On Friday, my Vistage group was listening to Indra Nooyi, retired CEO of Pepsico, talk about Leadership in a Time of Crisis. She was laying out her 5 C’s of Leadership of which no. 4 was curiosity. It occurred to me that curiosity is a superpower.
“With the world changing so profoundly around us, if you don’t have a passion for lifelong learning which is married with insatiable curiosity, you will atrophy and be left off of the ladder.” -Indra Nooyi
Let’s talk about lifelong learning first. We now acknowledge that there are many types of valuable intelligences and that we have hyper-rewarded academic learners, especially those that do well young in school. This focus pushed many successful entrepreneurs outside the traditional business models because they were dyslexic or were kinesthetic learners and didn’t succeed in the traditional classroom. Being a learner, a life long learner does not mean having more degrees, it means constant awareness and learning, not limited to your business focus.
If you don’t have this drive naturally, you can consciously develop it by practicing. Take an hour every Sunday afternoon to watch a youtube video or read about a topic that someone you respect mentioned that you know nothing about. Lost for inspiration? How about nanotechnology, vulnerability, or walking the Camino to Santiago, Spain. Do a regular deep dive into topics you know nothing about and you will get new neural pathways through the grey matter in your brain that will spark insight in different ways to the world around us.
Intense curiosity is equally important. Many people, many very intelligent people don’t ask enough questions. As a a master practitioner of provoking learning through questions, let me share a little secret: she who asks the best questions controls the conversation and gets treated as the wisest person in the room. The joyous hidden benefit is you learn more by listening than you do by telling the world what you know.
This week, ask more questions and listen closely with the goal of asking 3 more questions before you share what you know. You will be surprised how fun and meaningful it will be for you. Extra credit for not interrupting them before they finish their thought.
Image of Bogie exploring the Swiss chard and the trash