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I disagree, the people in my life who act like they know what they're doing usually suck at it. There's something to be said for not discounting yourself too much when new to a field, but mostly if you don't know what to do you need to ask someone who does, so that you can actually know what you're doing

This summer I was coaching Congressional debate in Florida. I was effectively new to this form of debate because it was more of a performance than analytical activity. So I wrote a list of the speaking problems I didn't know how to coach, and asked another coach about everyone of them, right in front of the person who hired me. If I had acted like I knew everything already, I never would have asked. But asking allowed me to pull the ideas from coaches with very different backgrounds, and by the end of coaching several kids offered detailed reasons why I was the coach most helpful to improving their speaking skills

I agree with what you're trying to say here, but I'm not sure that's what she means. To me, it feels like it's more about having confidence. Especially from the point of a woman. Our world is still largely geared towards men. A woman who doesn't show confidence could be at a huge disadvantage. I think having confidence is different than pretending you know everything.

Personal edit: "Act like you know what you're doing; most people are just winging it anyway."

my favorite one as well.