Curiosity in Leadership: The Power of Asking the Right Questions
Debbie Morrison • October 8, 2023
The qualities that define good leadership are shifting. No longer are leaders judged solely on their ability to implement a vision; the modern executive is a constant learner, driven by an innate sense of curiosity. As markets change and new technologies emerge, curiosity — the drive to ask questions and seek out new perspectives — is proving to be a pivotal trait for innovation and sound decision-making.
The Economic Mandate for Curious Leadership
The digital revolution, globalisation, and unprecedented global challenges (like complex supply chains and inflation bought on by the events of the war in Ukraine) have reshaped economies and business strategies. A report from McKinsey & Company suggests China’s slowing economic activity is the second most-cited risk to the global economy, with 52 percent of Asia-Pacific respondents saying it’s a concern.
Furthermore, the very nature of work itself has changed irrevocably.
McKinsey & Company’s State of Organizations Survey suggests that more than half of respondents believe remote work will become more common (leaders, managers, and employees are still grappling with the effects of this broad behavioural upheaval. Organisations have been forced to reexamine foundational norms: Where do employees work? When do employees work? How do employees work?
Indeed, according to
McKinsey, surveyed leaders across Asia-Pacific view their economic outlook as less positive than it was 6 months ago suggesting further challenges as we move into 2024. But what has this got to do with curiosity?
According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, companies led by curious leaders are 30% more likely to encourage risk-taking in the pursuit of innovation. Moreover, these companies were found to have a 10% higher growth rate compared to their less-curious counterparts. Can curiosity really provide a competitive edge?
Why Curiosity?
But why does curiosity matter so much? At its core, curiosity is about wanting to know more. It’s about confronting what you don't know, and not just relying on what you do. In leadership, this translates to a few key benefits:
- Enhanced Decision-making: By seeking diverse perspectives, curious leaders reduce their blind spots. They're less likely to be caught off-guard by shifts in the market or changes in customer behaviour.
- Stimulating Innovation: Curious leaders are always on the lookout for the next big thing. Their natural inclination to explore often leads to unique and groundbreaking solutions.
- Building Better Teams: Leaders with a curious mindset value diversity and understand that different experiences and perspectives lead to richer discussions and more comprehensive solutions.
Spotting Curiosity in Leadership Candidates
So, given the importance of curiosity, how can boards and hiring managers identify this trait in potential candidates? Here are a few strategies:
- Behavioural Interviewing: Instead of asking candidates to simply list their accomplishments, ask them to narrate a situation where they had to learn something new to solve a challenge. Their approach to unfamiliar territory can be quite revealing.
- Recommendations and References: Often, colleagues and direct reports can offer insights into a leader's inquisitiveness. Does the candidate foster an environment where questions are encouraged?
- Continuous Learning Indicators: A history of pursuing additional courses, certifications, or self-initiated projects can be indicative of a curious mind.
Cultivating Curiosity
If you're a leader looking to enhance your curiosity quotient, here's some good news: curiosity can be cultivated. Here's how:
- Adopt a Growth Mindset: Coined by Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University, a growth mindset champions the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed. Embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, and understand that effort is the path to mastery.
- Diversify Your Inputs: Read books, attend seminars, or listen to podcasts outside of your domain. Cross-pollinating ideas from various fields can offer fresh perspectives.
- Encourage Questions: Cultivate an environment where team members feel comfortable challenging the status quo. The next big idea could come from an unexpected place.
- Engage in Reflective Practices: Allocate time for introspection. Journaling, meditation, or simply taking a walk can offer the mental space required to connect disparate ideas.
The FMCG business landscape is one of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. In such an environment, curiosity isn't just an asset; it's a necessity. The willingness to question, to probe, and to seek new horizons is what will differentiate the next generation of visionary leaders.
By valuing curiosity — both in themselves and in their teams — leaders are not only fostering a culture of innovation but are also ensuring that their organisations remain resilient and agile in the face of ever-changing economic winds. The leading FMCG brands are in the hands of those who stay curious, and lead with questions.
On paper, they were fully resourced. No complaints logged. No formal red flags. Delivery metrics holding steady. But behind closed doors, the signs were there. Delays. Fatigue. Silence in meetings where pushback used to live. And a growing sense that key people were leaning out, emotionally, if not yet physically. When the cracks finally showed, the conclusion was predictable: “We need more people.” But that wasn’t the real problem. The problem was trust. And most organisations never see it until it’s too late. The Hidden Cost of Disengagement In Gallup’s 2023 global workplace report , only 23% of employees worldwide reported being actively engaged at work. A staggering 59% identified as “quiet quitting”, psychologically detached, going through the motions, doing only what their job description demands. Source: Gallup Global Workplace Report 2023 Disengagement is expensive. But it’s also quiet. It doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. It doesn’t send a Slack message. Disengagement isn’t new, just silenced. And in executive teams, it looks different. It looks like polite agreement in strategy meetings. It looks like leaders shielding their teams from unrealistic demands, instead of confronting the system causing them. It looks like performance metrics still being met… while people emotionally check out. The issue isn’t always capability. It’s safety. Psychological, political, and professional. Many senior leaders don’t raise concerns, not because the problem isn’t real, but because they don’t believe they’ll be heard, supported, or protected if they do. And this is where the failure begins. The Leadership Lie No One Talks About We talk a lot about leadership capability. About experience, commercial acumen, execution strength. But we don’t talk enough about context. Every leadership hire walks into a culture they didn’t create. They inherit unwritten rules, quiet alliances, and legacy power structures. If those dynamics are broken, or if trust is fractured at the top, no amount of capability will compensate. According to a 2022 Deloitte mid-market survey, 64% of executives said culture was their top strategic priority. But only 27% said they actually measured it in a meaningful way. We say culture matters. But we rarely structure around it. And so new leaders walk in with pressure to perform, but little real insight into what the role will cost them emotionally, politically, or personally. We Don’t Hire for Trust. And It Shows. In executive search, the conversation is often dominated by pedigree and “fit.” But fit is often a euphemism for sameness. And sameness doesn't build trust, it maintains comfort. We rarely ask: Does this leader know how to build trust vertically and horizontally? Can they operate in a low-trust environment without becoming complicit? Will they challenge inherited silence, or unconsciously uphold it? Instead, we hire for confidence and clarity, traits that often mask what’s broken, rather than reveal it. And when those hires fail? We call it a mismatch. Or we cite the usual: “lack of alignment,” “wasn’t the right time,” “they didn’t land well with the team.” But the truth is often uglier: They were never set up to succeed. And no one told them until it was too late. The Cultural Infrastructure Is Missing One of the most damaging myths in leadership hiring is that great leaders will “make it work.” That if they’re tough enough, experienced enough, skilled enough, they’ll overcome any organisational dysfunction. But high-performance isn’t just personal. It’s systemic. It requires psychological safety. A clear mandate. The backing to make hard decisions. The freedom to speak the truth before it becomes a PR problem. When that infrastructure isn’t there, when the real power dynamics are unspoken, good leaders stop speaking too. And the silence spreads. What Trust Breakdown Really Looks Like Often, the signs of a trust breakdown don’t show up in dramatic ways. They surface subtly in patterns of underperformance that are easy to misread or excuse. You start to notice project delays, but no one flags the root cause. Teams keep things moving, quietly compensating for the bottlenecks rather than surfacing them. Not because they’re careless, but because they’ve learned that early honesty doesn’t always earn support. New leaders hesitate to make bold calls. Not because they lack conviction, but because the last time they did, they were left exposed. Board reports look flawless. Metrics track nicely. But spend five minutes on the floor, and the energy tells a different story. These are not resource issues. They’re relationship issues. And the data backs it. According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report , just 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged. Worse, around 60% are “quiet quitting.” That’s not just disengagement. It’s people doing only what’s safe, only what’s required, because trust has quietly eroded. Gallup also found that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, a staggering figure that reinforces just how pivotal leadership trust is. When people don’t feel psychologically safe, they shut down. Not dramatically. Quietly. Invisibly. What’s breaking isn’t the org chart. It’s the ability to speak plainly and be heard. And by the time it’s visible? The damage is already done, and someone calls for a restructure. “Low engagement is estimated to cost the global economy $8.8 trillion, 9% of global GDP.” Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2023 So What’s the Real Takeaway? If you’re seeing performance issues, before you jump to headcount, ask a different question: Do the leaders in this business feel safe enough to tell the truth? Because if they don’t, the data you’re reading isn’t real. And if they do, but you’re not acting on it, then they’ll stop telling you. Leadership doesn’t fail in obvious ways anymore. It fails in the gap between what people know and what they’re allowed to say. And the price of that silence? Missed opportunity. Reputational damage. Cultural decay. Sometimes, the problem isn’t who you hired. It’s what you’ve made it unsafe to say.
Why Culture Decay in FMCG Is a Silent Threat to Performance It doesn’t start with resignations. It starts with something much quieter. A head of operations stops raising small problems in weekly meetings. A sales lead no longer defends a risky new SKU. A team member who used to push ideas now just delivers what they’re asked. Nothing breaks. Nothing explodes. It just... slows. And from the outside, everything still looks fine. The illusion of stability In food and beverage manufacturing, where teams run lean and pressure is constant, performance often becomes the proxy for culture. If products are shipping, if margins are intact, if reviews are clean, the assumption is: we're good. But that assumption is dangerous. According to Gallup's 2023 global workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged, while a staggering 59% are "quiet quitting ", doing just enough to get by, with no emotional investment. And in Australia? Engagement has declined three years in a row. In a mid-market FMCG business, those numbers rarely show up on dashboards. But they show up in other ways: New ideas stall at the concept phase Team members stop challenging assumptions Execution becomes rigid instead of agile Everyone is "aligned" but no one is energised And by the time the board sees a drop in revenue, the belief that once drove the business is already gone. The emotional cost of cultural silence One thing we don’t talk about enough is what this does to leadership. When energy drains, leaders often become isolated. Not because they want to be, but because the organisation has lost the instinct to challenge, question, or stretch. I’ve seen CEOs second-guessing themselves in rooms full of agreement. Seen GMs miss red flags because nobody wanted to be "the problem". Seen founders mistake quiet delivery for deep buy-in. The emotional toll of unspoken disengagement is real. You’re surrounded by people doing their jobs. But no one’s really in it with you. And eventually, leaders stop stretching too. We train people to disengage without realising it Here’s the contradiction that most organisations won’t admit: We say we want initiative, but we reward obedience. The safest people get promoted The optimists get extra work The truth-tellers get labelled difficult So people learn to conserve energy. They learn not to challenge ideas that won’t land. They learn not to flag risks that won’t be heard. And over time, they stop showing up with their full selves. This isn't resistance. It's protection. And it becomes the default when innovation is punished, risk isn't buffered, and "alignment" becomes code for silence. Boards rarely see it in time Boards don’t ask about belief. They ask about performance. But belief is what drives performance. When culture begins to fade, it doesn't look like chaos. It looks like calm. It looks like compliance. But underneath, the organisation is hollowing out. By the time a board notices the energy is gone, it’s often because the financials have turned, and by then, the people who could've helped reverse the trend have already left. In a 2022 Deloitte study on mid-market leadership, 64% of executives said culture was their top priority, yet only 27% said they measured it with any rigour . If you don’t track it, you won’t protect it. And if you don’t protect it, don’t be surprised when it disappears. The real risk: you might not get it back Here’s what no one likes to admit: Not all cultures recover. You can try rebrands. You can run engagement campaigns. You can roll out leadership frameworks and off-sites and feedback platforms. But if belief has been neglected for too long, the quiet ones you depended on, the culture carriers, the stretchers, the informal leaders, they’re already checked out. Some have left. Some are still there physically but not emotionally. And some have started coaching others to play it safe. Once that happens, you're not rebuilding. You're replacing. So what do you do? Don’t listen for noise. Listen for absence. Absence of challenge. Absence of stretch. Absence of belief. Ask yourself: When was the last time someone in the business pushed back? Not rudely, but bravely? When did someone offer an idea that made others uncomfortable? When did a leader admit they were unsure and ask for help? Those are your indicators. Because healthy culture isn’t silent. It’s alive. It vibrates with tension, disagreement, contribution and care. If everything looks fine, but no one’s really leaning in? That’s your problem. And by the time it shows up in the numbers,t might already be too late.