Why Leaders Need to Get More Curious

Ted Lasso might not be the first person you consider a fount of business knowledge, but the fictional coach of the AFC Richmond soccer club (and protagonist of the eponymous AppleTV+ sitcom) has one trait that experts say is increasingly undervalued in the corporate world: He’s insatiably curious.

Sometimes, that comes in the form of Ted’s (often naïve) questions about the new-to-him sport. More often, it manifests in the care and enthusiasm with which he seeks to connect with his colleagues. And in one memorable scene set over an emotionally charged darts match, he invokes (and misattributes to Walt Whitman) the adage to “be curious, not judgmental” as a credo to live by. 

The mustachioed character’s curiosity—his inclination to recognize, embrace, and seek out information and experiences—is a big part of his folksy charm and contributes to his unique efficacy as a leader.

It can be hard to stay curious in the modern world. We now have access to so much information, so easily accessible and so optimally delivered, that it can, somewhat paradoxically, discourage probes based in critical thinking and suppress unexpected “rabbit hole” lines of inquiry that can open up new opportunities. Most of us spend our days exposed to algorithms that can focus more on reinforcing echo chambers than on challenging thought processes or providing alternative perspectives. Layer in the inexorable march of time—humans have long become less curious with age—and it’s easy for leaders to gradually phase out “what if?” and “how come?” from their professional vocabulary.

But experts believe curiosity is worth fighting for: “I would argue that curious people make for better leaders,” asserts Matthias Spitzmuller, associate professor and distinguished professor of organizational behaviour at Smith School of Business. “Furthermore, in a world of artificial intelligence—in which repetitive tasks are going to be increasingly automated—the importance of curiosity is only going to increase.” 

Indeed, as Smith Business Insight contributor Deborah Aarts discovered in conversation with Smith faculty and alumni, curious leadership can advance several important—and increasingly valuable—organizational imperatives.

How, exactly? We’re so glad you asked.

Curious leaders forge stronger connections

For Matei Olaru, BCom’12, curiosity is a career throughline, underpinning everything from his time practicing corporate law, to his years as CEO of a public cannabis company, to his current entrepreneurial role as co-founder of Your AI Department, which helps legacy businesses integrate AI thinking. Whether he’s researching a client in an unfamiliar industry or reaching out to a potential collaborator, seeking out the unknown just comes naturally to him: “For me, it’s a foreign concept to hear about something that’s different and not get excited by it,” he says.

In Olaru’s view, curiosity is a strategic asset to almost any professional—especially those in positions of power. “I think curiosity can be a valuable counterweight to transactional leadership,” he says. Because most leaders are extremely busy, he explains, their interactions with employees, customers and investors can often skew perfunctory or shallow, centering solely or mostly on whatever exchange in on the table. But when leaders make space for deep inquiry—to ask real questions about what others want, about what’s missing, and about what’s possible—it can result in great things: Stronger relationships (an increasing source of strategic advantage, with 70 per cent of professionals craving deeper connections with their colleagues), deeper engagement (with employees more likely to stick around and produce great work when they feel their bosses are invested in their success), and, ultimately, better solutions. “Curiosity allows you to better understand what people are looking for, what support they need and how you can help,” Olaru comments. “And it can help you build a workplace that is more productive, and with a better culture.”

Annie Fergusson, GDB’17, firmly believes in the cultural ripple effects that can occur when leaders exemplify curiosity. In her varied experiences—which include three turns competing at the Paralympic Games; engineering, business and law school; and, most recently, a burgeoning legal career—she’s found that the most effective and engaged cohorts materialize when everyone parks their know-it-all tendencies and starts asking one another more questions, from the top down: “Whether you’re in a sport or a business situation, being curious is the best way for people to put aside their egos,” she says. “That’s because when you start getting curious about what’s out there, you have no choice but to step outside of yourself.”

Curious leaders encourage innovation

Some of history’s most notable innovations, from Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin to Roy J. Plunkett’s unexpected invention of Teflon, came as a result of humans responding to unplanned circumstances with inquiry instead of certainty.

Similarly, the most successful outcomes of the popular marshmallow challenge tower-building team exercise tend to come from curious children open to left-field approaches—not adult professionals, who can be so methodically focused on sequential problem-solving that they overlook unexpected solutions.

There can be a powerful link between curiosity and innovation, and this can be a competitive differentiator for organizations that nurture it, according to Olaru: “If you ask a lot of questions, over time, you’ll create a sort of continuous feedback loop of discovery—and you’re more likely to find answers to your problems,” he says. “There’s a long thread of curiosity behind anything innovative that successfully gets to market.”

Experts say innovation-unlocking curiosity is common among new ventures but tends to wane as organizations age and grow. Multiple influences can contribute to diminishing that curiosity. But it doesn’t have to be so, and Spitzmuller contends that leaders can play an important role in setting an inquisitive tone. “Good leaders promote, develop and reward that curiosity in people,” he says. “And by doing so, I think they also promote creativity, which is in turn associated with innovation and organizational readiness for change.”

Spitzmuller is currently working with Smith professors Goce Andrevski and Julian Barling, as well as Melissa Trivisonno (who earned a PhD and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in organizational behaviour at Smith) on research related to forbearance leadership, in which bosses deliberately allow employees to explore solutions on their own, without direct managerial intervention. While this approach is not always appropriate—many situations in business are simply too consequential and time-sensitive to allow for hands-off exploration—Spitzmuller says encouraging open-ended inquiry in lower-stakes situations can stoke organizational innovation and adaptability. “You can use these experiences to teach your teams to be curious, to run experiments, and to learn,” he says. “That’s how you can get people out of their comfort zones and into the unknown—because the unknown has become the status quo in the business world.” 

Curious leaders are best equipped to harness AI

As artificial intelligence upends everything from marketing to innovation to leadership itself, experts believe that critical inquisitiveness will become an increasingly valuable trait among leaders.

Why? Because curious leaders are unlikely to take what they learn from generative platforms like ChatGPT and Claude at surface value, which can protect their organizations from falling prey to groupthink or echo chambers, and set the tone that such technology is be used critically and with care. Curious leaders can also model behaviours that encourage skeptical AI adopters to consider the technology as source of opportunity—not a threat. And curious leaders are also better positioned to use AI with creativity—as a tool to help them pursue and workshop new ideas—which can accelerate the pace and expand the scope of discoveries. “There’s now higher leverage to being curious,” Olaru says. “The arrival of AI has only made it more valuable for leaders.”

Or, to put it in the language of Lasso, it’s no time for leaders to put up umbrellas in a brainstorm.