{"id":28855,"date":"2024-11-06T03:50:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T08:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/blog\/the-importance-of-curiosity-in-professional-coaching\/"},"modified":"2024-11-06T03:50:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T08:50:24","slug":"the-importance-of-curiosity-in-professional-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/blog\/the-importance-of-curiosity-in-professional-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity: The Secret Weapon of Great Coaches and Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genius extraordinaire Albert Einstein was attributed to saying, \u201cI have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.\u201d Einstein was clearly onto something. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research has shown<\/span><\/a> that curiosity is correlated with creativity and innovation, intelligence, tighter relational bonds, improved learning, and problem-solving. With all those benefits, it\u2019s no wonder that creating a culture of curiosity is something every leader should strive for. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a coach in training, I was taught to form my questions with a mindset of curiosity instead of information gathering. With a curiosity mindset, I could observe my client in fascination, and see a coaching conversation as a path where insights, learnings, and discovery could thrive. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, with an information gathering style of questioning, I take on a role as the expert, as the knower, as the one directing the conversation and coming up with recommendations. This is not coaching. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With curiosity I am inviting my clients to explore their inner wisdom and unveil solutions that only they could have come up with. This discovery process is the power and beauty of coaching.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While curiosity strengthens relational bonds, interrogation builds walls that repel intimacy. With curiosity, there is exploring, uncovering, exposing, digging, considering, or reflecting. These lead to shifted mindsets, creative perspectives, new understanding and learning, which is at the heart of effective coaching.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a culture of curiosity comes a culture of trust, openness, and collaboration. These are the foundations of creativity, and why many savvy leaders today try to adopt a coach approach in their conversations and interactions with their teams and colleagues.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.\u201d This quote by Naguib Mahfouz sums up the role questions play in curiosity and discernment.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As coaches, we know that being curious is one of our most important postures because it allows us to \u201cdance in the moment\u201d with our clients and engage in their limitless wisdom and resourcefulness. As leaders in our businesses and in the coaching field, being curious has similar benefits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are four strategies to ensure you cultivate curiosity as a leader in your business and in your clients so they can draw from its many benefits as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Pay attention to being curious<\/h2>\n

This may sound obvious but it\u2019s not. You must learn to stop asking questions as the leader, expert, or knower. Instead, ask questions simply out of curiosity. This puts you in a mindset of not being attached to a response so you can maintain a curious stance throughout a conversation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Model curiosity<\/h2>\n

Leaders can create a culture of curiosity by modeling it themselves. Acknowledging when they don\u2019t know the answer, and making themselves vulnerable to not being the knower, allows leaders to capitalize from input from others. When you adopt a posture of curiosity as a leader, this means you employ a questioning style of communicating like someone who digs deep rather than just staying on the surface of things. This in turn encourages exploration, innovation, empowerment, and confidence among team members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Draw out curiosity from those you lead<\/h2>\n

Leaders can help draw out our innate curiosity.\u202f Asking \u201cwhat if\u2026?\u201d and \u201chow might you\u2026?\u201d questions generate more creative ways of tackling an issue. As a coach, when a client makes a statement that I know has the potential to have many layers of \u201cstuff\u201d under it, I ask a question like, \u201csay more about that,\u201d or make a direct observation such as, \u201cI\u2019m wondering whether\u2026\u201d or \u201cwhat\u2019s the real issue at play here?\u201d or \u201cwhat do you make of this situation?\u201d These elicit deeper levels of exploration which lead to fresh insights and perspectives. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u202f4. Prime the pump of curiosity<\/h2>\n

Curiosity can\u2019t flourish when there is a lack of awareness. In her book, <\/span>Dare to Lead<\/span><\/i>, author and researcher Bren\u00e9 Brown talks about how \u201cpriming the pump\u201d so teams have enough awareness to be curious, is critical to engaging curiosity. Curiosity can\u2019t flourish when there is a lack of awareness. As coaches we know that the bulk of a coaching conversation is about generating a greater awareness on behalf of our clients by asking powerful questions, direct communication, establishing trust and intimacy, and using reflective inquiry. All these techniques help build awareness so that our clients can then be curious about their new insights. It\u2019s the same with leadership. Those we lead must have enough information to draw from so that their curiosity has a place to take root. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like most things, curiosity is a talent, something that you can improve upon with practice. As a leader, coach, or business owner, adopting a posture of curiosity will help you leverage its many benefits, so you reap the rewards of stronger relational connections, engagement, and creativity, and create an environment where possibility is evident.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Natalie Jobity \/ The Unveiled Way<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genius extraordinaire Albert Einstein was attributed to saying, \u201cI have no special…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Curiosity: The Secret Weapon of Great Coaches & Leaders | ICF","_seopress_titles_desc":"Curiosity is one of the most beneficial skills you can develop as a coach. Being curious helps you, and the people you lead, grow and develop.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"audience-type":[115,118,121,124,120,117,113,114],"display-option":[],"post-type":[128],"topic":[83,60],"_person-tax":[1952],"class_list":{"0":"post-28855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"audience-type-coach-educators","8":"audience-type-experienced-coaches","9":"audience-type-external-coaches","10":"audience-type-icf-chapter-leaders","11":"audience-type-internal-coaches","12":"audience-type-new-coaches","13":"audience-type-professional-coaches","14":"audience-type-team-and-group-coaches","15":"post-type-blog","16":"topic-advance-your-coaching-career","17":"topic-discover-your-coaching-career","18":"_person-tax-1952","19":"not-partnership-post","31":"_person-tax-27866","32":"has-featured-image"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"audience-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience-type?post=28855"},{"taxonomy":"display-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display-option?post=28855"},{"taxonomy":"post-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-type?post=28855"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=28855"},{"taxonomy":"_person-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_person-tax?post=28855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}