I will explain the importance of admitting "I don't know."
Adequate advisory, making recommendations, and discussing trade-offs in your primary areas of expertise will build your recognition. The majority of us want to shine and impress others (clients, teammates, and families) by deep and well-presented knowledge & ease with solving complex problems.
To become and stay a reliable and trusted advisor,
never hide that you are unsure or don't know something!
Here is why.
Literally! No one expects you to know all the answers.
It is your ego convincing you to act as a person who knows.
Ask yourself at least one of those two questions: "Who does know everything?" or "Do you expect someone to know everything?" ... Guess what? I know your answer.
You will lose trust and credibility instead of earning it!
A confusing, not enough extensive, and poorly explained/ answer is a trigger for our listeners to question our knowledge.
By breaking the promise of providing proper and precise answers to the question, we are limiting our audience's trust in all our next moves. Is it not precisely the opposite of what we want? Our self-esteem suffers the same way.
Providing an answer tomorrow is usually fine.
I don't know, but I will circle back to you with the answer tomorrow.
As long as it is not your answer to all questions and requests is acceptable. Doing homework shows we care and allows us to develop and dive deeper looking for the answer.
The listener gets back more than the opinion maker.
We can learn from others. So listen to someone else answer.
Acting and only acting often as a person "who knows" over time make others less keen to help us understand something or deepen our knowledge.
Being loud does not feel gaps in the knowledge!
Instead, we waste our recipient's most crucial and limited resources: time and attention. In parallel, we show our lack of respect.
Please remember we all are vulnerable and not perfect.
Good luck and tread "I don't know" and "I'm not sure" as opportunities.