If somebody asked me to pick the most powerful word in NRM, it would be curiosity. I believe that it is the foundation of what we teach our clients to do. Because curiosity is so powerful, I want to discuss the three ways you can embrace it to deepen and build better relationships.
Curiosity helps grow yourself and your business. Tweet this
First and foremost, curious people are intrigued by new and different ideas. They’re fascinated by why things go in a certain way or another. As a result, curious people tend to be open-minded. An open mind is one of the most powerful states of mind people can have to discover opportunities and leverage them. In fact, many scientists believe having an open mind is a prerequisite or necessary condition for humans to reach their full potential. Research done by Carol Dweck in the world of fixed mindset versus growth mindset is just one piece of evidence that shows how important curiosity is.
Curiosity opens your mind and enables you to reach your fullest potential. Tweet this
If you’re curious, you ask questions. This is how you exercise or live out your curiosity. By asking questions you are not only curious, very often you automatically become the leader of the conversation in many ways. The wonderful dichotomy is you’re leading the conversation by asking questions, but having less than 20% of the talk time. This means the other person is having more talk time, and people generally enjoy this. People who talk for more than 50% of the meeting have a higher propensity of reporting they had a good meeting. In this way, asking questions not only allows you to lead the conversation, but also to deliver a great experience for the person you’re meeting with. You’re also likely to be empowered to reach a certain conclusion by strategically stacking a series of questions that has the informative outcome you are looking for.
Curiosity lets you lead a conversation and achieve the desired outcome. Tweet this
Lastly, if you ask questions because you’re curious, it means you care about the answers. If you care about the outcome, you will put more effort into hearing the answer. You’ll truly listen. You’ll soak it all in because to you it’s a way to satisfy your own curiosity.
If you are genuinely listening:
- You’ll develop better listening skills all around.
- You’ll retain more information.
- Most importantly, you’ll deliver the positive experience of being heard.
Almost every human has the built-in need or desire to be heard. If you’re capable of curating that experience, you involuntarily deepen relationships. People will start liking you more, caring about you more, and probably accept you more as a source of wisdom or great advice, even though most of what you’re doing is listening and asking questions.
Curiosity helps you be a skilled listener, and great listeners build stronger relationships. Tweet this
