Inquiry and Interrogation

Great leaders seem to possess great growth mindsets. They always look for opportunities to learn how important is curiosity for success as a leader?

You know, inquiry and interrogation of all things is so critical. And I think that the best teams that I have had have been those teams that have been really critical with their questions. And asking questions for understanding, asking questions for expansion of ideas and asking questions to find the bias. So, this curiosity, the manifestation of curiosity in my head and what I've seen in the workplace is around questioning and really, truly articulating a wonder about things. I had the honor of hosting a innovation panel the other day. And the chief strategy officer at Salesforce was one of the individuals on the panel. And he used the phrase, you have to come at every situation with a beginner's mindset. And I really liked that because that's what curiosity is. It's almost a sense of like I haven't seen this before, so if I had never seen this before and I didn't have the 30 years of experience that I have. How would I see this? How would I experience it? And I think that is an important part, particular to innovation. If you want to be an innovative company, I think curiosity is a critical skillset that if you don't already have it, you need to develop it.

Since you come from Salesforce, I think Marc Benioff uses that quote a lot too, that he also approaches everything with the beginner's mindset. And Keith Krach, the founder of Global Mentor Network and you worked with him at DocuSign, also approaches it the same way. He just thinks, think of little kids, they're always asking questions and there's no agenda. They're just curious, why do you do that? Why does that happen? Why?

I mean, it's really, it's a true gift. And for so many people, it's being able to be on the other side of that question and not be defensive and not instantaneously try to come back. It's like, oh, let's actually think about that. Let's actually marinate in that why? And because oftentimes that's where the real answers come is in that thoughtfulness around the why.