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Illustration by Brandon Land When you do the same things over and over, work starts to become routine. You go to the same meetings, review the same numbers, and email the same people. You learn your job so well you barely have to think about it. The spark goes away, and your creative energy fizzles. The problem? You’ve lost your sense of curiosity. Fortunately, research shows that simply being more curious can have a tremendous effect on your career—improving your performance and enhancing your workplace relationships. Here’s why experts say curiosity leads to results—and what you can do to bring curiosity back to your work.
1. Curiosity improves job performance Intelligence and effort are both essential for success. But
a 2011 psychological study found a third factor that often gets overlooked: intellectual curiosity. The researchers concluded that intelligence, effort, and curiosity could all predict better performance—and even for people without the raw smarts, curiosity and effort alone were enough to make up for it. What makes curiosity so important for performance? One explanation is that curious workers are better at
dealing with nuance and complexity. Instead of being frustrated with unclear directions—or overwhelmed by all the complicating factors—curious people are eager to dig in and discover. When the path forward isn’t clear, they see opportunity. When something doesn’t make sense, they’re excited to find the right answer. Over time, employers come to trust curious workers with higher level, more difficult projects.
Ask yourself:
- How can I think about a routine project in a new way?
- How can I reframe something confusing into an opportunity to learn something new?
- What’s something I’ve always wondered about my co-workers, and who can I ask?
- How can I focus more on social learning, and less on social validation?
- Does my current work pique my curiosity?
- How can I intersperse more interesting tasks throughout my day?
- How can I turn off autopilot and turn on a sense of curiosity?
- What kind of work makes it easiest for me to find my creative flow?
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