A strong leadership brand strategy is not built around being the person who always has the answer. In my experience, some of the best leadership decisions begin with being willing to say, “I don’t know.”
The longer I’ve been in business, the more comfortable I’ve become saying those three words.
That probably wasn’t something I would have said as easily in the early years.
When you’re the founder, people look to you for answers. And for a long time, I think I connected good leadership with being the person who knew what to do next.
Nearly two decades into running a business, I see that very differently.
Some of my best decisions now start with realizing that someone else in the room knows more than I do.
Does a Good Leader Need to Have All the Answers?
No. Good leadership is not about being the person with the most answers. It is about knowing where the company is going, surrounding yourself with people who bring the expertise you do not have, and creating enough trust for them to use it.
That shift has changed the way I think about my role as a CEO.
It has also changed the way I think about hiring.
I don’t want to hire people who are simply there to execute what I already know.
I want people around me who bring strengths, experiences, and ways of thinking that I don’t have.
People who will notice something I missed.
People who will challenge an idea.
People who can look at me and say, “I actually think we should do this differently.”
That kind of team makes a company stronger.
Hire People Who Know Things You Don’t
It can be tempting as a founder to hire people who can take things off your plate while you continue to make the important decisions.
And sometimes that is what you need.
But there is a difference between adding another set of hands and adding expertise to the company.
The strongest people on my team are not valuable because they can carry out every idea I have.
They are valuable because they bring something I don’t.
They Notice Things You Miss
No matter how experienced you are, you are still looking at the business through your own lens.
Someone with different experience may see a problem, opportunity, or solution that never occurred to you.
They Challenge Your Thinking
Agreement can feel easier.
But a team that feels comfortable respectfully challenging the founder is often far more valuable than a team that simply waits for instructions.
You want people who can say, “Have we thought about it this way?”
Or even, “I don’t think that’s the right move.”
They Make the Business Less Dependent on You
This one becomes more important the longer you are in business.
Because eventually, life happens.
A Strong Team Matters Even More When Life Happens
I’ve been through a lot of seasons while running brandiD.
Last year, I was able to spend a month in Greece with my family.
I’ve also walked through incredibly hard seasons of loss, when work simply could not have all of my attention.
Those experiences have made me appreciate the team around me in an entirely different way.
Because a strong team isn’t just about having enough people to get the work done.
It’s about building a company that isn’t dependent on one person knowing everything, deciding everything, or being available for everything.
That changes what is possible for the company.
But it also changes what is possible for the person leading it.
Why Trust Is Part of Strong Leadership
Over time, I’ve become much more comfortable turning to someone on my team and saying:
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
There’s a lot of trust wrapped up in that question.
It means trusting that you hired people because they’re good at what they do, not just because you needed help getting things done.
It means giving them enough room to bring their own thinking to the table.
And it means recognizing that sometimes their answer is going to be better than yours.
That can be difficult for founders.
When you created the company, made the early decisions, took the risks, and carried the responsibility for years, letting someone else take ownership of an area can feel uncomfortable.
But hiring expertise and then continuing to make every decision yourself defeats much of the purpose of having that expertise in the room.
Your Leadership Brand Is Shaped by How You Lead
A leadership brand strategy is more than what an executive says publicly or how polished their online presence looks.
Your leadership brand is also shaped by the experience people have working with you.
Do you need to be the smartest person in every room?
Can your team disagree with you?
Do you ask for their perspective?
Do people have enough ownership to make decisions?
Can the company continue moving when you aren’t available?
Those things communicate something about you as a leader too.
For founders and executives, reputation is built through more than visibility. It is built through the way you lead, the decisions you make, and the trust you create around you.
Saying “I Don’t Know” Can Be a Leadership Strength
There is a big difference between lacking direction and admitting that you don’t have a particular answer.
A CEO still needs to know where the company is going.
You still have to make difficult decisions.
You still carry responsibility for the direction of the business.
But you do not have to be the person with the deepest expertise in every area.
In fact, if the company is growing, you probably shouldn’t be.
You should eventually have people around you who know more than you do about parts of the business they are responsible for.
That is not a weakness in your leadership.
It is evidence that you have built something bigger than yourself.
My Job as CEO Has Changed
Nearly two decades into running brandiD, I think about my role very differently than I did when I started.
My job isn’t to have every answer.
My job is to know where we’re going, hire really good people, and create enough trust for them to help us get there.
And after all the seasons I’ve been through, I know how valuable that really is.
There will always be decisions that ultimately land with the CEO.
But there should also be more and more decisions that don’t.
Sometimes one of the strongest things a leader can say is:
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
Where Are Too Many Decisions Still Landing on You?
Every leader has areas where they know enough to know something matters, but they don’t want—or need—to keep making every decision themselves.
If that area is your website, branding, or content marketing, brandiD can step in as an extension of your team with the strategy, expertise, and execution to move things forward without every decision landing back on you.
Book a call with the brandiD team and let’s talk about where we can step in.
Want more conversations about building your authority, impact, and income online? Listen to The Professional Presence Podcast.