A leader is not a valedictorian who knows everything, but you
might get panicky when your employees throw a question about something related
to work you don’t really acquire or understand. While responding honestly by
saying “I don’t know” could be a sign of great leader who is able to sincerely
admit his shortcoming, the wrong way to say it could make you look like an
unprofessional manager.
There are good chances that there will be a following question
that doubts your credibility such as, “How could you become a leader if you
don’t know about this?”
However, you cannot avoid this tough moment nor dodge the stumping
question. While it is true that losing words to answer employees’ questions
which are out of your expertise could be an embarrassing experience, you can
learn from it to improve your knowledge in the future. Here’s How You Can Save
Your Reputation despite not knowing the answers for employees’ unexpected
inquiries:
Set up a powerful response
Simple response such as ‘I don’t know’ often becomes a
conversation ender that stops people from asking further questions. While you
could use this to move on to other subjects, this will make you powerless as
you cannot demonstrate your reliability in front of the person who asks you.
Therefore, you should prepare another expression which has more
powerful sense but with same meaning. You can use something like, “That’s
actually a good question, but I need more information to answer that,” or “I
don’t hold the data at the time, but I will get it to you soon”. By expressing
those ways, you show that you have intention to improve yourself without
denying your weakness.
Find
out the purpose of the questions
People usually ask questions during particular occasions or within
specific context. However, there are times when your employees show up and ask
you about something out of the blue. At such cases, leaders are often confused
not only with the answer, but also the question itself. To get out of the
awkward atmosphere, you need to clarify with the employee to find out the
purpose of the questions. By doing so, you might get better idea about the
topic being talked about and provide the right response.
Don’t
play counter-attack
You must have ever seen a scene where someone defends himself
strongly in a debate by bringing the argument around and around only to avoid
saying “I don’t know”. This kind of person also tends to play counter-attack by
throwing counter question to others. This attitude is not necessarily needed to
make you look smart or such. Instead of looking cool, people will judge you as
an annoying person.
Provide
references
When you receive question which is actually not in your scope and
you don’t know the answer, you can explain that it is not your area of
expertise and give the reference about the right place where the person can ask
the question.
For example, IT manager can apply this strategy when employees ask
about payroll matters, which are totally HR’s affair. Other example is when
your boss suddenly asks about an employee who is not in your team, and then you
can call the right leader to come to the boss. By giving reference, you can
prevent additional burden to answer question which is not in your
responsibility without letting people’s expectation down from getting the
answer.
