Episode 120 - How to say "I Don't Know" without losing credibility

Episode 120 - How to say "I Don't Know" without losing credibility

From Career Espresso by Amanda Owen-Meehan

May 20, 2026 · 12 min · Season 7 · Episode 120

About this episode

This episode discusses how to admit when you don't know something without losing credibility and the benefits of honesty in professional settings.

You're in a meeting and someone turns to you with a question you can't answer. You know it immediately. But instead of saying so, you start talking, because silence feels worse than noise and admitting a gap in front of people feels like handing them a reason to doubt you. So you give a long, circular response that touches on something adjacent, sounds confident enough to get through the moment, and answers a question nobody asked. By the time you stop talking, you're not even sure what you said. But you're fairly sure it wasn't convincing. The strange part is that the people you admire most at work tend to handle this completely differently. They're honest about what they don't know, and it doesn't seem to cost them anything. If anything, it makes you trust them more. This episode is about closing that gap between what you do and what you wish you did when you don't have the answer. What you'll find inside: Why performing confidence you don't have is more visible than you think, and what colleagues notice when you do it The career advice that teaches women to treat the appearance of knowing as more important than the reality of it, and why it creates terrible leaders What…

People in this episode

Host: Amanda Owen-Meehan

Topics covered

  • communication
  • credibility
  • leadership
  • self-awareness
  • trust

Keywords

  • I don't know
  • credibility
  • communication skills
  • leadership
  • trust
  • self-improvement
  • career advice

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