The insatiable curiosity of successful leaders

What is the most underrated trait among leaders? Is it strategic foresight, authority or decisiveness? Maybe it is humility or personability; after all, leaders should be humble enough to listen and be liked by the people they lead. The argument could be made for all of them.

But for Adam Pacifico, partner at the global leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles, nothing compares to the curiosity he has seen in hundreds of accomplished corporate leaders over the years.

Across hundreds of conversations with leaders from different sectors and geographies, one question has continued to fascinate him: “Are leaders born curious, or do they become curious? Some people seem naturally drawn to what lies beneath the surface, while others learn to be intensely curious about the people and world around them. They want to know what shaped a person, what sits behind their achievements, what their failures have taught them and why they view business, life and interpersonal relationships the way they do.”

He has coined this the ‘insatiable curiosity’ of great leaders. He has dedicated his life to understanding it, from his early days as a barrister in England in the early 1990s to his later career as an operational police officer. By the time he transitioned to leadership advisory, he had seen every extreme of human behaviour, good and bad. It is what awakened in him a lifelong commitment to learning.

“I’m flawed,” says Pacifico. “Everyone is. And I’m learning all the time. Sometimes what I think to be reasonably true is sharply challenged by other people’s perspectives – and I love that. That’s where insatiable curiosity comes in. Everyone has a story, and I’m more interested in the human being and not just the human doing.”

The keys to curiosity and success

Curiosity is at the heart of what Pacifico calls human-centred leadership. In his travels, he found that leaders who consistently built high-performing organisations did not lose sight of the people inside them. They treated curiosity as a leadership discipline rather than a personality trait, listening with humility and seeking perspectives beyond their own because they wanted to understand what people needed to grow.

They held the business to clear standards, but viewed leadership less as a position of expertise and more as a lifelong apprenticeship sustained by the willingness to be challenged without pretending to have all the answers.

His takeaway is this: Curiosity can be learnt.

To become more curious, Pacifico recommends five practices to apply every day:

1. Ask “What am I not seeing in what I’m seeing?”

He argues that every leader sees the world from a limited vantage point. Adam recalls his interview with John Amaechi OBE, founder of APS Intelligence and Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter, who said: “Think of a bottle of wine on a table. Everyone can see the bottle, but only some can see the label. Everyone around you has a different angle on the same reality. The leader’s responsibility is to recognise that they never hold the full picture alone, and that each person may see something the leader cannot. Curiosity gives them access to that wider view.”

2. Embrace the power of “I don’t know”

Pacifico says that “I don’t know” can be the three most powerful words for a CEO, as it prevents the leader from becoming the “smartest person in the room, which undoubtedly means you’re in the wrong room. Instead, you want to surround yourself with people who know more than you.”

3. Seek to be challenged

“Resist speaking first. Leaders who do so risk defining the conversation early, making others less likely to challenge, question or contribute. Allow others to speak up, especially when they have different views. Then, encourage them to keep challenging you when they see something differently.”

4. Adopt the Learning Maniac Pledge

Referencing former WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge’s philosophy, Pacifico highlights a culture where every individual is expected to ask questions rather than wait to be told. “When your environment encourages curious thinking, it reaches into every seam of the organisation, inevitably strengthening your own hunger and ability to learn.”

5. Seek the ‘human being’ behind the ‘human doing’

Pacifico says curious leaders look beyond the ‘human doing’ to understand the person behind the performance. “The ‘human doing’ is what people produce, achieve and proudly add to their CV. Discovering the real ‘human being’ means understanding what motivates them, how they connect with others and the experiences that have shaped them. Leaders who can look beyond accomplishment build far stronger connections.”

“Leadership is energy-expensive”, John Amaechi once told Pacifico, and he now lives it.

“It requires a real personal investment of time to connect with people, help them grow and help the business grow. With an insatiable curiosity mindset, it becomes second nature to interact with others.

“This is the hidden language of winning: Human connection drives performance in elite teams, and it’s what successful businesses are built on,” he concludes.