Lead with Curiosity: Know the Rules...and Figure Out Which Ones Are Real
Article 10 in the Leadership in Real Life Series.
Jennifer Youngblood
6/24/20261 min read
One of the most useful things I learned in 35 years of federal leadership is also one of the least talked about: get curious about the system you operate in.
Most of the constraints in any organization aren't true rules. They're patterns of behavior that hardened over time until no one can quite remember where they came from. A workaround someone invented. A past mistake someone decided to prevent from ever happening again. Something someone heard, and it worked, so they decided it was THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE.
Nobody questions them because they sound authoritative. So leaders work within them. And the more people work within imaginary limits, the more real those limits seem. The playing field shrinks. And so does the solution space.
I've always been a rule-challenger by nature (everyone I've worked with or for knows this is true). Whenever I hit one of those "that's not possible" moments, I'd go find out whether that was true. Sometimes it was. Often it wasn't. And when it wasn't, there was usually a better path sitting right there on the other side of the question nobody had thought to ask. I'm not saying everyone needs to toss the rules out the window. I'm saying that taking the time to learn what the real constraints are, to be genuinely curious about those rules, can open up a lot of creativity.
The leaders I most admired had a deep understanding of what was truly required and what was just assumed. They knew where the real lines were, and that meant they could work in the space between the "way things are done" and the real rules. That space is often where the better solutions live.
Most people accept the playing field as it was described to them. The leaders who take the time to learn the real rules find solutions others haven't thought to try.
That's worth getting curious about.
Leadership in Real Life: Lead with Curiosity
#Leadership #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadWithCuriosity