Bill Gallagher explains how curiosity and empathy work together in client relationships and teams. When leaders model curiosity and ask genuine questions, people communicate more openly. During COVID uncertainty, teams that checked in with each other saw measurable improvement in how they worked together.
So this is when we talk about emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is about tuning in. Like, how is this really landing with people? What's really going on here? And, you know, for. When I work with sales folks, we talk about the three pillars to client centricity is curiosity, empathy, and managing our cognitive biases. Because we have to really understand what's going on with our client. We're perspective seeking, not just taking and aligning agendas, because if we don't, we're not going to get the sale. And. And in terms of the engineering team, they really wanted to model curiosity way. That said, you know, I've got your back. Go experiment, go a challenge, and I want to be less directive. I want to tune in where I can coach and develop. And it was through our work together that it was. It was one of the leaders. He's like, wow, I just learned that as a boss, I really need to be approachable and I need to connect with my teammates. Especially because Covid was going on, it was kind of all fresh, and people were, like, swimming in uncertainty. And you had to be. He had to have a lot more communication in terms of hearing how people were actually feeling. And I know people are like, oh, well, we're not supposed to be talking about our feelings. Well, when we're in a crisis, yes, we are, because that gives us a gauge of where people are and how we might be able to help them and connect with them. And again, so he was using his curiosity to engage with, like, checking in with people. Like, where how are you really.
