6d • General discussion
It's Okay
Here is a leadership habit that feels risky and works: telling your team what you do not know.
Imagine a teammate asks a question in your group chat, and you do not have the answer. The pull is to say something confident, because leaders are supposed to know. The guess feels safe for a day. If it turns out wrong, your team learns that your answers need checking, and that lowers the value of every answer you have given and every answer you give later.
There is a better move, and it has three parts:
Say what you do not know. Plain words: "I do not know yet."
Say how you will resolve it. Who you will ask or what you will check.
Give a date. "I will tell you by Thursday."
Here is a script you can use this week: "I do not know yet. I will check with [person or source] and tell you by [day]."
Then follow through. The date is the part that earns trust, because it shows people that your word has a deadline attached to it.
There is a second benefit. People copy what leaders do. When your team sees you name a gap and close it, they start naming theirs earlier, and problems reach you while they are still small.
This fits how we work in Spark-ED. We say what we know, we say what we do not, and we follow through.
Action for this week: count how many times you would have guessed in a meeting, and write down one question you will answer with "I do not know yet." Post it below, and I will help you set the date.
What is the question you are avoiding?
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It's Okay
