THE FEAR OF NOT KNOWING ENOUGH
You’re meeting with a client or a prospect. He or she asks you a question and you don’t know the answer.
Have you ever feared you’d lose business or someone might view you negatively because you “don’t know enough?” Do you have a “professional knowledge gap” in some area of your business?
Yesterday, a junior financial adviser told me he avoids opportunities to be connected with wealthy prospects. Why? Because he’s afraid of being put on the spot if they ask him questions he can’t answer. He said, “I’m the professional who’s supposed to have all the answers. If I can’t answer their questions, how can I inspire confidence? Not only will I feel like an idiot, but they won’t want to work with me.”
Many seasoned professionals have similar concerns. One of my clients is a business adviser with 16 years experience. He’s successful because he gives excellent service and is great at building relationships. When we started working together, he didn’t consider himself enough of a technical expert in his field. He constantly struggled with the fear that he would be “found out.”
Many professionals believe it’s only a matter of time until they’re unmasked as a fake…or a fraud…or a phony. All because of what they don’t know.
So what do we do when we don’t know? I’ve coached a lot of people on this. Here’s the short version of how I usually coach them:
1) Stay calm and don’t judge yourself. There has been an incredible explosion of information over the past 20 years. You know what you know, and you can’t know everything.
2) Have a prepared strategy for what to do when you don’t know. You can say something like this: “That’s a good question and I want to give you a complete (or accurate) answer. There are some technicalities I need to look into. I’ll research it and get back to you by…” Then say when you’ll get back to them–the sooner, the better. Then of course, follow through and get back to them within the promised timeframe.
3) Proactively address your “professional knowledge gap.” If you feel you need to learn more about your field, create a study plan. What do you need to learn and how would you best learn it? What journals or books do you need to read? What courses are there? What videos or audio programs can help?
I’ve found that the only way this self-directed education works for most professionals is to schedule small chunks of time at the beginning of the day, before they dive in to email and other work. They read or study 10-20 minutes at the beginning of their workday 3-5 times a week. You might be astonished at how much you can learn in a few short weeks or months. The key is to do it consistently and have an accountability source to keep you on track.
There’s an explosion of Information in every field. We all have a lot to learn to stay on top of our professions. In these fast times, a failure to continually upgrade your knowledge is the kiss of professional death.
What’s your knowledge gap…and what do you want to do about it?
