*. The person traveling shouldn't have to worry about the difference in time zones to be able to get answers.

So instead of *knowing* everything yourself, work with your team to build a system that makes everyone equally smart :-)

2. The person asking the questions is leading the conversation

Somehow, we got it backward. It's not the one with all the knowledge who holds the power, it's the one asking the questions. Really? Yes! Really!

When you ask pertinent, smart questions, everyone gets smarter. When you *have all the answers*, you tend to reinforce the status quo.

3. Focus on learning instead of knowing

A lot of the key jobs today didn't exist 10 years ago. Social Media Manager? SEO or Cloud services specialist?

There is no such thing as *all the answers* when the questions keep changing. 

Instead of trying to *have* all the information, create a system that will ensure you keep learning. 

What can you do to make sure that you see connections, spot new trends? How can you stay ahead of the curve?

4. There's so much power in an honest: *I don't know - let me check & get back to you*

It may feel vulnerable & uncomfortable, but being honest about what you do know & don't know, actually creates trust. When you're trying to hide the gaps in your knowledge, people's bullshit meters will have a field day. But when you're comfortable being honest, you're building trust a lot quicker.

I was speaking to my new account manager at LinkedIn a few weeks ago (hi Emma! :-). 

She's our 5th contact person in 3 years. So I prepared for another round of empty replies, and assurances that didn't mean anything. 

It was so refreshing to find that Emma is the complete opposite! She says things like: *they told me X, but let me check to make sure.* And: *next time we meet, I hope to know a lot more*. But she also asked such pertinent questions: she made me think, really listened, and then she came back with correct information. I'll take an *I don't know - let me check & get back to you* over bullshit every day. And yes, even over *all the knowledge*. Because people who know too much, tend not to listen.

I hope you're starting to see that there are so many alternatives to *having all the answers* - and that honesty, authenticity and good systems will actually get you much further than trying to out-know Google or the resident holder of the information in your company. 🙂

You got this!