Knowing, Not Knowing, and Inner Knowing: A Leadership Practice for Uncertain Times

The Emerging of a Framework
by Meghan Clarke

What if the most powerful leadership tool you have isn’t a new strategy, a bold vision, or a five-year plan but the way you orient yourself in uncertain times?

Over the past few years, I’ve come undone more than once. You probably have too. Long days. Shifting plans. Back-to-back meetings, emotional labor, invisible mental mapping; all while trying to do good work and be a good human.

But that unraveling didn’t break me. It revealed something deeper. A quieter, steadier way of leading. A practice I now call: Knowing. Not Knowing. Inner Knowing.

This framework is not about perfection or polish. It’s not even about answers. It’s about presence and learning to lead from the inside out.

Knowing: Your Root System

“Knowing is your root system. It’s what you stand on when everything else feels shaky.”

Let’s start with knowing. This is our confidence: our expertise, our earned wisdom. Knowing is what’s already true. It’s your lived wisdom, the expertise you’ve earned through experience, the moments you stood tall when it counted, the clarity forged through both success and struggle.

Knowing is the ground you’ve traversed. It’s your lived wisdom, the part that says, ‘I’ve been through it, and I trust myself.’ It’s not bravado. It’s not ego. It’s the quiet confidence that says, ‘I know what I’m doing here.’ So often, we hesitate to claim what we know. We wait for external validation. We downplay our insight. But in leadership, our clarity matters. That quiet confidence that says, “I’ve been here before. I trust myself. You don’t have to wait for permission or perfection. What you already know is enough to move forward.

What do you know to be true right now? About yourself? About your leadership?
Say it. Claim it. Stand on it. It’s your root system.

Not Knowing: Fertile Ground

If Knowing is the ground, Not Knowing is the sky. Open. Uncertain. And, let’s be honest, sometimes down right terrifying. This is the space where clarity hasn’t arrived yet.

But here’s what I’ve learned: Not Knowing is where growth begins. It’s not a flaw to fix or a gap to hide. It’s the space where creativity can emerge, collaboration can deepen, and new perspectives can take shape. It’s the space of, ‘I don’t know but we do.’ The space of co-creation. It’s also where transformation starts. In my own life, I’ve learned that surrender isn’t giving up — it’s letting go of control long enough to let something deeper emerge.

In our culture of quick answers and a perpetual hustle to achieve, we’re often rewarded for having it “together.” But Not Knowing takes courage. It invites us to stay open, stay curious, and resist the urge to force clarity before it’s ready. And let me be honest: I’m someone who was really good at knowing as a kid, a true achiever — straight A’s, athlete, gold stars all around. And I was taught that not knowing made me unsafe or unworthy. So I armored up with achievement and performance. Only in recent years did I start to reframe not knowing as a space of creativity. Not failure. Not a flaw but a real gift.

Right now is one of those season in my business when I genuinely don’t know what is next. There are so many questions I cannot answer, the ground feels like it is quite literally moving beneath me…. But instead of scrambling for a fix, I’m pausing. I’m staying in the discomfort. And in this stillness, I will discover/uncover something:  a new perspective, a path yet uncharted….The next steps will eventually reveal themselves, but only after I stop trying to control the unknown. It’s the HUGE drive up movie theater – the empty screen- right before the film begins. It is anticipation right before the big reveal. The unknown is scary, I’m not going to tell you otherwise, but it is also the liminal space between no longer and not yet and it is the time to embrace, not resist emergence.

Not Knowing isn’t passive. It’s presence. It’s pausing long enough to let something truer emerge.

“Not knowing takes humility. But it also takes guts. It says, ‘I’m willing to keep going even though the path isn’t clear.’ And that kind of courage? That’s what true leadership looks like.”

Inner Knowing: The Whisper Within

And then there’s Inner Knowing. The quietest, yet often most powerful of all. This is your intuition. Your gut sense. That internal signal that speaks before logic has caught up.

This is the part of us that just knows. That gut feeling, intuitive pull, quiet voice that’s so often drowned out by urgency, fear, or the opinions of others.

The challenge? We’ve been trained to override it. We’re told to follow the data, to look outside ourselves for the answer. But what if your deepest clarity lives inside?” This one is hard-earned for me. I’ve always had a deep sensitivity to people, to the room, to what’s unspoken. But I used to think that meant I had to carry it all. Everyone’s emotion. Everyone’s expectations.  I didn’t understand that inner knowing meant I was going to have to stop people pleasing and discern what I was being called to do. I didn’t understand that inner knowing isn’t about absorbing — it’s about discerning. Listening inward. Tuning the dial to myself, not the noise. It is about listening to my own voice. I don’t need validation to trust what I already know.

“Inner knowing isn’t loud. It whispers. It says: Something about this is off. Or yes, go that way — even if it doesn’t make sense yet. The more we practice listening, the stronger that voice gets.”

And when I do listen — when I follow that whisper instead of the spreadsheet — what unfolds is nothing short of mind blowing….holy even. Real leadership, especially in complex, high-stakes environments requires discernment. And discernment starts within.Inner Knowing doesn’t shout. It whispers. And it requires you to tune in, turn down the noise, and trust yourself… even when it doesn’t make sense on paper

“It’s taken me into my 40s to finally believe that I don’t need anyone else to affirm what I already know to be true. And maybe that’s the most radical act of leadership we have — to trust ourselves.”

Why It Matters Now

Leading in tumultuous times requires more than hustle or heroics. We need leaders who are clear, grounded, and real.

Knowing, Not Knowing, and Inner Knowing isn’t a checklist. It’s a practice. A way of being. A way to stay connected to what matters, even when the map is upside down and the fog is thick.

So take a breath. Ask yourself:

• What do I know with confidence right now?
• Where am I sitting in Not Knowing — and what might that space hold for me?
• How do I hear my Inner Knowing… and what would change if I followed it?

Let this be your invitation to pause. To recalibrate. To lead from the inside out.

Not with all the answers.
But with presence.
And trust.
And the courage to take the next right step.