Curiosity Is the Core of Leadership
What opportunity might you be missing because you have already decided you know the answer?
I believe a leader’s future depends on curiosity.
The more experience we gain, the easier it becomes to believe we already understand the problem in front of us. We have seen similar situations before. We know the people involved. We know how organizations work.
That experience can be valuable.
It can also become a blind spot.
Leave Room for Another Answer
When I’m curious, I ask questions like:
Why would someone choose another organization over mine?
How could we double the size of our organization?
What am I not seeing?
I cannot remember asking a thoughtful question and not receiving something useful in return.
Sometimes the answer confirms what I already believed.
Other times, it changes the direction of the organization.
The Opportunity I Almost Passed Up
Years ago, a county asked me whether I would take charge of a program nobody else wanted.
I was hesitant. I did not like the way the program was designed, and I could see plenty of reasons to walk away.
Before shutting the door, I asked my consultant friend Caleb what he thought.
He saw something I did not.
Caleb believed I was focused only on the program sitting directly in front of me. He saw the possibility that it could become a catalyst for much larger opportunities later.
What began as a $100,000-per-year contract eventually became a $400,000-per-year contract.
With the county’s encouragement and financing, we were also able to develop children’s mental-health services in a way we had never been able to before.
That opportunity could easily have disappeared if I had simply trusted my original conclusion.
Curiosity allowed someone else to show me something I could not see on my own.
Experience Should Improve Your Questions
One of the dangers of leadership experience is that we can become too quick to diagnose.
We decide why an employee is struggling before asking enough questions.
We dismiss a new program because it does not fit the way we have always done things.
We assume we understand why someone disagrees with us.
We can even reject an opportunity because it looks too small, too difficult, or too different from what we originally imagined.
The more experienced you become, the more important it is to challenge your own conclusions.
Your experience should help you ask better questions. It should not eliminate the need to ask them.
Challenge What You Think You Know
We all have biases. We all carry judgments and conclusions that can go unchallenged for years.
The danger comes when those assumptions begin making decisions for us.
Sometimes leaders lose opportunities because they already believe they know the solution before they have fully diagnosed the problem.
Before you reject an idea, talk to someone who sees it differently.
Before you decide an employee cannot grow, ask another question.
Before you assume your organization has reached its limit, ask what might be possible.
Curiosity does not mean delaying decisions forever. It means gathering enough perspective to make better ones.
Before Your Next Major Decision, Ask:
1. What am I assuming to be true?
2. Who sees this differently than I do?
3. What information could change my mind?
4. What opportunity might exist beyond what I can currently see?
5. Who should I talk to before making this decision?
The next time you are certain you know the answer, become curious instead. One question may reveal an opportunity you could never have seen on your own.
Become a More Curious Leader
A Nonprofit Leader's Edge draws from Mike Logan's decades of nonprofit leadership experience and explores how curiosity, strategic thinking, systems, accountability, and leadership development can help organizations grow stronger.
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