Nobody knows anything
NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING pinged out in bold capitals on the first slide of our presentation. I sat, aged 21, feeling very out of place in a boardroom in New Zealand as I nervously watched my first ever business meeting kicking off. I was working in a strategy consultancy and my boss, thelead consultant on our project, used this statement to declare emphatically how our client should approach the strange new world forming at the intersection of business and the internet.
I was flabbergasted when he showed me the presentation in advance and as he clicked onto this first page, I was still reeling from how much we were being paid for this great insight. I imagined that we would be turfed out onto the street immediately and booted back to london. I looked around the room and was amazed to see people who seemed to be proper grown ups, nodding their heads and waiting tentatively for the next page.
Now, as I approach 50, I realise that with each passing year I feel far less certainty about the world than I imagined I would gain over the decades. It seems that the more I read, experience, travel and work, the less I understand and know.
It probably hasn’t helped that my own career has always been within the rapidly shifting sands of technology - an industry seemingly designed to make you feel unqualified and far from an expert.
I realise this is unhelpful. You probably opened your newspaper hoping for some useful words of advice - you may have read Julian Richer and Bali Padda’s excellent columns with a notepad handy and yet here I am revealing straight off the bat that I know nothing.
But I think doubt is a good place to start my columns with you.The world is an anxious place right now, and while we are all looking for certainty, it is elusive. In all the organisations I work with - large and small, commercial and philanthropic, pinning down a plan for the next few months, let alone year, feels a tricky task. Leaders are expected to provide answers when none may be obvious, and
I’d be surprised if many of us could answer that we knew everything we thought we should. It is hard enough to make decisions with 100% certainty in mundane moments, let alone at times of crisis.
It is tricky to lead with a healthy amount of uncertainty. I used to sit on the board of a media company. A senior executive regularly came to present to us and always prepared to the nth degree. So far, so good. But the problem was that if any questions came from left field, they would wing it with made up answers rather than having the confidence to admit they did not know. When senior people give opaque answers, it is one of the most untrustworthy things they can do - and if it’s on repeat - employees, customers, suppliers all lose faith.
I’ve met so many people in senior positions who seem to have been inculcated with the view that the more you rise through the ranks, the more you should exude confidence in order to command authority. I don’t think that’s always the right philosophy. I find people who share ambiguity when situations are tough to call far more impressive.
Getting the balance right between asking questions, assimilating information and realising you don’t have and will never be able to have the answer, is hard. Admitting you don’t know does not mean bypassing hard work or not being as prepared as you can.
I was impressed recently when I met an expert in the hospitality sector (one of my more fabulous business sidesteps was co-founding Lucky Voice, a karaoke chain) and we were having an exploratory conversation about partnership. I immediately trusted him as he was quick to answer a bunch of my ignorant questions about the next two years with realism. “It’s too hard to say,I don’t know, everything is possible but i dont know how two next few months will shape up” peppered his responses.
Similarly, a company I work with had a rough time last year as the planned exit strategy never materialised, despite mammoth hard work over many months. Employees were left with much disappointment and many frustrations. What did the chief executive say when asked whether a new exit was likely in the next year at a company-wide meeting? “I don’t know”. And guess what? Everyone believed him and some lost trust was restored.
So I want to encourage you to channel the sentiment of that PowerPoint slide from 1994. I think that an appropriate dollop of doubt can be immensely helpful. Nobody knows anything seems a good mantra for these strange and complex times.
Martha lane fox co-founded lastminte.com and lucky voice. She is President of the British chambers of commerce, Chancellor of the OU and sits on multiple boards including twitter and Chanel.