Editorial
For generations, credentials have been the currency of leadership. MBAs, Ivy League degrees, college diplomas, Six Sigma certifications — these symbols of achievement have built empires and closed boardroom deals.
But, as Dylan sang, “The times, they are a’changin.” Today, we hurtle toward the unknown powered by artificial intelligence, automation and breakneck innovation. Credentials are no longer enough.
The leaders who will thrive in tomorrow’s economy are not the ones with the most pages in their resumes. Instead, success will come from asking the best questions. Those with agile, curious minds will be ready to lead when clarity necessitates context and critical thinking. Curiosity, once seen as a “nice to have,” is now mission-critical.
Why Curiosity Matters Now
We say this as two people who deeply respect both expertise and formal education. These are the influences that have shaped our careers. But, we also see firsthand — through executive coaching, global marketing, authorship and advising startups and Fortune 500s alike — that the pace of change has overtaken the traditional model of success.
Let’s be blunt: AI doesn’t care where (or if) you graduated. The next big crisis won’t hold off until a leader dusts off their credentials.
Curiosity, on the other hand, is responsive. A questioning mind is adaptive and pushes leaders to ask “What else is possible?” especially in the face of uncertainty.
When ChatGPT first launched, many senior leaders were skeptical. We spoke with executives from a number of industries that dismissed it as a passing tech fad. Others feared disruption. Several years in, we now see the outcome. The most effective leaders, the ones building momentum today, asked a different question: How can this help me serve my people better?
That’s curiosity in action.
Curiosity pushed one CEO we work with to reinvent her company’s go-to-market strategy in 60 days using AI-enhanced customer insights. Another mid-sized financial firm used AI to unlock new revenue streams through employee-led innovation labs. These leaders didn’t act after someone handed them a playbook, but because they and their C-suite colleagues cultivated a culture where curiosity wasn’t just tolerated, but had become an expected skill.
This is a paradigm shift that more senior leaders should be addressing. In a world of infinite information and AI copilots, the differentiator isn’t who knows the most. It’s who’s bold enough to keep learning. One thing we’ve certainly learned in the last year is that the best way to use AI is when it is guided by one’s expertise, a capability driven by intellectual curiosity.
One might look at the incoming generation of workers for their perception and use of curiosity. They aren’t evaluating employers based on stability alone. Instead, they are seeking meaning, impact and environments where asking “why” and “what if” is encouraged. Younger professionals are sending a clear message: “we want to grow and learn … or we’ll find workplaces that value these ideas.”
The mix of generations in the workplace today means that a curious-based organization will develop the skill as a measurable and compensated part of leadership training and development. As the rubric for great leadership continues to change, cultivating rising talent by rewarding curiosity will become essential.
What we’re witnessing from the frontlines in chatting with C-suite leaders is the rise of the curious enterprise. These companies have executives eager to learn from their people across hierarchies, not just the C-suite. This new mental model helps break organizational silos, quite possibly the most difficult challenge that bedevils leaders.
Curiosity Scales Across the Enterprise
Here’s good news: curiosity scales.
You don’t need a 50-person R&D team to innovate. You need a leadership team that creates space for experimentation. You don’t need to send every manager back into the classroom (though it might not be a bad idea for many organizations). You need to give your people permission to ask questions, admit what they don’t know and explore new ways forward. That’s the heart of psychological safety and enhancing employee engagement.
A curious organization understands that the best ideas may already be inside your four walls or virtual space. However, if curiosity isn’t part of the culture, those ideas will stay buried or forever hidden. Meanwhile, your competitors are mining theirs in real time.
To scale curiosity, then, senior leaders need to demonstrate its benefit in how they engage with colleagues, teams, and employees. One C-suite executive we’ve advised focused on building curiosity in his leadership team by always being open to new opinions and specifically asking for the team to address how blockers might be overcome through cross-departmental resources. In this case, curiosity helped the team think across expertise areas to solve challenges.
Rethinking Leadership Readiness
In practice, creating a curious enterprise means rethinking how we define leadership readiness for individuals and teams. We must put more effort into evaluating potential not just by tenure or pedigree, but by intellectual humility, adaptability and a hunger to explore the unknown. Then, we must use our curiosity to rebuild leadership development, mentoring rising talent to not replicate the past, but to shape the future.
Curious drive change. They’re the ones asking how AI can augment their strategy, how customer behavior is shifting in real time, and how their company can stay relevant five, ten, or fifty years from now.
We’ve both built careers at the intersection of technology, leadership and storytelling. And if there’s one through-line that ties it all together, it’s this: curiosity is the one trait that cannot be automated, outsourced or faked.
The Research Case for Curiosity
New research underscores this urgency. According to the 2025 Workplace Options Psychological Safety Study, more than half of employees worldwide hesitate to speak up with questions or concerns, because they fear negative consequences. That silence stifles innovation. When leaders create cultures that reward curiosity, engagement rises by as much as 50% and retention strengthens dramatically.
The WPO survey (created from actual clinician-employee discussions of workplace challenges, not simply survey data) points to a critical truth: curiosity is not merely a personal trait, but a structural advantage. Organizations that institutionalize curiosity build resilience against disruption, because questions trigger exploration, exploration sparks learning and learning drives innovation. The cycle is self-reinforcing.
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A Global and Financial Imperative
Curiosity also matters on the global stage. In markets like China and Mexico, WPO’s data shows that job performance anxiety is the top workplace concern, often because employees don’t feel safe asking clarifying questions. In contrast, companies in Australia, Canada and the UK cite lack of recognition as their biggest cultural weakness, which is another signal that questions and acknowledgment are deeply intertwined. Leaders who encourage curiosity send a powerful message across cultural contexts: we value your thinking, not just your output.
Practical Ways to Embed Curiosity
How can executives begin embedding curiosity? We recommend three starting points:
- Model it from the top. CEOs and C-suite leaders should openly admit what they don’t know and demonstrate how they are learning. Vulnerability from the top normalizes curiosity across the enterprise.
- Reward questions, not just answers. Build recognition systems that highlight employees who surface smart questions, challenge assumptions, or explore adjacent possibilities.
- Integrate curiosity into leadership pipelines. Evaluate managers not only on results, but on their ability to cultivate teams that question, experiment and adapt.
Curiosity, like psychological safety, is contagious. Once one leader shows it is safe to ask “why,” others will soon follow. Within months, entire organizations can shift from passive compliance to active exploration. That is how curiosity scales: quickly, inclusively and sustainably.
A leader can build curiosity into the enterprise with deliberate steps to change workplace culture. To visualize this shift, think of the “curious enterprise” as a flywheel at every level of the organization:
- Curiosity sparks questions.
- Questions uncover blind spots.
- Addressing blind spots improves trust.
- Trust encourages additional curiosity.
- The cycle repeats, propelling innovation forward.
In many ways, curiosity might be viewed as the connective tissue of the modern workplace. Our questioning minds tie together authenticity (leaders willing to explore openly), inclusivity (employees empowered to voice ideas) and adaptability (organizations learning faster than competitors). These are the qualities that will define leadership in the human plus AI era.
The Challenge for Executives
The challenge to today’s executives is clear: are you building a culture of curiosity, or clinging to a culture of credentials? Credentials may get you in the room, but only curiosity keeps you relevant once inside.
The next decade will not be kind to leaders who rely solely on pedigree. AI will continue to erode traditional knowledge advantages (even though human expertise plus AI is the way to use the tool effectively). Automation will flatten hierarchies. What remains, the essence that we believe cannot be coded or commoditized, is the courage to ask the right questions, at the right time, with the right intent.
That is why the future of work belongs to the curious. They will be the leaders shaping new markets, unlocking new talent and steering organizations toward relevance and resilience. The rest will be left wondering why the old answers no longer apply.
Editor's Note: Read about more of the power skills needed in our workplaces today:
- Waking Up to Our Power: Digital + Human Capabilities for a Future-Ready Workforce — Beyond technical know-how, the future-ready worker needs a new blend of human and digital skills — anchored in awareness.
- The Quiet Politics of Admitting AI Use — AI use in the workplace is on the rise, yet few admit to using it. What can organizations do?
- The Real Workplace Crisis Isn't Loyalty – It's Lack of Psychological Safety — AT&T CEO John Stankey's memo suggests loyalty is dead. Loyalty isn't dead, it’s earned by leaders who foster trust, fairness and psychological safety.
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