Be Carefully Curious

Curiosity is a great leadership characteristic—if you know how to manage it. When your mind is open to questions, to new discoveries and to explore areas where your knowledge is lacking, you may find new solutions, different options and more opportunities. Curious leaders can improve their engagement and collaboration, because gaining new knowledge nearly always requires connecting to people. Curiosity can help you adapt to unfamiliar circumstances. Curiosity can help you make better choices because you are considering a broader range of options.

But the Bible has warnings about curiosity. Often being curious will lead us down roads that are contrary to God’s will and ways. Proverbs 27:20 says, “Just as death and destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.” Then in Ecclesiastes we read, “No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.” In other words, let curiosity stimulate your learning, but don’t let it make you into a smarter sinner.

Seek what is good.?Adopting a questioning attitude will help your leadership. But begin first with the motivation behind your curiosity. What are you hoping to find? A helpful direction comes when we consider curiosity about God and the answers we can find in the Bible. Theological professor Howard Hendricks writes, “The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image… Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts but to transform your life.” Facts for the sake of facts don’t help us live better lives, and may in fact lead us away from good desires.

So be carefully curious. Learn to ask questions, consider others’ opinions and ingest new knowledge. But do so in a way that seeks the best result, first in your own heart and mind and then for others.?