I’ve long used curiosity as a tool to help me understand what is happening around me.
Now, for the record, a Harvard Business Review and a PricewaterhouseCoopers study confirm that I wasn’t just nosy. Research shows that I was attuned to better leadership.
During the 2011 Slave Lake wildfires, I led the disaster response. There is usually an ebb and flow to disasters, but at a certain point, the data showed that the need for disaster assistance was falling off.
I could have assumed we solved the problem, but something didn’t feel right.
Curiosity compelled me to examine the data, and I discovered that we were missing a new demographic of clients. This resulted in a rejigging of our disaster assistance program to suit the needs of the community.
Click to watch the video of me telling the story.
Why Curiosity Is An Important Leadership Mindset
Consider the following:
- If you think you know, then you won’t ask.
- If you think things are a certain way, then you won’t notice changing conditions.
- When you feel you have all the relevant information, then you won’t look for other details.
- If you think you have the solution, then you won’t explore different answers.
- If you believe you are right, then you won’t listen to other people.
- When you think you know, you won’t ask, see, or hear.
“I think” is a very dangerous leadership stance in a rapidly changing world. Instead, I encourage you to be curious about what you might not know. The worst-case scenario is that you’ll learn something new!
There’s a particular kind of curiosity that’s particularly useful for leaders. Keep reading for five ways to develop this skill.
How To Be ‘Leader’ Curious
Five practices to help you become more curious:
- Listen to learn, rather than respond. Most of us listen so we can confirm our opinions, or we only listen so we can respond to objections. Try listening to learn something instead. Silence can be a handy conversational tool. Here are three tips to help you use silence to improve your conversation skills.
- Pretend you don’t know the answer. Once you believe that you know, you will stop looking, listening, or testing. However, this is precisely what you need to do to identify trends and problems before they arise.
- Hold the tension. When challenged with something that seems impossible, don’t be quick to dismiss the idea. Hold the tension. Get curious. Explore. Everything new was once impossible until someone figured out it wasn’t.
- Don’t be the most intelligent person in the room. The more experience and higher position you have, the more you think you’re the brightest in the room, and you stop learning. However, if you decide that others may have something to offer something you can learn from, then you will want to learn how to have better conversations.
- Think: “I wonder what else?” At best, we only see part of the picture, but not all of it. By asking, “I wonder what else?” you will continue to look, listen, and explore.
Sure, there is some wasted effort and discussions in the process of being curious.
But at the risk of sacrificing a little efficiency for the sake of exploring, know that innovation and breakthroughs rarely arrive in a straight line.
Curiosity will not only save you from disaster but will also allow you to notice and take advantage of opportunities.
Yes, curiosity is vital. But what is the essential leadership skill? Moral courage. Click here to find out why.
If you’re interested in going even deeper or moving your career to the next level, you’ll also want to have a look at my 1-on-1 coaching services.