It is impossible to grow without curiosity. Curiosity, by definition, is the urge you feel to know more about something.

There is more to curiosity than just its basic definition.

Cultivate your curiosity because it’s the fuel that drives your career growth.

“Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Walt Disney

Being curious helps you creatively solve problems in life and at work.

According to Oregon State University research, “as workplaces evolve and jobs become increasingly dynamic and complex, having employees who can adapt to changing environments and learn new skills is becoming more and more valuable to organizations’ success.”

In today’s complex business landscape, employers are seeking creative, curious problem-solvers.

Have you noticed people at your organization are naturally curious?

They are easy to recognize because they ask many questions. Curious people seem to be born with the need to ask deep questions about almost everything.

How can you cultivate your curiosity and successfully grow your career?

10 tips to help you cultivate your curiosity and successfully grow your career

Here are 10 tips to help you successfully cultivate your innate curiosity and grow your career.

1. Become comfortable with the unexpected and unfamiliar

Curious people are generally more adaptable. They often react more favorably to change because they are open-minded. They are willing to consider different perspectives. This open-mindedness leads to better thinking and decision-making.

As you gain more work responsibilities, you will move higher up in your company. With more authority, power, and leadership, make sure you don’t lose your innate wish to be curious about things.

There is always too much to do with too little time. As a result, senior executives often isolate themselves from others and new ideas.

But leaders who cultivate their curiosity are drawn to the unexpected, unfamiliar, and unsolved problems.

You don’t have to look further than improv.

Why improv

Improv is a live theater environment. The plot, characters, and dialogue of a game, scene, or story are made up in the moment.

The important rule of improv is “Yes, And.” This is according to the book: Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses “No, But” Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration.

Everything is created on the spot. You must say “yes” to whatever your fellow actors bring to the table. Then, add on to it. If you’re not listening to your scene partner, you’re missing most of the scene.

The power of improv

According to Will Hines, the author of How to Be the Greatest Improviser on Earth, improv will help you:

• Consider saying yes to things and see the value in that choice more often than you did before
• Listen deeper, fuller, and more actively
• Brevity: improv rewards succinct, direct talk.
• Empathy: You’ll see things from other people’s points of view
• Become braver: You’ll become more comfortable with people watching you
• Be present: You’ll worry less about the future and more about what the moment feels like
• Knowledge: You’ll learn something you don’t know
• Clearer opinions: You have opinions all the time, but you don’t realize it, so you’ll become clearer in expressing them in a “yes and” way

The power of preparation

Those who work in improv understand the significant preparation involved. With more practice, you’ll be a little more relaxed on your feet.

Think as improv actors do. You’ll be acting more in real time. You will respond quickly to current events. You can set a new direction on the fly.

As a leader, if you don’t have enough experience and don’t understand how to improvise successfully.

With enough practice, it can become second nature to excel at “yes and” what is happening now. This practice helps you become more curious and comfortable with being uncomfortable. It also prepares you for unexpected and unfamiliar situations at work.

2. Tap into your innate nature of asking questions

In some organizations, curiosity is reserved for the “creative types.”

Yet curiosity is an innate human trait, and it shouldn’t be reserved for certain people.

It is vital to tap into this “inner sense” and cultivate your ability to ask thoughtful questions.

How to ask better questions

Here are some tips on how to ask better questions:

• Plan your questions. Before your meeting, write down your questions ahead of time
• Decide your purpose. Every question you ask helps you gather facts and opinions.
• Open up the conversation. Go beyond asking simple “yes” or “no” questions. Ask “open-ended” questions that get the other person or people to talk. This way, you gather more information.
• Ask questions with words like ‘best’ or ‘favorite’.  Ask questions like “what do you best about your job?” instead of “do you like your job?” and ask questions like “what was the favorite part of your day?” instead of “how was your day?”
• Use questions where wording doesn’t include judging, leading, or biased words. By asking neutral questions instead of emotionally charged ones, you avoid directing or biasing the answer. Neutral questions don’t carry a hidden agenda and allow people to think deeply about the answer. For example, you can ask: “What process did you go through to find your needs?” or “What challenges are you facing?” or,, “What are your thoughts?”
• Put your questions into hierarchical order. Rank your questions from the “bigger picture” to the specific. Then dive into the particular follow-up questions to get more details.

3. Stop interrupting others

You can show your curiosity in how you interact with your colleagues and other people you work with.

By interrupting someone else, you signal that you are not interested in what they have to say.

“Wisdom is a reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you [wanted] to talk.”

Doug Larson

How to stop your urge to interrupt

How can you learn how to stop interrupting others?

• Don’t speak up in meetings for one or two weeks unless you are addressed directly. Listen and jot down notes instead.
• Only ask questions, refrain from giving your opinion, and take notes. Ask questions like “Where did you find that information?” or “What do you think the outcome would be?” Take notes on the answers.
• Spend time with people you admire who don’t interrupt others. Start modeling what you like about them when they communicate with others. Schedule coffee meetings or informal gatherings to ask for their advice and constructive feedback.
• After taking a little break, start sharing your thoughts in meetings. Keep notes on how others are reacting to them. Keep emphasizing listening over speaking.

The power of listening

Successful leaders spend more time listening than talking.

Become genuinely interested in other people. This concept is outlined in Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People. By doing this, you will make a significant impact. People will start telling you things that they have never told you before.

Everyone wants to be heard, and some people are just waiting for others to listen.

Listening and taking an interest in others is infectious. Other people will see your behavior. Others will start doing the same.

4. Foster curiosity by entering different physical spaces and seeing things differently

To cultivate your curiosity, explore various physical spaces, both at work and outside, and engage in diverse types of work.

New ideas are sparked when you enter different environments and see things differently.

For example, dim lighting and ambient noise lead to more out-of-the-box ideas.

There are times when you need to work independently. At other times, you would gain from a different surrounding or a different type of work assignment.

Understanding how your work environment influences your work can foster a culture of curiosity.

5. Reinvigorate your curiosity, don’t let success stop it

To spark and cultivate your current curiosity and advance your career, consider your past experiences. Find what activities or events sparked your curiosity.

For example, you were a runner who stopped because you became too busy. By running again, your curiosity level can return, and you can generate more questions and ideas.

The right habits

When you are successful at work or winning games in sports, everything smells better. You are not engaging in the proper habits.

“Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells.”

Elizabeth Taylor

Seek out opportunities to cultivate your curiosity and grow your career

Once you recognize what makes you more curious, seek opportunities to be in those situations. This way, you can cultivate your curiosity and grow your career.

Just because you are successful in your career doesn’t mean you are curious.

Take a fresh look at your everyday work environment. You can find startling new insights. These insights save time, money, or resources.

You never know what you’ll uncover when you’re curious.

6. Make your ideas count

Don’t be afraid to try something new.  Successful people know how to gather the knowledge and information necessary to generate ideas.

“Ideas come from curiosity”

Walt Disney

Not everything you try will help you, your colleagues, or your organization.

But by trying new things, you constantly challenge the status quo and bring new ideas to life.

How to get people to listen to your ideas

Here are some ways to get people to listen to your ideas.

Be audience-centered

People will listen to you if you show you’ve listened to them. Use the “yes and” approach we discussed earlier and build upon what your audience said.

Have a clear message about your idea

Your audience is most likely to listen to you when you offer a single, clear idea.

Make sure you truly understand your idea. Think about it thoroughly. Boil it down to the main points.

Count out loud your key points on why the idea is good

By saying, “My first reason is…” and then “My second reason is,” you have a clear structure that encourages listening. People love lists.

Slow down

By slowing down, you can engage your audience and give weight to each of your thoughts.

Pausing between key points helps your audience better absorb what you have already said. They also better understand what you are going to say.

Use body language

Look your audience in the eye and avoid your notes.

The way you use your eyes, face, gestures, and body can influence how people perceive you.

By using these tips, you will help your listeners truly hear what you have to say. They will engage with both their minds and their hearts.

By making your ideas count, you increase your chances of gaining a promotion. You improve your personal brand. You also advance quickly and effectively up the corporate ladder.

7. Deepen your understanding

If you know a three-year-old child, you’ll see their curiosity in their face. They will ask “what,” “why,” and “how” about everything they see around them.

They want to know more and don’t limit themselves to what’s right or wrong; they ask, ask, and ask.

As we age, we are often encouraged to lose our curiosity. We stop asking all the questions that come to mind.

Instead, we go about our days having “surface-level” conversations. We do not dig into more details about a colleague’s day. Also, we don’t explore what they are working on.

Continuous learning

Curiosity is the genuine wish to learn more about something.

Explore. Go deeper. Truly understand.

Curiosity led theoretical physicist Albert Einstein to the Theory of Relativity.

Without curiosity, physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton would not have discovered the Laws of Physics.

Curiosity led physician-scientist Alexander Fleming to discover Penicillin.

Curiosity never ages. A neurological study reveals that curiosity enhances our brains’ receptivity to learning.

It is like compound interest.

As we learn, the more we enjoy the learning process. The more we want to do it.

Every day life takes over.

The problem is that many people lose curiosity about new experiences. They become focused on their everyday lives. They assume work responsibilities and build their work-life routines.

Their sense of wonder begins to fade.

Curiosity fuels our imagination and deepens our understanding, which is fundamental to our success.

Curiosity prepares your brain to learn and acquire new skills. Don’t take ordinary things for granted.

8. Tackle challenging assignments

Many of us fear uncertainty and doubt that hold us back from being curious. Curiosity helps overcome a dull and passive life. It prevents you from feeling like you are just going through the motions of daily life.

When you are learning new things, you challenge yourself. By meeting new people, you open yourself to opportunities worldwide. This leaves little time for negativity, boredom, or stagnation.

By taking on challenging assignments at work or in your personal life, you engage your brain and keep it active. These challenge opportunities need deep thinking and innovative approaches that go beyond traditional techniques.

Gain a new perspective with a challenging assignment

You also gain a new idea. Most importantly, you develop the skill of thinking creatively, curiously, and innovatively.

This approach to tackling a complex task will help you. Approaching an unfamiliar project will help you approach your career with a positive attitude.

It will also help you be more strategic in your thinking. You will develop better ideas and solutions.

9. Challenge your perspective

Need new ideas? Try changing your viewpoint.

When you approach things from a different perspective, you frame them differently.

Instead of seeing the challenges in the world, you see the opportunities and possibilities.

It was a great reminder of that old saying, “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”

You will be amazed by what you see when you view things from a different perspective.

If you always look at an obstacle from the same angle, it’s hard to come up with an innovative solution.

Connect the dots

By changing your perspective, you can see something new by connecting the dots between different ideas and perspectives.

If you view a problem from a different business unit’s perspective, you can develop a more effective solution. You also find a problem at an executive level.

Insights

Furthermore, understanding issues from external sources, like your customers, can help you develop a better solution. You can gain insights from your vendors. You can also gain insights from your agencies.

The happiest and most resilient leaders are willing to admit they don’t have all the answers.

They understand that it takes a slight shift in perspective to see something familiar in a completely new light.

10. Get out of your comfort zone

People with a high curiosity quotient rarely seek out the comfortable. Part of this process of stepping outside of your comfort zone is to ask questions like:

• What am I drawn to?
• Is there something I am avoiding?
• What do I fear?

Your answers surprise you, and spark new self-discovery, and the next uncomfortable thing becomes a little bit easier.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Albert Einstein

How to become comfortable being uncomfortable

Here is how to take those small, daily steps to help you become comfortable being uncomfortable.

1. Take nothing for granted. Embrace the suffering of losing a job, getting a divorce, or not getting a promotion as a learning experience. Use these challenges to prevent complacency with what you have at work or in life.
2. Tweak your routine. Routines are important. But find ways to make small yet meaningful changes to them. Try a new route to the office. Consider trying a new lunch spot or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
3. Give up some control. Delegate something that you know how to do. These include tasks like managing social media, speaking at the quarterly staff meeting, and leading a weekly team meeting.
4. Start conversations with new colleagues. Strike up a conversation with a new employee and welcome them to the company. Take them out for coffee or lunch. They will be looking to meet new people and learn more about their new company.
5. Get in front of the camera. You are self-conscious about how you treat others. You don’t like how you sound on camera. Try something that challenges you and makes you uncomfortable. You will learn something about yourself that you didn’t know.

Incorporate the uncomfortable

There are always ways to incorporate the uncomfortable into your daily routine.

Create a daily or weekly to-do list. Keep a separate list of growth goals. These goals include joining Toastmasters to improve public speaking skills.

You also read more books on a specific topic. Another choice is to serve on the board of directors of a local association.

When you can embrace the uncomfortable, you will absorb more new information. You will cultivate your curiosity and wish to learn more about new things. This will grow your career.

Bringing it all together

Curiosity is a strong predictor of a person’s ability to solve problems creatively in the workplace. 

You can only harness curiosity if you recognize the need to make time for it. You can make the most of curiosity by accepting this need.

By cultivating your curiosity, you can grow your career.

Curiosity is a critical part of developing a “growth mindset.” It will help you become a better employee and a better leader.

It also helps develop a better understanding of different perspectives on the world.

Like any muscle, the curious brain works better with practice. Cultivating your curiosity is a rising career super-power.

Regardless of your age or career trajectory, curiosity can help you take your career to the next level successfully.

The best thing about cultivating your curiosity is its power to transform you into a lifelong learner. It also helps you drive personal growth and advance your professional career.

How has your curiosity helped your career? How did you cultivate your curiosity and grow your career?

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