Episode 13 - W.I.N. with Curiosity Artwork

Lead From The W.I.N. Side

I'm Terry Lee and I want you to be a leader that W.I.N.s. Over 15+ years experience in leadership, leadership development and coaching, serving on boards, and even observing the coaches that coached my kids athletic teams, I noticed one thing that separated the great and good leaders from the average or poor leaders and it is their level of self-awareness, the good/great leaders knew their strengths and sought assistance from others to complement areas where they were not strong, the poor leaders and coaches thought they know it all. I believe that in order to effectively lead others, you have to always be in the process of understanding how to effectively understand and lead yourself. In this podcast I want to help guide you to W.I.N. in your work as a leader. W.I.N. is a coaching framework and acronym I developed that will stand as the foundation for the information presented in the podcasts. The "W" stands for identifying WHO you want to be, WHAT are you currently doing to attain the WHO and identifying your WHY. The "I" represents Igniting your superpowers aswell as the superpowers of the people you lead. The "N" is about Nurturing yourself and others for continued success. Great leadership starts from the inside or shall we say from the W.I.N. side. So if you are leader of any kind, Let’s Get It, Let’s Go.

All Episodes

Lead From The W.I.N. Side

Episode 13 - W.I.N. with Curiosity

January 11, 2022 • Terry Lee • Episode 13

In this episode I explore how curiosity can lead to greater self awareness and better relationships.

0:29

Hello, and welcome to episode 13, the first episode of 2022 from live and lead. From the wind side, this episode, I want to talk about curiosity. I want to ask you. What are you curious about? What comes to mind when you, when I ask you that question? Do you, do you identify yourself as a curious person? I would identify myself as a curious person, but I would say I could stand to be more curious. I could ask more questions of myself and I do plan to do much more of that in 2022. As a matter of fact, that's going to be one of my words, and intentions for 2022 is to be more curious. Another one is to be more consistent, but you know that that's another, another episode., as we get into curiosity, one of the things that, prompted me for this topic. To talk about on the episode is I'm currently reading Atlas of the heart by Brene brown. And in this book, she explores over a hundred emotions and experiences we have as human beings. And curiosity is one of the topics in the book. And there, there are two points that really stand out for me. In the book on this topic, one is hers, her definition. And the other one is a quote, but I want to start with. Her definition and what her research, came up with that as the definition of curiosity. There's been tons of studies on curiosity, but there's no, Singular agreed upon definition. Of curiosity. Her research. Develops a great definition and it's, it's defined as recognizing a gap in our knowledge about something that interests us. And becoming emotionally and cognitively invested in closing the gap through exploration. And learning. So let's dissect that definition here for a second. The first half of it states. Recognizing a gap in our knowledge about something that interests us. When I opened up the episode, I asked the question. What are you curious about? I hope one of your answers was that you are curious about yourself. And if it wasn't, I surely hope you are curious about yourself by the end of this episode, I want to raise. Your curiosity level about yourself a little bit in this episode. what kind of questions do you ask about you? How interested are you in finding the answers about yourself? Which leads us to the second part of that definition. And that's becoming emotionally and cognitively invested in closing the gap through learning and exploration. Researcher, Dr. Tasha Eurich found that 95%. Uh, people who say they're, self-aware only 15% of them really are. And the reason she states are that we naturally have blind spots. We tend to work on auto pilot is easy to get on auto pilot. And then we also lose sight of how we're behaving in certain situations. And why. So going back to blind spots, a blind spot is essentially, an obstructive view, which in turns makes you aware of something. So most of the time, the, the obstruction. When it comes to blind spots in themselves, its ups subconscious. And an example of that could be that you over-talk someone. When you conversate, you always over-talk someone when you, when you conversate with people and people shut down when they speak to you. Or on the flip side of that, you get quiet when you don't feel confident about something. So you don't ask any questions and you never gain any clarity. So if no one ever communicated these behaviors to you, they've become blind spots. If you never noticed or ask yourself, why do some people shut down when talking to me, or why do I lose or never gained clarity in certain situations where I don't feel confident? It remains a blind spot. So nobody points it out to you. And if you never pointed out to yourself, It's likely a blind spot. So the key is slowing down enough to pay attention to your thoughts and emotions, and that can help lead you down a curious path. To answer some curious questions about yourself. So an action you can take to help you slow down and answer more questions about yourself. It is journaling. Journaling can help you see the thoughts and actions on paper. It gives you an additional level of data to consider and explore. It cures some of your, your curiosity. Another action. Is asking a trusted partner to intentionally observe you, give you some observations? This will give you some insight on how others might perceive you. In certain situations, because going back to blind spots. You may never know how others perceive you. If no one ever says that. And the trusted partner can do that For you. now, moving on to the second point in Brene Brown's book, it was a quote. And the quote is choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable. Because it requires us to surrender to uncertainty. We have to ask questions, admit to not knowing. Risk being told that we shouldn't be asking. And sometimes make discoveries. That lead to discomfort. Now to me. This quote speaks to the outward curiosity of others our outward. Curiosity of others. Many times, instead of being curious, when it comes to other people, We tend to fill in the blanks with our own answers, such as, oh, he didn't speak to me today. He must think he better than me. Well, she took longer to complete that assignment than expected. Well, she must be a slow worker. I didn't quite understand what he was saying. So I stopped. Listening. You know, what are the possibilities? If we didn't fill in the gaps with their own answers and ask more questions when it comes to building relationships. Well, the possibilities are mutual understanding? Deep relationships. Richer conversations. So being curious is not about finding the answers you want to hear or agree with. It's about being informed and equipped to navigate the journey of understanding people, situations, and experiences. That we're not familiar with. So the next time you catch yourself filling in the blanks yourself, when it comes to people. Become a Sherlock Holmes. Be an investigator and start inquiring a bit more. You never know. Until you ask. So then, so don't take curiosity for Brandon. Don't be tricked into thinking the whole story is in the headline or the tweet. Or the social media post or that one interaction or that one emotion. Be more curious. This brings us to our takeaways. For this episode. Your win acronym for being curious the w stands for. Asking, what else? Is there. I need to know about this and then seeking it out. What more can be learned? It can't just be surface value. We've got to dig a little bit more. So asking yourself. What else? Is there to be learned. What more can I find out? And you do that by being more curious. The I is about being informed and not guessing. So it goes back to asking more questions. You need to be informed. And the only way you get information is by asking more questions, seeking better understanding. And then the N is next level. Being curious about. Who you are. What your strengths are, where you might need help. And then asking questions of others can take you and your relationships. To the next level. So there it is curiosity. I hope I raised your interest about yourself and being curious. I hope I raised your interest about being curious and others, because again, they can take you to another level with being yourself and with, building relationships with others. As a speaker. Trainer and coach that's. One of my goals and roles is to make you more curious. So if you are interested in being more curious In 2022. Email me@terry@tlspeaks.com and we can set up a consultation call to see if I can be of service to you. You can also find me on LinkedIn at Terry Lee. Or you can also find some educational, inspirational content on Instagram at T Lee suites. That's T E E L E E speaks. So thank you for listening. To another episode of lead from the win side. Again, I want to thank, team Lee for their love and support as well. And we'll see you next time on lead from the win side.