I was chatting with a leader the other day who said…
“We’ve tried everything, and nothing’s changed.”
It’s a line I’ve heard a lot lately in education, food and fibre, professional services, and blue-collar environments too.
Different industries, same story. They’ve restructured, rewritten roles, added new systems, and swapped a few people around. On paper, they’ve done the work. But the frustration still sits just under the surface because the real problem hasn’t been named yet.
We love to fix things. It’s what good leaders do – right?????. Someone brings a problem, and before they’ve even finished explaining, our brains are already sprinting toward the solution. It feels productive, decisive, helpful. But sometimes all that fixing is just noise. Movement without progress. We’re solving the wrong problem beautifully.
Somewhere along the line we started believing that leadership meant having the answers. But real leadership is about having the questions. It’s an incredibly hard step change to make as a leader.
Curiosity takes courage because it slows you down. It asks you to sit in the uncomfortable space between “I don’t know yet” and “I think I might understand.” It’s staying in the mess long enough to find what’s actually true.
It sounds like this:
🤔What else could be true here?
🤔What might I be missing?
🤔What would happen if we didn’t fix it right now?
🤔What’s causing this?
And……what else?
That kind of curiosity isn’t easy. It requires vulnerability, admitting that we might not have it right yet, giving people a change to explore their own thinking. But this is where the real gold lies.
When we skip that step, we miss what actually matters.
We install a new system when the real issue is trust.
We change people when the problem is process.
We chase efficiency when what’s really missing is clarity.
It’s like treating a symptom instead of the cause. Faster, flashier, but ultimately futile. Fixing the wrong problem still ends in failure, no matter how polished the solution looks.
Sometimes it takes someone external to help tease that thinking out, someone who isn’t buried in the day-to-day or bound by “how we’ve always done it.” Honestly, that’s one of my favourite parts of my job. Sitting alongside leaders, listening, asking questions, and peeling back the layers until we find what’s really going on. Because nine times out of ten, the issue that walks in the door first isn’t the one that needs fixing most.
Curiosity isn’t passive. It’s not about dragging your feet or overthinking things. It’s about being intentional, taking the time to understand before you act. It’s choosing clarity over speed. Because solving the right problem slowly will always beat fixing the wrong one fast.
So next time a problem lands on your desk, try this:
• Describe, don’t diagnose. What’s actually happening, not what you assume is happening.
• Ask one more question. Always one more than feels comfortable.
• Listen without agenda. Not every silence needs to be filled.
Curiosity isn’t fluffy. It’s strategic. It’s what separates reactive leaders from intentional ones. And it’s what builds extraordinary teams, the kind that don’t just keep patching the cracks but redesign the system so it doesn’t break again.
Because real leadership doesn’t come from having all the answers. It comes from being brave enough to ask the right questions.
Author:
Lisa Shaw
Chief Empowerment Office (CEO) / Founder
Radical HR
lisashaw@radicalhr.nz
029 226 8862