EPISODE · May 20, 2026 · 12 MIN
Episode 120 - How to say "I Don't Know" without losing credibility
from Career Espresso
You're in a meeting and someone turns to you with a question you can't answer. You know it immediately. But instead of saying so, you start talking, because silence feels worse than noise and admitting a gap in front of people feels like handing them a reason to doubt you. So you give a long, circular response that touches on something adjacent, sounds confident enough to get through the moment, and answers a question nobody asked. By the time you stop talking, you're not even sure what you said. But you're fairly sure it wasn't convincing.The strange part is that the people you admire most at work tend to handle this completely differently. They're honest about what they don't know, and it doesn't seem to cost them anything. If anything, it makes you trust them more.This episode is about closing that gap between what you do and what you wish you did when you don't have the answer.What you'll find inside:Why performing confidence you don't have is more visible than you think, and what colleagues notice when you do itThe career advice that teaches women to treat the appearance of knowing as more important than the reality of it, and why it creates terrible leadersWhat separates the people who handle this well from everyone else (it's simpler than you'd expect)How being selective about when you're certain makes everything you say worth moreThe one thing you do after admitting a gap that determines whether it builds trust or erodes itWant more support with real-world leadership challenges? Head to How to Build a Leader on Substack for in-depth guides and community.Never miss an episode. Sign up for the weekly Espresso Brief email and get each episode with subscriber-only resources and practical tools in your inbox.Get the full episode transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
You're in a meeting and someone turns to you with a question you can't answer. You know it immediately. But instead of saying so, you start talking, because silence feels worse than noise and admitting a gap in front of people feels like handing them a reason to doubt you. So you give a long, circular response that touches on something adjacent, sounds confident enough to get through the moment, and answers a question nobody asked. By the time you stop talking, you're not even sure what you said. But you're fairly sure it wasn't convincing.The strange part is that the people you admire most at work tend to handle this completely differently. They're honest about what they don't know, and it doesn't seem to cost them anything. If anything, it makes you trust them more.This episode is about closing that gap between what you do and what you wish you did when you don't have the answer.What you'll find inside:Why performing confidence you don't have is more visible than you think, and what colleagues notice when you do itThe career advice that teaches women to treat the appearance of knowing as more important than the reality of it, and why it creates terrible leadersWhat separates the people who handle this well from everyone else (it's simpler than you'd expect)How being selective about when you're certain makes everything you say worth moreThe one thing you do after admitting a gap that determines whether it builds trust or erodes itWant more support with real-world leadership challenges? Head to How to Build a Leader on Substack for in-depth guides and community.Never miss an episode. Sign up for the weekly Espresso Brief email and get each episode with subscriber-only resources and practical tools in your inbox.Get the full episode transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episode 120 - How to say "I Don't Know" without losing credibility
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