Few things light up a room like a leader who asks, “What if we tried it this way?”
Curiosity is a superpower. It has this way of inviting fresh thinking, and quietly signalling to a team: there’s always another way.
Throughout my career I’ve been fortunate to have had several managers who had that ability to turn meetings from status updates into creative problem-solving sessions simply by refusing to settle for the first answer. It doesn’t happen by accident. It’s an intentional practice – one built on fascination, not fear.
When leaders are genuinely curious, something shifts:
- Problems become puzzles instead of threats.
- Feedback feels like a window, not a wall.
- Teams look forward to experimenting, knowing mistakes are seeds for growth, not marks of failure.
Marketing, let’s be honest, is a relentless test of resilience and reinvention. The best CMOs that I worked under asked questions. Even when things are working. Especially when things are working.
They spark conversations that start with, “Why do we do it this way?” or “What could we learn from the people who don’t buy from us?”
Real curiosity isn’t about having all the answers. Let your team see you admit you don’t know something.
When you build an environment where every voice, from your marketing assistant upwards, can question, challenge, and be curious, innovation follows.
Curiosity isn’t “soft.” It’s the skill that fuels breakthroughs.
How have you embedded curiosity within your team?