By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
I adore ‘quiet spaces.’
That is why life in rural Gordonville, Texas, fits. Nestled amidst horses, dogs, cats and goats and located less than two miles from our sailboat and luxurious Lake Texoma, my husband Rob and I live contentedly.
During morning porch- and coffee-time, our neighbor’s cat, “Tom,” trots over to cuddle up to Rob. A gravel road lines the south side of our house. Cars rarely pass. Roosters crow. Trees, with their husky trunks and leggy branches, loom majestically.
On a daily basis, I work alone, just me, and the computer. I write in silence. This enables thoughts to blend and translate onto a colorful virtual canvas.
I adore Twitter, and lately, have become fond of Facebook, and for business I traverse LinkedIn and Google+. Often, these sites fuel creative and imaginative writing. However, I must occasionally flip the social switch to spawn concentration white space.
It is here that the results of my curiosity transition into a career painting.
You see, as a resume strategist, my role with clients initiates with in-depth career reporting, asking probing, focused questions, then digging a little deeper to ask a question of their answer, and then a bit deeper to get them to explain why, how, so what, where, when, how much, what if, why not, where did it hurt, what hurdles did you leap over – you get the drift.
Curiously Peeling Back the Layers
It’s curiously peeling back layers. Each layer has a role, though, and mustn’t be discarded. Each layer provides value to the overall career painting.
A business executive and client recently described the paintings she creates through deliberate listening, curious questioning and engaging exchanges with employees, teams, experts, vendors and bosses. As she eloquently described, her role is to ‘be curious,’ and then convert that curiosity into a completely painted picture of her customer’s landscape so she can then develop pragmatic, executable solutions customized to fulfill their needs.
Another recent client, a senior executive for a mid-sized organization, is a former college cheerleader. In his youth, he held pom pons and cheered on the crowds at university football games. Now, he steers the ship of a growing, nimble enterprise. He creates turnarounds; he vaults business growth; he quells disgruntlement; he drives new product development; he recruits and retains; and much of the time he simply listens, curiously.
Genuine Curiosity Cultivates Trust
It is this curiosity that breeds conviction and trust among his team members; they know they are heard, and their ideas are considered. They know that their boss is cheering them on, encouraging them to do their best in the business game. Coaching the team, my client envisions the end goal and recognizes, rewards and values individual and team contributions.
His curiosity, therefore, is instrumental in catapulting revenue, boosting productivity, increasing employee retention and ultimately, creating a sustainable business.
In your life and in your work, are you curious? Or, do you find yourself mechanically going about your day-to-day just to get through your task list? Or, perhaps you’ve not given yourself permission to ‘be’ curious? Or, you’ve forgotten how? Sometimes our daily grind has a way of stripping us of our curiosity.
Deliberately Curious Behavior
If that is the case, I challenge you to try behaving curiously, even if with only one person, for one conversation, this week. You might be surprised at the rewards you reap.
To support your ‘curiosity initiative,’ I offer four traits you may wish to deploy:
- Genuine Interest.
- Commitment and Restraint: Shutter distractions such as Internet, email, Twitter, Facebook, television and the radio. Listen amidst stillness. Absorb. Digest. Reflect.
- Inquisitiveness: Ask thoughtful questions, and then deepen the conversation by commenting upon their responses and inquiring further. Peel back the layers.
- Follow-through Decisiveness: Enact pragmatic, tangible follow-on activity that demonstrates your ‘genuine interest’ (see trait #1) was not feigned. Show an ability and interest in converting what you heard into either a concrete response or a tangible solution.
As for me, in addition to the client interviewing I regularly perform, during which being curious has almost become second nature, I am determined to knit the traits of curiosity more intimately into my day-to-interactions with colleagues and other business associates, as well as my personal interactions with friends and family. While it is sometimes easy to sit back and passively and reactively navigate through conversations and events, I think that being a bit more proactively curious has its life- and career-enriching advantages.
Here’s to BEING more curious!
Jacqui,
First, thank you for taking us for a little visit to your quiet and tranquil home – it was lovely. I could feel like I was there for a bit 🙂
Second, thank you for sharing the process of how you gather the valuable information for developing a person’s resume and how critical being curious is to that whole process. Hearing that provides some insight into how we should go about thinking about putting together our own resumes (if we are unable to hire someone with your wonderful skills and talent).
I totally agree with you that being curious is a necessary and critical feature to our interactions and success in life.
In our relationships, it helps us to forge deeper and more meaningful connections and in our careers, it helps us grow and figure out what additional skills we need to develop, as well as to keep that requisite open mind to continuously improving and learning – something we need to do in this fast-paced changing times.
Warmly,
Dorlee
Dorlee,
It was my pleasure to share a ‘snapshot’ of our home with you.
I’m also pleased that delving a bit into the resume process helps others who may be striving to address their own resume needs.
Thanks also for affirming the focus of this article — the necessity to be ‘curious’ for a more successful life (career OR personal). In recent interactions with clients, the word, ‘curious’ has recurred, reinforcing for me how vital consciously ‘being’ curious is!
Witnessing others’ curious nature, such as yours, Dorlee, also helps me/others to learn what behaving curiously looks like. You exhibit the trait so very well!
Thanks, always, for your insights and affirmations!
Warm regards,
Jacqui
Love your article Jacqui! I agree strongly with the importance and benefits of staying curious, really listening and asking questions. It is helpful in our personal and professional lives and also in every aspect of a job search.
Curiosity helps candidates as they network, dig deeply into a targeted job search and even during interviews. It also is a catalyst to staying motivated during a job search.
Kris
Hi Kris,
How nice! So glad you liked the article!
Hear hear re: “Curiosity helps candidates as they network, dig deeply into a targeted job search and even during interviews.” I ‘feel’ the momentum that ‘active curiosity’ creates, just reading your words, Kris! It’s a true catalyst, for sure.
Thank you for your invigorating comment!
Jacqui
Jacqui, I’m glad that I stopped by this evening. I have an article to write and your writing style always serves to inspire. Thank you!
Curiosity is often a victim of stress. That “I don’t care!” or “I don’t have the energy to care!” is a sign that someone has been trampled by stress.
The “auntie”-dote? It’s a case of “taking a hair of the dog” when recovering from stress – getting curious.
When stress is transformed, through heart-opening techniques and those such as what you described, curiosity will bubble up like a mountain spring. Refreshing. Clean. Enlivening.
Thanks to your vividly painted description of your new home, I’m revisiting some of my living-in-the-country memories: unlocked doors, the sound of a visitor’s tires on the gravol, fireflies and that mist that settles over the fields in the evening.
Hi Marianna,
I appreciate knowing I help inspire your writing, as your writing, and others often inspire me, too!
“Curiosity is often a victim of stress” <– profound, and so true! "Trampled by stress" <– I like that, as well (very palpable).
Finally, YOUR stress transformation services and techniques are so vital for re-starting the curiosity engine, or as you poetically put, to spur "curiosity to bubble up like a mountain spring."
Glad I could facilitate a revisit of your country-living memories, too!
Cheers,
Jacqui
Jacqui,
This could be my favorite of all your posts! Starting out with visual calm and strengthening that image with the echoes of silence settle the mind and open it up to the very curiosity you promote. It made me curious about your message here and its tie to careers.
Your notion of listening and behaving with curiosity is compelling. By suggestion you remind us that both are signs of genuine caring, a desire to connect experiences and humanity, and a realization that relationships are unique human art forms.
I love your four behaviors and how they link to job search, interviewing, and career growth. Too often we turn process into mechanics when it all starts with being curious enough to ask the right questions to reveal those helpful insights that are perfect starting points.
Well done, once again. ~Dawn
Dawn,
You have such a wonderful way of recapping my thoughts. I love: “visual calm” and “echoes of silence.” Perfectly and eloquently put.
I agree that we often turn the ‘careers management’ process into mechanics, when in fact, there is so much nuance with which to engage.
Thanks, again, for stopping by, extending the conversation and adding to the takeaways.
Jacqui