In other words: incuriosity
is believing that you know all you need to know. Yikes.
Especially now, in this 21st century, with technology and business models
changing daily, instantaneous worldwide communication and information-sharing
commonplace, more generations in the workplace than ever before (with all their
differing expectations and beliefs about work) — thinking that you’ve got it
all figured out seems just foolish.
I’ve observed that great
leaders are, without exception, actively curious; eager to understand and
learn, recognizing there’s lots more to know and lots more they need to
know. And I’ve seen that their curiosity is not only key to their ongoing
development – it makes them great to be around. People really like having
leaders who are interested in them, in what they do and what they know.
So,
how do you get curious?
1. Ask real questions. Too many leaders ask fake
questions designed to show how smart they are. E.g. “Don’t you think we’ll do
better next quarter if we lower our inventory from three months to
two?” That is not a curiosity-based question — the asker knows exactly
the answer he or she wants to get. Real questions sound like, “How do you
think we could…?” or “Why do you think that might…?” or “What do you know
about…?”
2. Be OK with not knowing. I believe the main
promoter of ‘incuriosity,’ is leaders’ belief that they ought to know
everything. Until you can get comfortable with not knowing things (especially
in front of your employees), it’s nearly impossible to act on your curiosity.
Notice how you’re talking to yourself about ‘not knowing.’ If you’re
saying things to yourself like, “I’ve got to show I’m on top of this,” or
“They’ll think I’m an idiot if I don’t know this,” you won’t be able to be
curious. Curious self-talk sounds like, “Wow, I’d love to know more about
that,” or “Hmmm, I wonder what that means?”
3. Surround yourself with people not like you. Even
if you’re asking actual questions, and your self-talk supports your curiosity,
it won’t do you much good if everybody around you knows all the same stuff you
do. It’s one of the main reasons diversity (of race, gender, age, background,
thinking style) is a good business practice; leaders who build strongly diverse
teams have the chance to find out and get good at a huge variety of things.
4. Learn from children. Little kids are insatiably
curious. It’s how they learn to walk, talk, eat, play, run, draw,
socialize, sing, etc. all in the first 3 years of life. Here’s an example.
The more you can operate like a little kid, in terms of your curiosity, the
better off you’ll be.
An added bonus – besides
being the best possible way to turbo-charge your acquisition of new skills
and knowledge, to be a good and followable leader, and to grow as a
professional and as a person….being curious is really, really fun
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