At some point, you reach the end of your knowledge and expertise. You’re feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Especially if you feel you have to be the expert in the room.

The simplest, most powerful way out of this problem is just to … admit it. Tell the others that you’re at the end of what you know and need help.

I realize how challenging that feels, especially in front of your employees. You’ve spent all this time acting like you know what you’re doing, and it feels like an admission like this makes you a failure. It’s all been a sham.

Please, please give your employees more credit than that. You hired them because they’re real people, right? They can think for themselves?

So they’ve pretty much figured out when you’re in over your head and just making stuff up on the fly. They’ll play along with the charade because, well, you’re the boss. But their level of trust goes down because it feels like you’re not being honest.

And they give themselves permission to not be quite so honest with you either.

So when you’re in over your head, simply tell them that’s the case and what you’re doing about it. Ask for help from them or others. Go do some research. Seek the advice from people who are more experienced in this particular topic. Be humble.

Because you want to trust your employees, which means they need to trust you.