Overheard a young guy say 'just fake it till you make it' at a coffee shop

I was grabbing a coffee in Portland last Tuesday and heard this kid telling his friend to just pretend he knows things at work. It hit me that I spent 15 years in accounting doing the opposite - if I didn't know something, I said so and asked for help. Has anyone else found that being honest about what you don't know actually builds more trust with your boss?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_robinson201d ago

Yeah, @wendy_lee48 said it exactly right. I found that being upfront about what I didn't know actually made my manager trust me more, not less. When I messed up or got stuck, I'd just say "I need to learn this part" instead of pretending I had it handled. That honesty gave people a reason to believe me when I said I did know something. Faking it just creates a mess you have to clean up later.

wendy_lee482d ago

You'll climb faster when your boss knows you're not full of it.

samrodriguez1d ago

Oh, that brings back a memory. My friend Carol, who managed a retail store for years, had a young assistant who always pretended she knew everything during meetings, and it backfired badly when she couldn't deliver. She ended up learning the hard way that honesty like @wendy_lee48 mentioned really does build trust, because her boss eventually told her that asking questions showed more confidence than faking answers.