Its Thursday morning again, and the monthly update meeting to the leadership team. The one you’ve been preparing for, possibly sweating about, all week. You’ve just finished your update, and the CEO turns to you and asks you a question. Its not a question you were expecting though, and its not one you have an answer for.
First panic, then a snap decision
You freeze momentarily, caught in her gaze like a deer in headlights. Your brain scrambling through your options. The silence is unbearable. Its the first time the CEO has asked you something directly and you want to impress.
So what if you dont know the answer! Make something up! – the little voice inside of your head screams.
So you do. From somewhere, deep down, you come up with something. She seems impressed. No follow up questions. You’ve survived! Screw that – you rescued a glorious victory from the jaws of defeat you think to yourself.
But did you? Assuming your answer even made sense in that pressured moment, did you give an answer that you can stand over afterwards? Can the CEO rely on that information if they use it later on? They didnt ask just for the sake of asking.
However tempting it might be. However much you want to impress, or avoid looking stupid because you dont have an answer to hand – Do Not Do This. Do not make stuff up.
Gone in an instant
The trust you establish with the people you work with, and your credibility as a result, are immensely valuable. This is even more so when it comes to managing senior stakeholders or project sponsors.
They rely on not just your ability to get things done, but on your ability to apply sound judgement. They rely on you escalating the items that need to be escalated, but handling the items that don’t need to be. They dont expect to hear good news all the time, but they do expect honesty. The trust you develop provides you the space to do your job.
Very senior people in organisations also tend to have developed pretty decent bullshit radars by the time they have reached their position. They’ll often pick up on something sounding a bit fishy. Maybe you answered a little too quickly, or were just a little too hesitant. Maybe your answer didnt mesh with other information they had. It might not be such an important topic that they call you out then and there – but that niggle in the back of their mind can be the first crack in your relationship with them.
The trust that you built up over a long time can take mere seconds to lose. And once gone, forget about getting it back.
Between a rock and a hard place
So if the downside is so great, why do people take the chance? Usually its not coming from any sense of malevolence. People want to impress, they want to find solutions, they want to be helpful – or they want to seem competent, on top of things, to be the “go to” person.
If you have to say “I dont know” but still want to demonstrate proactivity and ownership then say “I dont know, but I’ll find out and get an answer back to you by (insert appropriate timeframe depnding on the importance and urgency of the question)“.
It is far better in the long term to be remembered as the person who didnt have the answer on the spot for a few days, than as someone unreliable – who just makes stuff up – for a few years.