One of the pressures that comes with being a new leader is the feeling that you should have the right answer every time.

So when someone asks you a question and you don't immediately know how to respond, you get the fear that admitting your ignorance will expose you as a fraud.

And that is perfectly normal.

But, scary as it sounds, saying "I don't know" in that situation might be one of the most powerful tools in your leadership toolkit.

So, why is it a good idea to admit what you don’t know?

To answer this, let’s start with an old-fashioned value: the truth matters.

If you think you can bring the ethics of the post-truth world to work, you might find that you are soon living in a post-job world.

As a leader, you need credibility, you need to be trustworthy, and you need to avoid getting a reputation as a bullshitter.

Don’t be the guy who always has an immediate answer for everything. He might seem impressive until you realise how often those answers turn out to be wrong.

Be the person whose responses can be relied upon, even if you first have to say: "I don't know the answer to that. But let me find out and get back to you."

The difference critical. The second approach builds genuine credibility; the first approach destroys it.

Research by Harvard Professor of Leadership and Management, Amy Edmondson provides us with another good reason why it can be positive to admit that you don’t know something: it builds psychological safety.

Psychological safety is the shared belief among team members that it is safe to take risks in what they say in the workplace.

In a psychologically safe work environment, people feel confident that they can speak up and make their views known, without being rejected or blamed by other team members.

Edmondson’s research demonstrates that psychological safety is a critical factor in high-performing, high learning teams. It facilitates performance and development because people feel safe seeking feedback, discussing errors, and asking for help; and these are all learning behaviours.

Crucially, Edmondson found that in psychologically safe, high-learning teams, the leaders:

Conversely, in low psychologically safe teams, the leaders tended to:

In plain terms, the leader’s humility (expressed through openness, curiosity, and fallibility) creates the safety that allows the team to learn, experiment, and improve.

In essence, admitting you don’t know everything isn’t a weakness — it’s an act of leadership that builds trust, learning, and collective intelligence.

But let’s be clear about something important: admitting you don't know isn't a free pass to be unprepared or uncommunicative.

If you're heading into a meeting with senior leadership, you need to have done your homework. If you're accountable for a particular area, you need to be able to display a solid grasp of the fundamentals. If it’s within your area of expertise, you should be able to express a view.

There's a critical difference between being open about the limits of your knowledge and simply not doing the work.

The key is knowing when it's reasonable not to know something.

You can't be expected to have immediate answers to every complex question or every technical detail of every aspect of your operation.

So, what matters is being honest about the boundaries of your knowledge and being committed to finding answers when they matter.

The most confident leaders aren't the ones who pretend to know everything. They're the ones who are secure enough to admit when they don't—and wise enough to know that's how trust is built and learning begins.

Practice the phrase. Literally rehearse saying “I don't know” until it feels natural. Try variations: “That's a good question; I'll need to think about it” or “I'm not certain about that. Let me check and come back to you.”

Try it out. In the next week, notice a moment when you could say, “I don’t know.” Try it and see how your team responds.

Invite collaboration. After admitting uncertainty, ask: “What's your thinking on this?” or “Who might have insight into this?” Turn your “I don't know” into a conversation starter rather than a conversation stopper.

Follow through. When you say you'll find out, actually do it. Your credibility depends on people knowing you'll deliver on that promise.

Model openness and inclusiveness to your team. Seek input, encourage discussion, co-create the answers.

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 350 -383.  https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999.

Alami, A., Zahedi, M., & Krancher, O. (2023). Antecedents of psychological safety in agile software development teams. Inf. Softw. Technol., 162, 107267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107267.

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