Curiosity Is a Leadership Skill. Are You Killing It on Your Team?

Nokia had almost forty percent of the global phone market in 2007.

Their engineers knew the iPhone was a threat. Their middle managers knew the operating system was falling behind. Their own slides showed nothing alarming until Q2 of 2009, when the company quietly noted that "the mobile industry is undergoing rapid technological change."

By 2013, Microsoft had acquired them.

They had the talent. They had the data. They had time. What they didn't have was a culture where people felt safe speaking up.  No one challenged the status quo.

The Silence Your Team Is Keeping

Harvard Business School surveyed more than 3,000 employees across industries. Only 24% reported feeling curious in their jobs on a regular basis. 70% said they face barriers to asking questions at work.

That number isn't abstract. It means most of the people on your team right now are sitting on something they're not saying. A problem they spotted. A deadline they know isn't realistic. An assumption that deserves to be challenged.

The same research found that many managers believe curious people slow things down. So they shut it down, intentionally or not. They make asking questions feel like a challenge to authority.

The result is a team that executes and stays quiet. Right up until they can't.

Curiosity and the Helm Method℠

Curiosity isn't a personality trait. It's a practice. And like any practice, it lives in the behaviors you choose and enable every day.

In the Helm Method℠, we work in a loop: Aim. Act. Adjust. Curiosity fits every step.

Aim:  Set your intention to be open & curious. Before you join your next meeting, think about what you don't know. What question might you ask that helps the team think differently? What perspectives haven't been heard yet?

Act: Ask the question. Ask many questions. Listen to people. Create space for others to challenge assumptions. "What are we not seeing? What might we be missing?" are not signs of weakness. They're the questions that keep your team out of Nokia's situation.

Adjust: As you try this, you'll see what works. You'll also model something important: that you don't have all the answers. That admission gives everyone around you permission to do the same.

What to Try This Week

Pick one thing you genuinely don't know the answer to. Go ask someone on your team about it. In your next meeting, try asking: "What's something you know that I might not know?"

If you think your team already does curiosity well, test it. Ask them to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10: how often do they feel genuinely encouraged to challenge the status quo? That number might surprise you.

This is Part 1 of a 4-part series on curiosity as a Human Intelligence skill. 

Watch the full Mini but Mighty℠ Leadership Lesson on YouTube: youtube.com/@BossattheHelm

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Lead yourself. Then lead others. Be a Boss.