Curiosity

My grandchildren regularly ask questions. They are eager to know, learn, and explore. When children pursue something, we witness their curiosity!

Curiosity (from Latin curiosus “careful, diligent, curious,” akin to cura “care”) is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning. I wonder how curiosity is tied to beginner’s luck. The phenomenon of a rookie/novice experiencing disproportionate success or succeeding against an expert in a given activity is usually referred to as “beginners luck”.

The novice or the beginner is predominantly curious and looks at various dimensions that an expert’s trained eyes may overlook. When leaders lose their curiosity and stop learning they stop leading. For this reason, I was impressed with Sally Smith’s curiosity to discover how she could be a better leader as the CEO of the wildly popular Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain. In an article, for the New York Times, Adam Bryant, “What are some things you’ve learned about leading and managing people?”

She replied: “I’m always seeking feedback. That’s how I learn. That’s how I get better. If you want to continue growing, you have to be willing to say, what do I need to get better at? Before we even did performance reviews, I used to go to one of our key leaders and say, “I want you to write down four things that I need to work on next year.” Getting feedback [as a leader] is really tough.

How curious are you to learn? What questions should you ask? Who will you reach out to and ask for honest feedback?