by Rick Baker
On Jun 29, 2010
Dale Carnegie, in
The 5 Essential People Skills, educated us about assertive curiosity.
Assertive curiosity is a multi-faceted concept, described in 10 elements.
www.DaleCarnegie.com
If we want to summarize these 10 elements in a single word then that single word would be ‘passion’.
You may recall, I was asked, “How can we build passion into our workplace?”
Here is another answer: building a culture of assertive curiosity is a way to build passion.
Dale Carnegie Trainingsuggests 10 elements for building assertive curiosity at our workplace:
- Remember assertive curiosity is an emotional as well as an intellectual experience. Assertive curiosity is more about passion than about gathering facts. It is about teaching ourselves how to learn in ways that are meaningful, memorable, and effective. It is about conveying to your co-workers an excitement about learning.
- See yourself as both a student and a purveyor of real knowledge. Gather information from within and outside your field, striving to have leading-edge knowledge. Be dynamic about it, bridging the gap between theory and practice. Become an authority. Be comfortable saying, “I don’t know” [which is a mark of true authority] and couple that with an intention to find out.
- The operational/interactive component of assertive curiosity involves listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering each human being is different from every other. Find the best in people. Ask the right questions and want to hear the answers. Seek the opinions of others. Find out what people think.
- Assertive curiosity involves being curios about and interactive with people without having a fixed agenda. Adjust to accommodate others’ interests. Be confident enough to understand other people’s ideas may be better than your own. Be a patient teacher. Share information about yourself in order to inspire others to share their personal information. Share your dreams.
- Work at having an appealing personal style. Be theatrical. Be interesting.
- Develop a fine sense of self-deprecating humour…to attract and engage others. Remember, both curiosity and humour thrive on the pleasure of surprise.
- Recognize what other people want to learn and also what they need to learn. Then, be creative as you work to spark their curiosity. But, be sure to have no agenda and have no expectation.
- Your company culture, as a whole, must support assertive curiosity. You must have visionary leadership coupled with tangible resources throughout you organization.
- Assertive curiosity should be mentored by senior management. Make curiosity a factor in employee performance appraisals. Provide training about curiosity. Reward curiosity.
- Build fun into your workplace.
If we work on these 10 things then we will ignite passion at our workplace.