Once deemed a nice to have personality trait, Curiosity is quickly becoming an essential skillset at work, with lots of research to prove its business value.
After nearly a decade of helping organizations strengthen their curiosity muscles, Diana Kander, cmi's very own Curiosity expert provides this list of the Top 5 Reasons Why Curiosity is so Important to Your Success:
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Curiosity helps us handle tough situations
Curious people have a much higher tolerance for anxiety and uncertainty and handle situations with a non-defensive, non-critical attitude. Curiosity helps us stay calm and creative when everyone around us is letting fear overtake their reasoning.
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Curiosity makes us better problem solvers
Research has shown that curiosity is a strong predictor of a person's ability to creatively solve problems in the workplace. That's because curiosity helps us question conventional wisdom, explore new ways of looking at old problems, and not accept the tired excuse of "we've already tried that."
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Curiosity protects us from cognitive biases
The more curious we are, the less likely we are to fall prey to confirmation bias (information that only supports our point of view) and stereotyping people (putting someone in a box, and inferring all kinds of things about them that could be wrong). Curiosity protects us from biases because it helps us keep an open mind rather than jumping to a quick solution.
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Curiosity allows us to build stronger relationships with our customers and employees
When you don't assume that you know everything there is to know about someone and start asking questions, you are likely to be surprised with new information to help you connect. Many people falsely believe that no news is good news, but taking the time to check in will help create deeper relationships.
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Curiosity makes work a lot more fun
As you figure out how to do your job, it starts getting a little bit more boring each day. Curiosity helps us constantly find new challenges that not only keep our work fresh and exciting, but increases the amount of value we create. Curiosity also helps us develop new skills, hobbies, and experiences to set us up for bigger opportunities in the future.
To learn more about fostering curiosity in your workplace, connect with us here.