Senior leaders are often told they need to be decisive, clear, and in control. And while those traits matter, they often overshadow a leadership behavior that quietly determines whether a team grows or becomes dependent:
Curiosity.
At our Evolve Leadership Summit, curiosity surfaced again and again, not as a soft skill, but as a fundamental leverage point in how leaders create capacity around them. The pattern was unmistakable:
When leaders become more curious, teams become more capable.
When leaders become less curious, teams become more dependent.
And in organizations navigating complexity, pressure, or rapid change, dependency is one of the most dangerous forms of fragility a senior leader can face.
This article expands on the micro-practice featured in the inaugural issue of Collective Capacity by Einblau (our bi-weekly briefings on Culture-Carried Leadership) and explores how a two-minute shift in how you respond can fundamentally alter the strength and resilience of your leadership culture…
Curiosity at the Senior Level
When people bring you problems, they aren’t just delivering information. They’re signalling something about:
- Who takes ownership of issues
- How confident they feel
- How equipped they are
- How much trust sits between you
Most leaders, especially seasoned ones, default to solving and directing because it’s faster, it feels responsible, and it keeps the organization moving. For many, this has been labelled as coaching simply because they’ve never been shown another way. Over time, that instinct creates a subtle, systemic drain.
Every time you solve a problem your team could have solved, you’re reinforcing the wrong center of gravity.
Not because you intend to, but because the structure of the conversation places the cognitive load on you instead of them.
Curiosity interrupts that pattern.
Default Reactions That Reduce Capacity
Under pressure, most senior leaders fall back on one of four responses:
Defend → “Here’s why we handled it that way.”
The focus moves to justification instead of improvement, shutting down fresh insight.
Explain → “Let me walk you through how this works.”
The leader begins teaching instead of letting others think, turning one question into more work for themselves.
Convince → “If we do it my way, it will go faster.”
The leader wins agreement, but at the cost of others learning how to make the decision.
Control → “I’ll take this one. I don’t want it to go sideways.”
The work moves forward, but the knowledge stays trapped, leaving no one else better equipped next time.
These reactions aren’t flaws. They’re conditioned responses shaped by the systems leaders grow up in.
Many leaders are promoted without being fully equipped for the people and leadership accountabilities of the role. Expectations are often implicit, not taught. Conflict skills are assumed, not developed.
In that context, leaders feel pressure to prove they deserve the role, to protect their credibility, and to avoid surfacing issues that could be read as personal failure.
That’s why leaders defend. That’s why they explain. That’s why they step in and take control.
But the higher you go, the more these responses become liabilities, because they:
- Increase dependency
- Signal a lack of trust
- Limit team problem-solving
- Create bottlenecks at the top
A leader who always has the answer becomes the leader everyone waits for.
And waiting erodes capacity. It delays decisions, narrows who thinks and decides, and trains the organization to defer rather than develop judgment. Over time, leadership becomes something people wait for, not something the culture carries.
Curiosity Is the Interrupt
Curiosity allows you to create forward motion without becoming the default problem-solver everyone relies on. It doesn’t weaken authority; it grows capacity around it.
The simplest, most effective curiosity move?
“What have you already thought of, or tried?”
This question is small, but the structural shift it creates is massive.
It does three things at once:
Collective Capacity is not a single initiative or capability. It’s the result of three interdependent enablers working together:
It Shifts the Centre of Gravity
From: you carrying the load
To: them owning the outcome
When you ask what they’ve already thought of, you invite them into responsibility. They move from presenting a problem to presenting a process. That repositioning matters more than the content of their answer because it changes where ownership sits.
This is how leadership begins to distribute rather than concentrate.
It Reclaims Unused Capability
Most people have already considered options. They simply haven’t declared them, because:
- They assume you want the issue escalated
- They doubt their judgment
- They don’t yet trust the leadership culture
- They’ve been conditioned to bring problems, not solutions
By asking one clarifying question, you surface competence that was previously dormant.
You reveal intelligence that already existed, which is one of the most powerful ways organizational capacity grows.
It Builds Capacity in Real Time
This isn’t theory or training. It’s leadership development embedded inside the work itself.
When you ask someone what they’ve already thought of, you’re not teaching a lesson; you’re strengthening capability in the precise moment they need it. The learning happens in motion, not in isolation.
This is culture-carried leadership in action: problem-solving coaching that happens inside everyday interactions.
Dependency Is the Quietest Threat to Leadership Continuity
Organizations rarely fracture because senior leaders don’t work hard enough. They fracture because the system becomes too dependent on a few key people.
Curiosity is one of the fastest ways to reverse this pattern.
Each time you shift the cognitive load back to your team, you build resilience into the organization. And over time, those micro-shifts accumulate into:
- Stronger judgment
- Better decision-making
- More confident leaders
- Clearer succession pipelines
- Reduced friction
- Increased trust
Curiosity is not soft; it’s structural. It redistributes ownership and responsibility, changing who carries the leadership weight and what the organization becomes capable of.
A Leadership Micro-Practice You Can Use This Week
The next time someone brings you a problem, pause and ask:
“What have you already thought of, or tried?”
Then genuinely listen.
You’ll see capability you didn’t know was there, and so will they.
You’ll also see where thinking is thin, where skills haven’t yet been built, and where coaching is needed to help people become independent, critical problem solvers.
That moment is the beginning of culture-carried leadership: capacity growing in real time, right inside the work.
And the question does more than shift the conversation; it exposes how leadership is actually coaching in your organization.
Insight to Action
Three Reflection Questions for Senior Leaders:
Where do I unintentionally create dependency by solving too quickly?
Which direct reports would grow faster if I shifted from answering to asking?
What patterns emerge when I use curiosity as the first move instead of control?
Additional reflection:
When I choose curiosity, do I have the coaching skills to use it well, or do I revert to advice, reassurance, or direction once the conversation gets uncomfortable?
Am I equipped to help people think more clearly, surface assumptions, and work through uncertainty, or does curiosity stall because I’m not sure how to guide it?
When curiosity is present, you see where critical thinking already exists but hasn’t been invited forward.
When it’s absent, dependency becomes visible. You’ll see who waits, who defers, and where leadership effort concentrates by default.
Over time, these moments compound. They determine whether leadership capacity is distributed or absorbed, developed or depleted, carried by the system or by a few individuals.
This is why small leadership moves matter. They expose patterns. And patterns are where leadership strengths actually live.
Curiosity reveals potential. Coaching skill determines what happens next.
For many senior leaders, the question isn’t whether curiosity matters, but whether they’ve been equipped to use it in a way that builds independent thinking, accountability, and follow-through. This is where structured coaching capability becomes essential, not optional.
If you’re noticing moments where curiosity reveals potential but conversations stall, it may be time to examine whether your leadership system is fully equipping leaders with the coaching skills required to carry capacity forward. Coaching for Commitment was designed for exactly this purpose.
This is why small leadership moves matter. They expose patterns. And patterns are where leadership strengths actually live.
What Happens If a key leader walks Out Tomorrow?
In just five minutes, the Future-Proof Forecast™ shows where leadership continuity is holding in your organizaiton—and where capacity is quietly strained. It identifies the conditions creating the greatest pressure on your system and points to where strengthening the foundation will matter most. practices are embedded in your culture and systems or too reliant on a few key people. You’ll emerge with clarity and a clear next move you can confidently act on.
