The Surprising Benefits of Prioritizing Curiosity Over Judgment

What do you do when you get upset with someone, such as a member of your team? Do you make assumptions and judgments about the person?—or do you have a conversation with them and approach the situation with curiosity?

Whenever you’re triggered by something, you can set your emotions aside and put yourself in a state of curiosity. Ask questions like, “Tell me, how did you come to make this decision?” Or, “What were the key factors you used to evaluate making this decision?”

When you’re judging and making assumptions, you’re not being curious. You’ve already decided what happened and why—but you might miss some key learnings about why the person did what they did.

In today’s episode we discuss:

• How one of our clients was really upset with their team member who made a decision that cost the company—and how Steph coached our client to be curious about the situation rather than making judgments and assumptions

• How frustrated, “black-and-white” thinking creates judgment and is the opposite of curiosity

• How children are curious about everything but at a certain point, curiosity leaves and judgment comes in—because our “core wound” takes over

• How judgment causes us to create a story in our mind about what happened—and this story is often wrapped around a core wound of, “I’m not enough,” or “I’m not worthy”—which causes causes you to see the world through the lens of your core wound 

• How judgment controls the way a person thinks and controls their decision-making process

• How people get triggered by being told “no” during a sales conversation and they’ll judge it as, “I’ve just lost this sale”—rather than approaching it with curiosity

• How getting curious as to why someone says no to you can can create an opportunity to take a sales conversation to a more deeper, vulnerable, intimate place that could actually result in a sale

Plus, I share the story of Herbie the dachshund who couldn’t walk due to arthritis—and how I had a product I knew would help him walk again, and I wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

Episode #47 – The Four Agreements Part II – Don’t Take Anything Personally