Leadership Fallacies Week 2: “Good Leaders Always Have the Answers.”

Continuing our series on Leadership Fallacies—those subtle lies we believe as leaders that often hold us back more than they help us.

This week’s fallacy shows up in many different ways: "Good leaders always have the answers."

Early on in my career, I was interviewing for an I.T. position (my first in the public sector). It was going generally well, until they got into the technical details:

"Can you outline your experience supporting an AS/400 server?"

I immediately froze, because I had exactly zero experience with this particular system. I was tempted to blow some smoke, give a generic answer, and just Google my way through it if I ultimately got the job.

But I knew that wouldn’t work. So I smiled back and replied with:

"Absolutely nothing. BUT I'm definitely willing to learn."

I got the job. (Shout out to those who gave me a chance!)

Maybe you've felt that pressure too. The expectation - spoken or not - is that if you're in charge, you should know what to do. When something goes wrong, they look to you. When someone’s unsure, they look to you. And if you don't have the answer immediately, it means you're not leading, right?

This belief is heavy, often isolating… and wrong.

The truth is, great leaders don't always have the answers.

But they do know how to find the answer.

They know how to ask the right questions. They know how to listen and trust the collective experience and wisdom of their team.

This doesn't mean you abandon decisiveness. But we do need to reject the idea that leadership = certainty. As we know, we often have to navigate through ambiguity. We’re forced to make decisions with incomplete information. And we’re not going to pretend we’re the smartest person in the room.

If you've created an environment where YOU have to be the one with the solution, you're shutting down innovation. You're missing blind spots. And worst of all, you're training your team to depend on you instead of growing on their own. (And good luck actually unplugging once in a while for vacation.)

I've found that the strongest leaders aren't the ones who always speak first. They know how - and when - to stay quiet, trust the process, and ask better questions.

Your team doesn't need a know-it-all. They need someone who is steady, humble, and willing to learn with them.

So let’s ditch the ego, ask more questions, and build teams that think, grow, and lead alongside us.

Because leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about helping your team find the right ones - together.