(Eight Attributes Of Leadership - Head Cont.)

Eight attributes of leadership

A. Head (includes IQ)

1. Curiosity (means keeping an open mind so that if different facts are presented, you can change your mind, ie being flexible; it is linked with imagination, creativity, innovation, etc; willingness to learn from anywhere and anyone, ie seeking knowledge; searching for solutions, etc; want to know about things you don't understand; genuinely seeking to fill gaps in knowledge; be willing to challenge things like assumptions; it is linked with self-assessment, courage and empathy, ie it takes courage to have an open mind and appreciate diverse points of view that might conflict with your own; willing to ask worthwhile questions without judgement; efforts to understand, rather than to win, an argument; willing to challenge and rethink your ideas; overcome fear of looking stupid owing to your lack of knowledge and ignorance; being a good listener, ie listening to other people without assuming you know what they are going to say, ie
"...absorbing what is being said by another and integrating it into our understanding of the conversation, circumstances or situation..."
Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a

"...more than intelligence, persistence, connections, curiosity has allowed me to live my life to its fullest. Being curious infuses everything with a sense of possibility..."
Brian Grazer (award-winning film producer) as quoted by Kirstin Ferguson, 2023a

Curiosity exists on a spectrum, ie finding out about the inconsequential, eg how something tastes, to important, eg global warming.

Research has shown
"...people with high levels of curiosity also have higher levels of well-being and find enhanced meaning in life..."
Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a

Curiosity allows unlimited possibilities for you to learn, explore, challenge and rethink.
"...It's about being curious at about what interests us, what we are passionate about, what we connect with and what fills us up and nourishes us in different ways..."Libby Trickett (Olympic medallist) as quoted by Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a

Other benefits of curiosity include:

    i) based on improving performance, curiosity is more powerful than reflection

    ii) it improves relationships, ie inspires more trust and builds more collaborative relationships

    iii) decreases group and interpersonal conflict, ie more tolerant of differing points of view, etc

    iv) encourages growth mindsets, ie 'what if'

    v) reduces confirmation bias, ie less likely to seek information that supports your existing point of view

    vi) reduces stereo-typing, ie less likely to use broad judgements about entire groups of people

    vii) better able to share information more openly and listen more carefully

    viii) a catalyst for job satisfaction, motivation, innovation and high performance
"...being curious creates leaders who are more focused on outcomes, more strategic, more collaborative and more influential......more focused on team leadership, have better organisational capabilities and are better at leading change......tend to make fewer errors when making decisions we have considered alternatives to what already know and think. when curiosity is activated, we think more deeply and rationally about decisions..."
Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a

What stifles curiosity:

    i) success (happy with the status quo, reluctance to change the format for your current success, generates complacency, etc)

    ii) familiarity (happy with the way things are; the more you like doing the same thing, the less likely we are to be curious about it, etc)

    iii) length of time doing same job
"...One study showed that only after six months, 250 people who recently started working for a new company had, on the average, declining levels of curiosity of more than 20%..."
Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a

    iv) lack of diverse experiences (the more diverse your experiences and career opportunities, the more curious you become, etc)

    v) fear of looking stupid (when asking a question, you can be fearful and nervous of being judged, such as being perceived as ignorant, lacking knowledge, being  incompetent, causing embarrassment, etc
"...it takes a certain confidence to ask questions and challenge. Sometimes the questions themselves can be exposing..."
Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a)

NB As a teenage student, the author of this knowledge base was reluctant to ask questions in the classroom as he feared that the teachers and other students would think that he is ignorant, stupid, a fool, etc. Luckily, a friend explained that it is 'better to be ignorant or a fool for a couple of minutes than for the rest of your life'. Also, the friend counselled that there is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers!!!! Based on this advice, he regularly started asking questions in the classroom. To his amazement, fellow students would come up to him after class to thank him for asking a question they wanted to ask but were reluctant to!!!

Remember: curiosity starts young, ie as babies we are curiously exploring the world around us.
"...Curiosity is innate to humans..."
Kirsten Ferguson, 2023a)