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An occasional newsletter that delivers creative, practical and cross-culturally relevant articles and book reviews on leadership and coaching topics, to help you bridge the knowing-doing gap.

Curiosity
by Dr. Keith E. Webb, ACC

In learning to coach others, it is far easier to learn and practice skills like listening or asking questions, than it is to learn qualities such as curiosity. Yet, curiosity is essential to listening and asking questions.

Curiosity opens new thoughts and perspectives. Curiosity asks why things are the way they are and not some other way. Curiosity looks for what it doesn't know rather than seeking to confirm what it does.

How To Cultivate Curiosity

1. Cultivate your whole brain. Curiosity is more a function of the artistic right side of our brains, than the logical left side. Expand your listening beyond logical cause-and-effect. Listen in pictures with colors and imagination.

2. Expand your interests. Breadth and diversity are the foundations of curiosity. Read the whole newspaper, not just your favorite section. Read fiction. Turn off sitcoms and watch Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the BBC. Take a course completely unrelated to your work.

3. Be childlike. Children know they don't know and ask. Their questions ask about basic assumptions and unspoken details. They learn and their world expands. But somewhere in adolescence they stop asking and by their late-teens many feel they know everything.

4. Ask, even if you think you know. Although, watch your motivations. If you ask to confirm what you think you know you will focus on responses that agree. Instead, ask to expand your perspective and look for responses that are different in some way than you expected.

Curiosity requires an attention to detail and nuance that can be cultivated by expanding our interests and perspectives. Curiosity leads to innovation and good coaching.

How About You?

As you listen make leaps of thought beyond logic, asking: What if...? and Why not...?
How will you add diversity to your media intake today?
Examine your motives as you ask questions: Are you confirming your assumptions or expecting to learn?

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Dr. Keith E. Webb is a trainer and experienced cross-cultural leadership coach helping organizations, teams, and individuals multiply their cross-cultural impact. Find free articles at http://www.CreativeResultsManagement.com.