The C² Factor for Leadership

How the Alchemy of Curiosity and Courage Helps Leaders Become Champions and Lead Meaningful Lives

Joanne Irving, Ph.D.

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781000593099
• Topic: Crescita personale
• Subtopic: Sviluppo di business

Packed with nuggets of wisdom from the experiences of champion-level leaders across industries, Dr. Irving demonstrates how champion leaders engage their curiosity and courage to learn from the past, enhance the present and anticipate the future.

—Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won't Get You There and Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach

Curiosity and courage are unstoppable forces. In this insightful book, Joanne Irving deftly shows how to enlist them to become a leader fit for the future.

—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WHEN and DRIVE

The cover graphic is a trailer for this profound book. The magical power of leadership is the effective blend of the courage of a lion with the curiosity of a cat. This myth-busting book will alter your leadership perspectives and practices by providing cutting edge substance, compelling examples, and insightful tools.

—Chip R. Bell, author of Inside Your Customer's Imagination

All we know with absolute certainty is that we live in complex, uncertain, and rapidly changing times. Despite our best attempts to predict the future, we are often caught off-guard and surprised when it arrives. Whether a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, global economic shifts, political upheaval, or technological evolution, as senior leaders we must navigate these tumultuous times and make tough decisions to guide our organizations to success.

Champion leaders want to be truly exceptional regardless of the maelstrom of change they are experiencing. Not only do they want their organizations to succeed, but they also want to live fulfilling lives. They want the same for those in their organizations and personal lives as well.

How do we effectively lead in times of constant, often dramatic change? And, equally important, how do we simultaneously create a satisfying, meaningful life?

The C² Factor – the synergistic application of curiosity and courage – offers a path to both. This book reveals that when leaders manifest both traits, they embrace the professional and personal opportunities the future brings. When the landscape is shifting beneath our feet the C² Factor enables us to lead more effectively and helps us cultivate more fulfilling personal lives.

While other books have looked at curiosity and courage separately, The C² Factor for Leadership examines how, when combined, profound curiosity and relentless courage lead to remarkable outcomes. One enhances the other in a powerful alchemy that improves our outcomes, how we show up as leaders in our organizations and as human beings in our personal lives. Beginning with ourselves and expanding to our relationships, our teams, our organizations, and to the world, this book demonstrates how the C² Factor can be applied for superior results.To be a truly exceptional leader, to live a satisfying life, we must have profound curiosity and relentless courage. We must exercise the C² Factor. Without it, we run the risk of being leaders who are robotic, academic, or reckless. With the C² Factor, we can be champions.

1 The Myths You May Believe about Curiosity and Courage that Can Lead You Astray

DOI: 10.4324/9781003212881-1

We are all susceptible to believing myths and making assumptions based on those beliefs. Courage and curiosity were unquestionably vivid, bold character strengths of the 62 elite champion leaders I spoke with, but often they did not recognize these traits in themselves. Their assumptions, many based on prevalent myths, limited their ability to see what was so evident in their personal and professional lives. Without clarity and knowledge of our character strengths, we are less able to access them, develop them, and deliberately deploy them. Debunking these myths helps us more deeply understand curiosity and courage, the various ways they are manifested, and how to identify these traits in ourselves.

It was the middle of the night when my mother called to tell me that, once again, my brother had been arrested for drug possession. His child was about to be placed in foster care. I was just 22 years old, from an indigenous culture, and the first of my family to go to college. I was struggling to adjust to academic demands and the social pressures of a more urban life. To say that I was stressed is an understatement, but I knew what I needed to do. I adopted my brother’s daughter, voluntarily becoming a single mother at 22.

The CEO of a global manufacturing company told me this story during our conversation about her leadership journey. Most would agree that what she did took enormous courage; however, when I asked her if she thought of herself as courageous, she said, “Courageous? I don’t know if I’d call myself courageous. I guess I think of myself as strong.”

Similarly, another leader, the president and CEO of a hospitality company responsible for turning her local business into a national powerhouse catering premiere events like the U.S. Tennis Open, did not recognize curiosity in herself. When asked, she replied, “Curious? I really don’t think I am. I guess I’d call myself inquisitive.” Clearly, neither executive recognized the traits of courage or curiosity in themselves.

Although courage and curiosity are character strengths that are integral to the stories of many successful leaders, they often appear in a seemingly unconscious way. I interviewed 62 executives – all champion leaders, all extraordinarily curious and courageous, but, surprisingly, many of them didn’t realize it. These leaders are CEOs, COOs, CIOs, Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, General Managers, Executive Directors, and Judges, to name but a few. They come from organizations ranging from manufacturing to pharmaceutical companies, to the biggest names in Silicon Valley, to banking and nonprofit associations. Our conversations helped them recognize what they sometimes hadn’t noticed about themselves and helped me appreciate the nuances of both curiosity and courage in the leadership journey.

Recognition of character traits like courage and curiosity can have a profound impact on our professional and personal lives. When we recognize these traits, or personal assets, they become more available for use. Our self-image is a major determinant of our behavior. When faced with a challenging situation, a person who thinks of themselves as courageous and curious will face it head-on, looking for all the nuances and opportunities and then take action. Whereas someone who doesn’t believe They have those traits may keep their head down, avoid conflict, focus on the immediate task, and hope it goes away. Being aware that we possess these traits is the essential first step in further developing them. We can also help others in our lives recognize these traits in themselves and further build their courage and curiosity “muscles.” This is how champion leaders build organizations filled with curious, courageous, effective teams.

Perhaps the reason some of the leaders I interviewed didn’t recognize these qualities was that they had assumptions that limited their ability to see what, to me, was so clear about their personalities and their lives. Many of those assumptions were borne out of prevalent myths about curiosity and courage. Examining a few of these myths will deepen our appreciation and understanding of these character strengths so that we can tap into them when we need them and further develop these capacities.

Four Myths about Curiosity that Muddle Your Understanding

Myth 1: You Either Are or Are Not Curious

To be human is to be curious. We are all born curious. The famous infant psychologist, Harry Harlow¹ (1950) was one of the first in a continuing line of scientists who consider curiosity a basic human drive, as necessary for survival as nourishment and touch.

Curiosity is essential for cognitive and emotional development. Infants as young as two months old show a distinct preference for novel patterns over familiar ones. Toddlers want to touch everything, go everywhere, and put everything in their mouths. By age four, children constantly ask “why?” Considered an intrinsic motivation, curiosity is the driving force that propels the growing child to learn about the world around them. So, the idea that a human being is not curious by nature is simply not true.

Curiosity can be thought of as a character trait in that individuals differ in the amount of curiosity they demonstrate. From birth we all differ in what is called “sensation seeking.” Some of us are born actively embracing all forms of new stimuli, while others are more reluctant. This suggests that there may be a biological basis for some differences in curiosity.

One community college president told me, “Curiosity is part of my DNA. As a kid, I was the one always asking questions. I sometimes joke that I never left the three-year-old stage, asking ‘Why? Why? Why?’” But the desire to seek out something new grows or shrinks depending on the response of people around the developing child. Curiosity may be inhibited by well-meaning adults trying to protect the child from danger or teach the appropriate behavior for the culture or it can be nourished so that it flourishes. It is largely our experiences throughout our lives that contribute to our curiosity’s growth or decline.

Former CIA officer, diplomat, and White House Advisor, Yael Eisenstat, who now heads a global risk firm, told me how her mother had supported her curiosity (and courage). When she was 14 years old, living in a very posh town in California, she wanted to see what was outside of her bubble and write about the town just north of where she lived, East Palo Alto, then the murder capital of the United States. She wanted to experience other parts of the world. She explained, “My mother definitely did not clip my wings. She encouraged me to explore. She let me go overseas at fifteen. I think that was really the start of knowing there was a broader world that I had to be a part of.”

Curiosity is also a “state.” Depending on the circumstances, people will be more or less curious. Different situations can dictate whether or not a person acts with curiosity. The particular subject matter, the degree of novelty, and the degree of challenge all determine how curious a person will be in any given situation.

Research indicates that when we experience an optimal level of novelty, meaning it is just within reach of our capacity to manage, we are most curious. If something is too novel, we are not interested because we have no context for understanding it or because it feels overwhelming. For example, I have no interest in attending a lecture on astrophysics because I don’t know enough about the subject to be curious.

One executive I interviewed told me that when she first came to the United States as a young girl, she stayed in her room as much as possible because she was overwhelmed by just how much she didn’t understand. It was later, when she tapped into her curiosity and courage, that she began her journey to becoming the CEO of a well-respected company in Silicon Valley.

So, if you want to spark your own curiosity, get a little information. Learn something about a topic you know nothing about. Listen to people around you who know about something you don’t. And be aware that if you want to spark other people’s curiosity for your idea, encourage their questions before sharing your thoughts fully, and be sure to provide just enough novelty, being mindful not to overwhelm them.

Myth 2: We Should Emulate 3-Year-Olds

Often romanticized, curiosity is frequently listed as an admirable trait of accomplished people and lauded by organizations that profess a desire for curiosity to flourish. To enhance our lives, we are implored to cultivate the “wonder of a young child.” But emulating the curiosity of a 3-year-old is much too simplistic a notion to be very useful. “Not all curiosity is good,” Cara Lesser, founder and CEO of the Kid Museum, an organization built on encouraging youth to follow their curiosity, noted to my surprise. “Last week my nephew swallowed a marble just to see what it would be like.”

Three-year-olds have wandering curiosity. They move from one new thing to the next. This kind of curiosity is integral to learning and development, but it is not without its shortcomings. As any parent will tell you, it is scattered and unfocused and unfettered, it can be dangerous. Built on the early wandering curiosity of the toddler, “diversive” curiosity inspires us to scan the environment for interesting things – unexpected events, changes in our surroundings, something novel to us in any form. While “specific” curiosity drives us like scholars and scientists to deepen our understanding of a particular subject. Both are valuable.

“I wanted to stir the curiosity of the team to go above and beyond what they needed to know from their professional reading,” Bonnie Fogel, Executive Director of Imagination Stage told me. She encouraged her leadership team to read extensively and once a month she asked one of them to present something that they had read that particularly influenced them. She said:

If an organization is going to be successful, the leaders need to be continually looking outside their own edges and be curious about the world, trying to figure out if there something happening that we will need to know about and how can what’s happening inform our practices.

Curiosity comes in many forms. It is not only the type demonstrated by young children. Kashdan et al.,² for example, identified six types of curiosity: joyous exploration, deprivation sensitivity, stress tolerance, thrill seeking, and social (which he later subdivided into overt and covert social curiosity). Drawing on work by Berlyne, Silva, Kashdan,³ and Lowenstein, Ian Leslie notes that the types of curiosity can be differentiated based on what motivates it and on what satisfies it. Is it provoked by something that is a surprise or novel or is it because we are trying to develop knowledge and understanding? Or is it just a way to avoid boredom? Will it be satisfied by specific answers and solutions, or is the goal to acquire deep knowledge?

Curiosity can be manifested in many ways. Figure 1.1 shows the types of curiosity based on its depth, its focus, its motivation, and its direction. Bonnie Fogel encouraged broad curiosity about ideas in the world for the joy of knowing. Whereas I want my doctor to have specific curiosity about facts regarding my condition in order to bridge any gaps he might have in his knowledge.

FIGURE 1.1 Types of curiosity.

The types of curiosity we can have go beyond that exhibited by a 3-year-old. We need to recognize the many ways it shows up in ourselves and others so that we can both nurture it and harvest its benefits.

Myth 3: School Is a Wet Blanket

In one of the most watched TED talks of all time, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Sir Ken Robinson⁴ argued that school kills creativity and suppresses curiosity. There is certainly reason to be concerned about how “teaching to the test” or emphasizing rote learning dampens curiosity. That said, we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Knowledge gained through education provides the very spark that can ignite and fan the flames of curiosity.

Lowenstein,⁵ a psychologist and behavior economist at Carnegie Mellon, believed that curiosity is an innate drive that arises from an information gap between what we know and what we want to know. He proposed that information fuels curiosity by creating awareness of ignorance. We cannot be curious about something that we are totally ignorant about.

Ian Leslie,⁶ author of Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It (2014), notes that many inventions folklore attributes to serendipity and curiosity would not exist had the inventors not had vast knowledge of their field of study. Two such inventions are the microwave oven and penicillin. Percy Spencer, a scientist studying radiation in the Raytheon labs, noticed when he stood too close to vacuum tubes that create microwaves, the chocolate bar in his pocket melted, leading him to invent the microwave oven. Alexander Fleming noticed that mold in a petri dish kept bacteria from growing, which led him to the invention of penicillin. Their deep knowledge of their field prepared these scientists to be ready to spot and see the significance in what they were observing. Quoting Louis Pasteur, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

There is a feedback loop between knowledge and curiosity. Not only can knowledge stimulate curiosity, but curiosity also leads to increased knowledge and enhanced academic performance....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Myths You May Believe about Curiosity and Courage that Can Lead You Astray
• Chapter 2 The Alchemy of Curiosity and Courage
• Chapter 3 The C2 Factor Begins at Home: Start with You
• Chapter 4 People Who Need People: The Alchemy of Relationships with the C² Factor
• Chapter 5 High-Performance Teams and Creative Problem-Solving with the C2 Factor
• Chapter 6 Champion Leadership with the C2 Factor
• Chapter 7 Ensuring Prosperity with a C² Factor Culture
• Chapter 8 The Astounding Potential of Omnipresent C2
• Index