Curiosity Creates Connection
Asking more questions, seeking to understand, and learning to serve those you lead.
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
—Albert Einstein
When we were growing up, dad decided my sister and I needed desks where we could do our homework. He closed in a screened porch and turned it into ‘the den,’ furnishing it with three desks acquired at used office equipment sale, carefully painted, and topped with new wood grain laminate.
In the corner of the wood-paneled room, he installed a wall of shelves. On the bottom shelf sat the World Book Encyclopedia, aka the pre-Google path to all knowledge.
From that day forward any time I asked dad (or mom) a question their response was the same:
“Did you look it up the in Worldbook?”
Photo by
Gary Butterfield
on
Unsplash
Falling in love with curiosity
It was a question seldom answered verbally. It became a call to action. A call to discover the answer on my own. A not so subtle reminder there was a place to go when I wanted to learn.
And it worked.
The more I learned from our trusty Worldbook Encyclopedia collection, the more I wanted to know. My quest for an answer to a random question often led to hours of learning all kinds of things from the pages in those white and green books with the gold lettering on the covers. They fueled my need to know and ignited an insatiable hunger for understanding.
Perhaps that is why today I often receive texts from family members asking me to look something up for them on Google. My time with the encyclopedia apparently developed a different search technique than others, so my searches deliver better results.
Curiosity changes the way you engage
It turns out being curious is a very valuable skill. The desire to understand, the quest to figure things out, and the need to know more change the way we engage with others. Perhaps more important, it reminds us we don’t have all the answers.
I am grateful every day for all those times mom and dad ‘sent me to the den’ to find the answer. It taught me the power of seeking knowledge. It made me comfortable questioning everything. It convinced me there was always a way to find an answer.
Over time I became an avid questioner. Committed to understanding and figuring things out. Leaning on questions as a way to get out of speaking in public when I was scared. Discovering the power of questions to inform me so I could avoid being embarrassed by not knowing. Recognizing the power of provocative questions to drive decisions.
Leading through curiosity
What I have learned in working with leaders is how curiosity changes everything. The most successful leaders I have encountered invite those they lead into the conversation by asking questions. They develop deeper connections because they communicate respect for the knowledge and experience of everyone. They listen to learn and recognize they don’t have all the answers.
Behaving in the way shifts the dynamic. It takes the focus off of the leader and puts it on the led. And that brings out the best in everyone.
Today’s Action Advice
No doubt you are thinking about where you fall on the curiosity continuum. Maybe you are the one who asks questions, or perhaps you are the one who relies on what you know to create impact. There is value in both approaches, but I would argue in the collaborative world we live on today, every leader needs to become more curious.
I’d love to hear how you plan to up your curiosity game? Click here to share your thinking with me?
P.S. Here’s a quick way to get started — ask this simple question at least twice today: What do you think? Then repeat tomorrow and the next day and the next day…you might be surprised how it changes things for you and those with whom you engage.