The more time I spend with teams, the more convinced I am that curiosity isn’t just something a leader needs. It’s something a team needs too.
I’ve always believed good leaders should ask questions. But I’ve come to realise there’s something even more important than being curious yourself.
It’s creating an environment where other people feel comfortable being curious too.
That sounds simple. It isn’t always.
In some workplaces, asking questions is encouraged. In others, it can feel like you’re questioning someone’s authority, challenging a decision or admitting that you don’t know something.
I’ve never really understood why not knowing something should be a weakness. None of us has the full picture.
The person who’s been in the business for 20 years sees things I don’t. Someone who’s joined recently might notice something that everyone else has stopped seeing. A property manager will have a different perspective from a salesperson. A business owner may see something that isn’t obvious to the team on the ground.
If we’re not asking questions, we can miss all of that.
Curiosity changes the conversation
There’s a difference between asking a question because you genuinely want to understand something and asking one because you’ve already made up your mind.
Most of us have probably done both. I’ve certainly done the latter. Real curiosity means being prepared to hear an answer you weren’t expecting.
Instead of asking, “Why aren’t we doing this?”, try asking, “Help me understand why we’re doing it this way.”
Instead of, “Why didn’t that work?”, ask, “What happened that we didn’t expect?”
And sometimes the most useful question is simply: “What am I missing?”
Those questions can change the conversation. They give people an opportunity to explain what they see rather than immediately having to defend it.
Leaders don’t need all the answers
There’s still a perception that the leader needs to be the person in the room with the answer. I’m not sure that’s true.
The best idea doesn’t always come from the person with the most experience or the biggest title. Sometimes it comes from someone who’s been quietly wondering why something is done a particular way.
Sometimes it’s the new person who hasn’t yet learned that “that’s just how we do it” is supposed to be the end of the conversation.
And sometimes it’s the person who’s prepared to say, “I’m not sure this is working. Could we look at it differently?”
I’d much rather have that conversation than have everyone agree with me because they think that’s what I want to hear.
That doesn’t mean every idea is a good one. It means people know they’re allowed to have one.
Curiosity needs to feel safe
This is probably the most important part.
You can’t tell people to be curious and then shut them down when they ask difficult questions. If people learn that mistakes are punished, ideas are dismissed or challenging the status quo is frowned upon, they’ll quickly work out that keeping their head down is safer.
And once that happens, you don’t have a curious culture, you have a compliant one. That’s not what I want from a team.
A good team should be able to ask, “Why?”, “What if?”, “Could we do this differently?” and even, “Are we sure we’re right?”
Not every question needs to lead to change, and most won’t. But asking the question can lead to a better conversation, a better decision or an idea that nobody had considered before.
Curiosity is also about listening
Being curious isn’t just about asking more questions; it is about listening to the answers. And that’s harder than it sounds.
It’s very easy to ask a question while already thinking about what you’re going to say next.
Real curiosity requires a bit of humility. You have to be prepared to hear something you didn’t expect. You have to be prepared to change your mind.
And sometimes you have to accept that the problem you thought you were trying to solve isn’t actually the problem at all.
I’ve found that can be one of the most useful things about asking questions. You learn what you didn’t know you didn’t know.
It doesn’t have to be complicated
I don’t think creating a more curious culture requires another program, another process or another initiative. It can start with fairly ordinary things:
- Ask one more question before making an assumption.
- Give someone the chance to explain their thinking.
- Ask the quieter person in the room what they think.
- When something goes wrong, ask what we can learn from it before asking who’s responsible.
And every now and then, ask: “If we were starting again today, would we do this the same way?”
The questions don’t stop
I’m still learning this myself. The longer I’ve been in leadership, the less interested I’ve become in being the person who walks into a room with all the answers. I’d rather walk in interested in what I might learn.
Because when leaders become curious, teams tend to become more open. When people feel they can speak openly, you hear things you might otherwise miss. And when you hear more, you have a better chance of making a good decision.
Curiosity isn’t about questioning everything for the sake of it. It is about being interested enough to understand and making room for other people’s experiences.
Sometimes it’s also about being willing to discover that your first answer wasn’t the right one. And perhaps the most valuable thing we can bring to a conversation isn’t the answer, it’s a genuinely curious question.
