"BE MORE THAN CURIOUS
In his article “How to Think Like a CEO,” [Adam] Bryant shares insights on what leaders need to succeed based on over 500 interviews with diverse leaders across a wide swath of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. In trying to figure out the one common element among all these individuals, Bryant came up with a single, most essential quality. He calls this “applied curiosity.” Bryant says leaders who have it:
Engage in relentless questioning to
understand how things work. And then they start wondering how those
things could be made to work better. They approach everything with an
inquiring mind-set—whether it’s making sense of shifting consumer habits
or the global macroeconomic trends that are shaping their industry.
While Bryant acknowledges the value of more commonly cited leadership qualities such as trust, honesty, emotional intelligence, and humility, the reason he values applied curiosity so much above others is what one leader described as the “infinite learning curve.” Good leaders must certainly demonstrate those other qualities, but the ability to question and constantly ask how to improve is the difference maker. That’s why it resonated strongly with me and connected with the importance of always striving to seek out new mysteries rather than satisficing with what’s always worked or doing things the same way because that’s how it’s always been done. Bryant questions whether applied curiosity, like leadership itself, is something people are born with or can learn. There are behaviors librarians on the leadership track can adopt, particularly pattern seeking or trend exploring, that can make applied curiosity more of a mindset."
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