Nobody has all the answers. Unfortunately, there are some situations where you’ll feel like you should, like when you’re promoted, or you’re referred to as an expert in your field, or you become a parent.
Barack Obama reflected on this after his Presidency: “I think one of the problems with people who are in big jobs is they start feeling as if they have to project that ‘I have every answer,’” he said, “when, in fact, most of the time, you may not.”
If you lean into this expectation, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Either there’ll come a time when you won’t have the answer and you’ll need to admit it, or worse, you’ll believe you have the answer but you really don’t.
So what should you do?
Barack Obama explained his decision-making process relied on “…having the confidence to have people around you who were smarter than you, or disagreed with you, or have perspectives that were different than yours.”
Rather than feeling that you need to have all the answers, foster an environment where people are willing to discover the answers alongside you.
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