I’ve been thinking about “I don’t know” a lot lately. This meme sums up my thoughts, and frankly my whole legal career, quite nicely.

When I first started as a lawyer, no words seemed scarier than “I don’t know.” As I’ve moved through my career perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that not only is it okay to not know, but being comfortable saying so can be a superpower.

On the legal team, it can feel like we’re supposed to know all the answers. What are the risks with this product launch? Can we accept that contract language? What does the law in such-and-such country say is required when processing payments? We want to answer quickly and authoritatively, with an immediate grasp of legal risk balanced with business goals, while avoiding the lawyer trope of always saying “it depends.”

But often “I don’t know, I’ll find that out” is the best answer. That may seem obvious but saying “I don’t know” to a group of people, who very much expect you to know, can be intimidating. The legal team should be comfortable being uncomfortable and prioritize getting it (mostly) right over quick answers. At the beginning of my career, I probably said “I don’t know” quite a bit because, well, I didn’t know much. After a while, I tried to say it less because I wanted to show I was smart and capable–of course, babbling in an uninformed way is the opposite of smart and capable. As the years went by, and I gained confidence, “I don’t know” increased in my vocabulary again. I’m now more comfortable with what I don’t know, and confident I have the trust of colleagues to figure it out.

“I don’t understand” can have a similar power. I have found that when I raise my hand to say that I’m not understanding a concept, it usually results in others around the table admitting their own confusion or it causes two people who thought they understood each other to realize they are not actually on the same page.

It’s often the case that if you don’t understand something, especially if it’s a more technical discussion, the assumption is that the cause is your own inability to follow the conversation or lack of knowledge. But the folks on my team, and all around Automattic, are smart; if they don’t understand, they’re usually not alone. Speak up. At worst you’ll force the speaker to more sharply crystallize their thoughts. At best, and most often, you’ll reveal issues that were being glossed over or help the group realize they were not yet aligned.