Last week I was asked to give a presentation on the importance of curiosity in leadership.  As I began to think about how to frame the conversation, it occurred to me that great leadership (like great coaching for that matter) is actually all about asking the right questions.....

Imagine developing a vision without asking, “what is possible?” or “what does success look like?”.  Or how about considering your own role as a leader without considering “why would people want to follow me?” or “what do I want my legacy to be?”.  How will you organise your team to deliver if you don’t ask, “what skill sets do we need?” and  “who is the best person?” for each role.   So I came to the conclusion that curiosity is critical for effective leadership -  and that success is in part about knowing what questions to ask and in part about how you handle the answers.

Next time you’re evaluating leadership – your own or someone else’s – consider how well you do the following:

• Focus on discovery – as a leader it’s not about you being right all the time, but it is about getting the best possible answer.
• Suspend your judgement and pre-conceived notions – evaluate each idea on it merit.  We have all developed intution  or filters about issues and about people, and these can often get int the way of great new ideas seeing the light of day.
• Know when to decide and when to listen – even though you’ve probably built your career on making “good” or “right” decisions, as your responsibility grows so will your need to listen to others and empower them to make the decisions.
• Have the courage to act – avoid the tendency towards curiosity for its’ own sake and strike the right balance between thinking and doing.
• Constantly re-evaluate – ask yourself “what could I have done better?”

It’s also important to let go of some of the fears that prompt questions like:

• What if they’re smarter than me?
• What is they realise I don’t know?
• What if I’m wrong?
• Isn’t it my job to tell them?
• What if we screw it up?

At the end of the day, it’s about knowing what questions to ask and having a genuine interest in pursuing the best possible answer for your team, your business and/or your customers.

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