The Power of Not Knowing

In this episode, Bill speaks with Newell Eaton, a seasoned leadership coach and creative facilitator and frequent Emergent collaborator. As leaders, we can’t possibly know everything or have a solution to every problem. Consequently, there may be a temptation to pretend we have knowledge we actually don’t. But pretending can compromise trust. Listen as Newell discusses the importance of recognizing and admitting the things we don’t know, and learning to count on others for their expertise.

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*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors

Bill Berthel: Welcome to the Get Emergent podcast. This is where we discuss leadership team and organizational topics and better practices. We like to provide concepts and ideas that you can turn into pragmatic experiments to help you develop your higher potential in your work and your leadership. I’m Bill Berthel and today I have a very special guest with me. He’s a longtime friend for all of us at Emergent. He’s a fellow coach, a colleague, who has what I’ll describe as a beautiful mastery and perspective on human interactions.

Bill Berthel: Newell, welcome.

Newell Eaton: Thank you, Bill. It’s really a pleasure to finally get around to having, ah, one of these conversations with you.

Bill Berthel: Yeah, absolutely. Well, one that we’re going to get to record at least, right?

Newell Eaton: Exactly.

Bill Berthel: I always enjoy our conversations, and we were kind of joking just a moment ago that it’s a shame we only have, well, we have as much time as we want. We’ll only make about 20 minutes or so of this. We could talk all day.

Newell Eaton: We sure could.

Bill Berthel: So today’s topic is near and dear to both of us. It’s this idea of not knowing. The power of not knowing. Can you help me frame this concept of not just not knowing, but that there’s a power in not knowing?

Newell Eaton: Yeah, it’s interesting because so often we have this notion that as leaders, we’re supposed to be competent and know. Right.

Newell Eaton: We’re hired, we think, because we’re supposed to know, and we do know a lot, but there are many things we don’t know that sometimes we think we should know.

Bill Berthel: Absolutely.

Newell Eaton: And so from an integrity perspective, when we kind of pretend we know those things, we usually start to reduce. When people discover we fact don’t know, it really reduces trust. So as leaders, how do we recognize what we really do know? Right.

Newell Eaton: And recognize the power of that. A lot of other people know things that we don’t know. I think the core power of not knowing is recognizing how do we count on others who might know. And ah, when we think about what’s the essence of leadership? A, leader is someone who can’t get it all done by themselves. They need others to get something they care about done. They care about that they try and find other people who care about it to come together to do something. Well, those other people are the ones that by asking them what they know to do stuff, they feel like, oh, their competence is being recognized, they become appreciated. So there’s a tremendous power in team creation by a leader who does not know certain things.

Bill Berthel: Newell, I love how you just defined leadership in the way that it’s someone who can’t get it all done by themselves that really underscores what we’re talking about today. I think maybe I should speak about myself because