interbiznet presents The Bugler
May 15, 2007
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Gurutosis
The three most powerful words anyone can use are “I don’t know.” In an instant, the playing field gets leveled and the problem can be addressed without agenda. Center stage attention shifts and leaves an opening for the best local expertise to emerge. The very essence of leadership is knowing what to do when you don’t know.
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A well said piece of advice for seekers being interviewed. When candidates I was interviewing tried to bluff their way thru on a point, I’d hit the ‘eject button”.
No one knows everything, not even me!
It’s what you do when you can or can’t see the boundary. It’s how you test if there’s a hidden boundary there. It’s about your system for protecting against runaways, under runs, and stoppages.
It’s realizing that, you don’t know, what you don’t know.
The toughest boss I ever had used to asks for results, and then would ask how he was supposed to know that the results were true. At the time, I didn’t understand. But what he was asking was not just the answer to a problem, but to see the work that got to the answer. He wanted evidence and confidence. Just like in school.
So in your interview prep, be sure you have a legend (i.e., an elevator speech about something that you can pop out when needed) that presents a situation where either you couldn’t know the answer or you were wrong. In your legend, show how you always set up a “frame” so that you can never spin endless away. Visualize the spaceman’s wrench spinning off into deep space, until it reaches the end of the tether rope, and gets reeled back in. That’s the frame. Your frame can be time (i.e., I set a kitchen time, worked on the problem for an hour, and then I asked for help), feedback (i.e., a Colleague always checks my project plan for over commitments because I like to please people), or milestones (if.eat., I always have a project plan for anything I promise that has many moving parts).
Always demonstrate your framing!
Reinke Faces Life 