This document serves as a leader's guide for a 30-minute session on fostering leadership development skills, specifically through curiosity and coaching. It emphasizes the importance of asking open-ended questions, being authentic and vulnerable, and promoting curiosity within teams to enhance leadership effectiveness and connections. The guide includes session outlines, discussion points, and follow-up actions for leaders to improve their coaching abilities.

1. LEADER’S GUIDE
Overview
Topic: Leadership Development Skills - Coaching
Audience: 40 people leaders in their organization
Summary: Use this guide to facilitate a 30-min session that will create discussion and
interaction amongst the company’s people leaders. Focus is on the coaching habit: "Model
curiosity early and often." Make sure to ensure free and open interaction among the
participants but make sure to track your time so that you can complete the questions in the
time allowed.
Session Outline:
Introduction
Overview/Opening
 Opening quotes by Albert Einstein
 Goal of the session
 Go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves (icebreakers)
o First name
o Where do you work
Discussion
See slides for visuals
THE IMPORTANCE OF CURIOSITY IN LEADERSHIP
 Asking questions. Remember to ask learner questions vs judger questions. A leader
seeks to explore possibilities in a non-judgmental, non-fault finding manner,
o Point: Rather than leading with a closed or leading question, open ended
questions are like a blank canvas upon which a new landscape will be created.
o Reason: Open-ended questions cannot be answered in a word or two and
require more thought.
o Example/Evidence/Experience: (insert example)
o Discussion:
 What are some open-ended questions you could use to spark
conversation and generate interest?
 Is there a right or wrong way to ask a curious question?

2. o Point (recap): Leaders should ask powerful and inspiring questions, convey that
they do not have the answers, and solicit others' help to find them.
 Being authentic and vulnerable
o Point: To be authentic, and to express authentic leadership… you need to be
vulnerable.
o Reason: A true leader starts from a place of vulnerability, and to be vulnerable is
to be courageous and authentic. Dr. Brené Brown famously said in one of her
TED Talks, “... vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.”
o If I am vulnerable with you and you are vulnerable with me, our connection is
going to get deeper. We are going to develop a higher level of trust and respect,
and that trust and respect that we have with each other will develop into loyalty.
o Example/Evidence/Experience: (insert example).
o Discussion:
 Do you know anyone in business, either in our company or outside of our
company that you believe is a leader that shows up authentically?
 Can you take criticismand feedback even from their harshest critics with
an open mind?
o Point (recap): If I am vulnerable with you and you are vulnerable with me, our
connection is going to get deeper. We are going to develop a higher level of trust
and respect, and that trust and respect that we have with each other will
develop into loyalty.
 And genuinely showing curiosity in their problem solving with their associates and
teams.
o Point: curiosity is much more important to an enterprise’s performance than
was previously thought. Leaders can encourage curiosity throughout their
organizations by being inquisitive themselves. Cultivating it at all levels helps
leaders and their employees adapt to uncertain conditions and pressures.
o Reason: When our curiosity is triggered, we think more deeply and rationally
about decisions and produce more-creative solutions. In addition, curiosity
allows leaders to gain more respect from their followers and inspires employees
to develop more trusting and more collaborative relationships with colleagues
o Example/Evidence/Experience: (insert example)
o Discussion:
 Are themembers of your team curious?
 Moreimportantly, do you thinkcuriosity is an important attributefor
a person to have?
 How can you model inquisitiveness?
o Point (recap): All-in-all you would be able to build a team of engaged individuals
who will love what they do, who will respect you, enjoy working with you, and
will be much more motivated and productive.

3. Closing
Summary (Practicing curiosity in leadership)
 Ask more curious questions. Remember to ask learner questions vs judger questions. A
leader seeks to explore possibilities in a non-judgmental, non-faultfinding manner.
 Have more conversations. Share your thinking and seek to understand other
perspectives.
 Make more connections. Leaders elicit innovative ideas, make sure others are included,
and generate enthusiasm and energy around shared goals and opportunities.
 Temper curiosity with wisdom and discernment. Use Emotional Intelligence and observe
what is going on with others or what is happening in a room before asking a curious
question.
Follow on actions:
 Steps To Becoming More Inquisitive As Leaders - As a leader, we may feel the need to
appear to know it all, to have the answers and that asking questions may seem a sign of
insecurity or a lack of ability to lead when in fact, it is the opposite. Asking questions is
the way curious leaders learn more about topics they are unfamiliar with and learn new
approaches to current situations.
 Step #1 – Begin asking open-ended questions that require more than a yes/no
response
o Asking open-ended questions – like asking ‘what did our customer say?’ instead
of ‘is our customer happy?’ – not only provides greater context, but it
encourages a genuine engagement with those we lead, over interactions that are
merely transactional in nature.
o The questions we ask shape not only our conversations, but the relationships we
have with others
 Step #2 - Reflect on what you learn from these interactions
o One technique is waiting before responding. Instead, use these moments to
show the person that you are genuinely interested in learning from what they
have to say.
o Leaders should ask questions not just to get information, but to learn from those
they lead

4. References
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/08/26/curiosity-a-leadership-trait-
that-can-transform-your-business-to-achieve-extraordinary-results/?sh=25245b4e6a2b
https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-curiosity
https://innerwill.org/the-importance-of-curiosity-in-leadership/
https://hallettleadership.com/authentic-leadership-and-
vulnerability/#:~:text=To%20be%20an%20authentic%20leader,no%20control%20over%20the%
20outcome.%E2%80%9D
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/03/11/vulnerability-is-not-a-
weakness-its-core-to-effective-leadership/?sh=6ce4b5d1503f
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leaders-need-genuinely-interested-people-tomas-kucera
https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-
curiosity#:~:text=Curiosity%20improves%20engagement%20and%20collaboration,market%20c
onditions%20and%20external%20pressures.