Curiosity, Passion and Leadership

You're looking for a workplace that will embrace your professional passion.

Leaders are looking for people to be passionate about their company's mission.

Everyone is tossing "passion" and "leadership" around like ingredients at a salad bar.

Dr. Susan Corso at Huffingtonpost created an "Aha!" for me that leads to workplace application.

She did a well-deserved "duh" after reading a New York Times article that used three decades of research by Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford to arrive at the conclusion that some people have "fixed" mindsets while others have "growth" mindsets.

Dr. Corso grabbed my attention with this:

"If you want to discover your own talent pool, there's a simple method that sits in between Dr. Dweck's binary options. Put down the fixed mind-set and the growth mind-set. Both are too needy and attached to outcomes. Instead, pick up a curious mind-set."

This describes powerfully what I see happening in the case of "best-fit" employment scenarios:

Leaders value people who display a never-ending curiosity for the many facets of the business. Similarly, successful employees of every ilk display a never-ending curiosity that emerges as "passion" in a meeting room filled with people.

Companies aren't in the business of self-help or personal growth (although that's often a by-product). They are about learning how to do things better to improve the condition of the business.

What better measure of passion than curiosity? You can see it's presence or absence in interviews, meetings, telephone conversations, or luncheon chatter. You can display it and you can discern it.

Keep it simple

Stop the intellectual tedium surrounding "learning organizations" and focus on what prompts learning: curiosity.

Job candidates: If you want to demonstrate your passion, show your curiosity through questions that have real meaning.

Leaders: If you want to hire and promote people with passion, use curiosity as a barometer to detect it.

(For a visual reminder, feel free to print the pop-out image compliments of All Things Workplace).

Comments

[Dr. Susan Corso]

Dear Steve, so glad to see that my middle ground of curiosity aha-ed you. Keep up the good work on leadership -- we need you! Susan Corso

[Steve Roesler]

Glad you caught the ref to your inspiration, Susan.

Keep writing...

[GL HOFFMAN]

Steve,
Not to blow smoke up at you or diminish your others, but this may be your post ever.
Well said. Exactly the right message today.

[GL HOFFMAN]

oops, should say your BEST post ever. Sorry.

[Jim Stroup]

Bravo, Steve - nice pairing of that awful WSJ column with Dr. Corso's commentary. Instead of these inane charts with one arrow pointing to "puts people down" and the other to "empowers people" resolving the issue to cultivating curiosity is brilliant.

Thanks for the salad bar image, too!

[Steve Roesler]

Glad it made a difference, GL.

[Steve Roesler]

Jim,

What is it about the human condition that, when describing something as ever-changing as the human condition, still insists on an either/or approach?

I'm not trying to be hyper-critical because we would all probably prefer life in a nice, neat manageable package. And there are advantages to being able to define the extremes.

Yet I think that for most of us--at work and at home--the payoff comes from accurately identify what's "in the middle."

Thanks, Jim.

[peter vajda]

Hi, Steve,

some thoughts:

Dr. Corso suggests: "...It asks us for silence, for stillness, for waiting, for revelation. To discover our own talents we have to become present to ourselves."

How many in this day and age of obsession with time, efficiecy, and speed are willing, or able to do this? The practice of presence supports one to go inside to explore, inquire and be curious about one's self on a deeper level...few choose to do so...

...one reason being that so few folks are really comfortable in their own skins, with silenece, so they live in their heads which augurs against being present to one's self---"thinking" about one's self doesn't do it...being quietly in one's body and sensing into and inquiring into one's depth and the truth about one's self does...

Dr. Corso also suggests: "The process requires an assumption--that you are indeed talented. Consider doing yourself the favor you would do for almost any other person on the planet, and assume you have talents."

This is telling, for me, as in my work I often comes across truly talented folks who just can't come to the realization that, yes, they are talented...who have created the belief and self-image that they are lacking and deficient in some way...

Dr. Corso, says, "...Talent of itself means little. Acting upon our talents is key."

This is another apsect of the notion above...that the "knowing" that one has talent is as small as the tiny brain molecule that holds that notion, until acted upon.

Finally, true curiosity is very challenging for most folks. Experiencing life's events from the perspective of a "beginner's mind", or with a "no mind" approach is not what we do in Western culture, where folks identify with the database in their brain - I am "my mind" - in a culture where living in the mind is revered over the body, over inner Wisdom, deeper reflection and contemplation...

In addition, true and real curiosity for many is akin to saying, "I don't know." and heaven forbid we admit we don't know all there is to know. Hmmm. What, me be curious? Hmmm.

True and real curiosity is all about punctuation....fewer periods and more question marks...from a place of seeking real discovery, wherever it leads, with no hidden agenda, assuming a beginner's mind, coming from the the "Hmmm, I know nothing" place, not, as we do here most often, from a place of asking another to defend him/her self under the fake guise of curiosity (which is what "western curiosity" is more about...so one can can save face, not appear "stupid" and feel emotionally and psychologically safe).

[Wally Bock]

Great post, Steve and thanks for sharing an important insight. If all great scientific discoveries begin with the statement, "Hmmmm, that's interesting" then, great leadership begins with that same sentiment, plus "I wonder what will happen if …" My only quibble with you and Ms Corso is that I don't think it's a continuum. I think your everyday mindset is either curious or not.

[Joe Raasch]

Steve,

Thanks for the graphic. A copy has found a permanent place on my office wall.

Best,

Joe

[Steve Roesler]

Hi, Peter,

I'm responding after having read your comment four different times at four different locations today (the darned parole officer found my trail again).

In the midst of providing depth to the discussion, you've also served up a one-liner for all of us to latch onto in our daily lives: "True and real curiosity is all about punctuation....fewer periods and more question marks."

This is also a million-dollar line for coaches whose clients are working on changes around "being curious and diagnostic" vs. "being right."

Now, for a fifth reading...

[Steve Roesler]

Wally, you've spotted one of my weaknesses: forgetting that certain visual effects automatically imply certain things.

The idea here wasn't about a continuum at all. Fact is, I also see the curiosity thing as either/or, got it/don't got it (that is proper English in Philly). Now I see how the continuum notion was hightlighted by discussing extremes and then laying out the graphic in a horizontal, linear fashion.

For me, the learning is about viewing curiosity as a healthy, "other"-focused activity vs. the other two which are "all about me."

I've got to find a graphic designer with a graduate degree in psychometrics and statistics who will work for food.

[Steve Roesler]

Joe, glad to know it meant enough to get a place of honor.

I'm encouraged!