The Ability to Admit Not Knowing is A Sign of Intelligence
By: Sruthi Korlakunta
Tags: Careers, Personal Development, The Ascent, Work Ethic, Growth

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I spent about two years of my life as a “traveling learner” as a part of my job. My job was to go places, talk to people, get to know the work, work culture, and foster relations among people inside of the company.

During my journey through the world as a qualified Engineer, I have learned to spot one common denominator among those who are reliable and trustworthy.

It is spectacularly simple and yet such a hard thing to do at work — to utter the sentence, “I don’t know.”

The problem with dodging a question you don’t know the answer to

I once met this lady who was an experienced project manager, newly hired, and new to the nature of the current project. An MBA graduate, she was evidently unaware of the computer-science details of the project we were both assigned to (which was, by the way, completely alright).

Not knowing the exact nature of her work or her role, I asked her for a technical detail that I wasn't sure about. Clearly, she had no idea what I was talking about because she was not the right person to answer this question.

Instead of pointing me to the right person, and telling me that she did not know, she rambled on about the nature of technical difficulties. By then I had already realized that I approached the wrong expert.

To my utter dismay, she ended the conversation by filling the conversation with barely relevant jargon completely irrelevant to the context.

Not only was her answer not suitable to my question, but I was also utterly disappointed at how one can expect to ramble their way through real problems.

My respect would have remained at least unchanged for this probably very good project manager if she admitted to the truth and did not try to trick me into thinking she was a genius. Clearly, she failed.

Faces don’t lie

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I have seen both beginners and people in place of power, who when asked for a detail or a plan, make up irrelevant “empty talk” in a place where they could have simply said “I don’t know”.

Humans are programmed to recognize emotions that pass over a face in a moment as small as one-fifth of a millisecond.

If we believe that we are fooling people with false pretenses and lies because we cannot own up to our lack of knowledge, we are kidding ourselves.

The power of saying “I don’t know”

Admitting that one doesn't know when one doesn't know is actually a sign of intelligence, not ignorance, for various reasons.

Saying “I don't know” is the starting point of admitting the current situation. Only when you come to terms with what is, can you proceed to correct it or learn from it.

Moreover, it is mathematically accurate and clears confusion.

There are things you know, those you can find out upon inquiry, those you can calculate and immediately respond to, and those you simply don't know!

Stammering through a sentence around not knowing comes off as weak and fraudulent.

If you utter a lie confidently, you are still not a leader, but a liar. And Compromising ethics by lying is a big flashing sign that you are not meant to be a leader.

It’s not what you say, it is how you say it.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Just because you say “I don’t know” doesn't mean that you are a nincompoop. Instead, it means that you are capable of recognizing what you know and do not.

It means you are strong and reliable enough to own up to a situation. It means that you care enough about your job to want to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Most of all, it means you are willing to grow.

Regardless of what you say, it is mostly how you say it that makes you a leader or a liar.

Don’t look down at the floor and whisper it, because it shows that you are ashamed of your disposition. Instead, look into the asker’s eye.

Ask questions, find out more. If you need more information or if you think it is unknowable, state these things clearly. Ask questions about what you want to know to be able to answer.

What to do instead: