No Surprises. No Excuses. It’s Okay to Say “I Don’t Know.”

All information is good information. It is what you do not know that can hurt you.

Years ago, I worked for a VP named Meg Knauth who helped shape an idea that has stayed with me throughout my career.

Over time, it evolved into three expectations for every leadership team I lead: No surprises. No excuses. Never be afraid to say, “I do not know.”

They are not rules. They are the foundation of a relationship built on trust.

No Surprises

No surprises does not mean I expect my team to predict the future. Problems happen. Markets change. Technology fails. Programs encounter obstacles.

A surprise is different. I should not learn about a problem in my organization from someone outside my organization.

If something is going wrong, I want to hear it from my team first—not because I am looking for someone to blame, but because once we know, we can act.

We can change the plan, bring in resources, remove barriers, engage another organization, escalate, and course correct.

Open communication allows problems to be solved. Hiding problems creates surprises, and surprises destroy trust.

I have to trust that my leaders will tell me when something is wrong. They have to trust what I will do when they tell me.

No Excuses

This is about accountability. We are human. We make mistakes. Sometimes we make a well-informed decision, take a calculated risk, and it does not work.

That is okay. Learn from it. Adjust. Move forward.

There is a difference between risk and recklessness. I want leaders willing to take thoughtful risks because organizations afraid to move eventually get passed by organizations that are not.

Excuses prevent us from reaching the root of the problem. I am more interested in: What happened? What do we own? What did we learn? What are we going to do about it?

Ideally, I do not want to hear, “We missed the target.” I want to hear, “We are going to miss the target unless we make these changes.”

“I Don’t Know”

The ability to admit you do not know demonstrates self-awareness, maturity, and internal confidence. Nobody knows everything. Pretending otherwise is dangerous.

“I do not know” is acceptable, but it is not the end of the conversation. What I want next is: “I will own getting the answer, and I will have it for you by this time.”

Trust Has to Work Both Ways

If I expect transparency, accountability, and honesty from my team, I owe them the same thing: transparency, support, and action.

If leaders bring me problems and I do nothing, why should they continue? If they ask for barriers to be removed and I do not help, I have taught them escalation does not work.

Leadership creates the behavior it rewards—and the behavior it tolerates.

Trust Is the Alternative to Micromanagement

Some hear “No surprises. No excuses.” and imagine a hard-driving executive watching every move. I see the opposite.

Trust is what allows me to stay out of the weeds.

When I trust my leaders to make good decisions, communicate openly, take accountability, and escalate when they need help, I do not need to be involved in every day-to-day decision.

Build trust and you create autonomy. Create autonomy and talented leaders can lead. That is how high-performing organizations scale.

Bad News Early Is Good Leadership

I will always take bad news early. Early gives us time to course correct. And if you have good news but are not confident it is true, tell me that too. Maybe together we can make it true.

No surprises. No excuses. No false confidence. That is not control. That is trust.