The Business Case for Curiosity

This month many of the challenges that businesses and professionals have discussed with us could have been solved or supported by adding curiosity, so we feel compelled to set out its business case, and highlight its hidden impact at business, team and individual level.

The commerciality of curiosity often lies in its positive impact on client relationships (think both internal and external clients) due to its inherent ability to either (1) uncover really useful information that one can act on, or (2) get straight to the root cause of any problem or difficulty much faster than its opposing approaches of judgement or apathy. It supports great client relationship management and promotes good leadership and personal effectiveness in equal measure. It helps to openly challenge any status quo or difficulty, without causing unwanted defensiveness. What’s more, it is relatively quick and easy to apply, so it even suits the overworkers and firefighters among us. Let me explain.

1. Why Curiosity is Commercial

When professionals are stretched, it’s tempting to default one’s focus to “efficiency”, lots of busy-ness and assume that making quick decisions is appropriate and essential. But, our coaching experience tells us otherwise. Particularly in service-led industries like ours where output is usually generated by a coordinated team effort, and clients aren’t always good at giving context, a dose of curiosity before decision-making can reap dividends.

By supressing one’s haste and showing a little curiosity through asking just a few high-quality open questions, one can:

Externally

• Uncover client strategies and challenges, so that smarter proposals can be tailored to real need.
• Understand how decisions are made and who influences them, so that time is invested in the right people.
• Find out what’s behind a client challenge, and create the opportunity to influence their outcomes.
• Spot hidden client problems and offer relevant and applicable services, not generic ones.

Internally

• Discover the root cause of a problem in the shortest time possible, freeing up time and headspace.
• Discuss difficult topics without causing defensiveness, and quickly identify the most effective solution.
• Find out what’s stopping colleagues from progressing, and delegate more successfully with meaningful feedback.
• Engage in constructive reflection to achieve intentional impact, rather than reacting on autopilot.

Universally

• Avoid making rash (inaccurate) judgements or assumptions and looking like a fool!

Where curiosity is low, missed opportunity is high. Professionals end up reacting with hasty judgement, making assumptions, or filling gaps with guesswork. Clients are misunderstood, teams become siloed, and performance plateaus, not necessarily from a lack of effort (!) but from a lack of insight.


2. What Do We Really Mean by Being Curious?

It requires a change of approach from one of judgement (“I have the answer”) or apathy (“I’m not interested in the answer”) to curiosity (“I wonder what the answer is”).

Curiosity in dictionary definitions is generally referred to as “a strong desire to know or learn something”. In professional practice this means asking before advising, reflecting before reacting, looking for preceding factors or patterns (not just problems), and having a genuine willingness to be surprised by others.

Curious professionals don’t accept surface-level input or superficial explanations. They explore, probe and make sense of the wider context, whether that’s inside a client’s business or in their home team.

3. How to Develop Curiosity and Use It Successfully

Step 1: This starts with habitually saying to oneself sentences which start with “I wonder” right at the point in time that would otherwise have been filled with a judgement, decision or assumption.

Step 2: Then follow this with open questioning.

Step 3: Oh, and don’t forget to listen (really listen, not just listen with self-interest).

When we coach professionals to adopt a more curious approach, we often say that curiosity is what happens when you pause before taking action, to wonder what else could be true.

Externally

Curious professionals ask open questions that lead somewhere useful, and often result in better outcomes and/or fee generation. For example:

• “What are the biggest priorities for the business next year?”
• “How do you typically approach decisions like this internally?”
• “What’s not on the agenda yet—but probably should be?”
  
  

Internally

Curiosity can transform how leaders communicate, delegate and give feedback, hence it contributes to high-performing teams. For example:

• Instead of saying “why haven’t you finished this?” ask “what do you need from me to make this successful?”
• Instead of assuming someone isn’t trying, ask “what feels challenging about this?”
• Rather than an eye-roll when someone is often late, ask “what is it that stops you from coming in on time?”

Universally

Intercept quick judgements for unwanted or unwelcome behaviour and swap those for a more balanced view (this often allows for absent compassion!).

• Simply pause to think “I wonder what made them say that / do that?”

4. What’s in it for me?

In a nutshell, if professionals use curiosity well they capitalise on earlier and more valuable opportunities from clients, then deliver on those opportunities via happier, more cohesive and productive teams.

This occurs without adding time or complexity to their daily role, just by changing how they "show up" in the conversations they already have.

In this market where clients are cautious and performance pressure is high, curiosity is one of the few tools that creates value without needing more hours.

Of course if professionals don’t use curiosity well, they risk staying in a cycle of assumptions and missed opportunities. Leadership could feel heavy, not helpful. And commercial opportunities may go amiss simply because questions weren’t asked.


Final Thought

The feeling that the state of curiosity generates is a better mental experience than the feeling that the states of apathy or judgement generate. In other words, it’s a better place to be in your head!

Judgment tends to close things down, trigger defensiveness, fuel frustration, and reinforce fixed thinking. It leads to blame, assumptions, and/or the need to be right.

Curiosity, by contrast, opens things up. It invites dialogue, allows space for learning, and supports progress. It’s more akin to a growth mindset. Give it a go. 

If any of these articles resonate with you or you’d like to find out more, please contact us directly.

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