Why experience can quietly replace curiosity with certainty, and why the best leaders never stop questioning what they think they know.
I’ve been curious for as long as I can remember. As a young boy, I was almost obsessed with understanding how things worked. Electrical gadgets, toys, even teddy bears were subjected to my investigations. I would take things apart, fascinated by what was inside and how the different components worked together. Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly good at putting them back together again. My curiosity was considerably more advanced than my practical ability.
By the time I was 10 or 12, my interests had started to change. I became fascinated by successful people, particularly how they made their money, achieved their positions and built their careers. What had they done differently? What did they know that I didn’t? What made them tick? I would seek out people with more experience, often older men who had achieved things I admired, and ask questions. Looking back, I probably bored a few of them, although I was generally conscious of when I might be overdoing it.
Now, at 50, I’m still curious, although it manifests itself differently. The biggest change is that I sometimes have to remind myself to remain curious. Occasionally, I’ll leave a lecture, meeting or conversation disappointed that I didn’t ask another question or investigate something further. I might have held back because the speaker was running late, somebody else had already asked several questions, or I simply wasn’t feeling particularly confident that day.
Those moments interest me because I recognise an uncomfortable possibility. As we accumulate knowledge and experience, do we become less willing to question what we think we already know?
Curiosity Is More Than Asking Questions
Curiosity is often associated with people who ask lots of questions, but I think that’s a rather narrow interpretation. We can be curious about people, emotions, technology, history, ideas, beliefs and experiences. Sometimes curiosity involves asking somebody a question. At other times, it might involve reading, observing, experimenting or spending time reflecting on why we think or behave in a particular way.
Research by psychologist Todd Kashdan and colleagues, published in Harvard Business Review, identified five dimensions of curiosity: joyous exploration, deprivation sensitivity, stress tolerance, social curiosity and thrill-seeking.[1] Their work demonstrates that curiosity isn’t a single personality characteristic expressed identically by everyone. Some people enjoy discovering unfamiliar ideas, while others are strongly motivated to resolve gaps in their knowledge or understand the people around them.
I find that distinction particularly interesting because my own curiosity has evolved throughout my life. I still enjoy discovering how things work, but today I’m increasingly fascinated by why people behave as they do. I read virtually every evening, particularly history, and enjoy documentaries covering subjects far removed from my professional work. None of that needs to produce an immediate commercial benefit. Sometimes the pleasure comes simply from learning something I didn’t know yesterday.
When Experience Starts Replacing Curiosity
Experience is one of our greatest professional assets. A doctor who has treated thousands of patients, a lawyer who has handled hundreds of complex matters or a CEO who has navigated difficult commercial decisions develops judgement that cannot be acquired from textbooks alone. Recognising patterns allows experienced professionals to make decisions more efficiently, often under considerable pressure.
However, the same experience that helps us recognise familiar situations can also encourage us to reach conclusions prematurely. We hear the beginning of a problem and assume we know the rest. We encounter circumstances that resemble something we’ve dealt with previously and instinctively reach for the solution that worked last time. Occasionally, we stop investigating before we’ve discovered what makes the present situation different.
In medicine, the consequences of premature conclusions can be particularly serious. A 2022 article in The BMJ by Hardeep Singh and colleagues examined strategies for improving diagnostic accuracy, including recognising cognitive biases, seeking feedback and drawing on the knowledge of patients and other healthcare professionals.[2] Although the research focuses on clinical practice, the underlying principle is relevant to leadership: experience is valuable, but our initial interpretation may still be incomplete.
I explored a related issue in my earlier article, When Growth Turns Into Protection. As we become more successful, we often become increasingly protective of what we’ve achieved. I wonder whether the same thing happens with knowledge. Having invested years in developing our expertise, we can become reluctant to entertain information that challenges our established understanding.
Curiosity creates an opportunity to interrupt that process. It asks us to consider whether we have understood the situation correctly before allowing our experience to determine the answer.
What Curiosity Taught Me About Instinct
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, I struggled with something that influenced my approach to leadership. I had strong instincts, particularly when making commercial or people-related decisions, but much of the management literature and training I encountered placed considerable emphasis on established theories, scientific evidence and academic authority. I found myself questioning whether I should trust my own judgement when somebody with far greater academic credentials had reached a different conclusion.
Over time, curiosity helped me develop a more balanced understanding. Rather than deciding that instinct was either reliable or unreliable, I continued exploring how experience, intuition and evidence influenced decision-making. I gradually returned to a position that felt closer to my original belief, but with a better appreciation of its limitations. I don’t believe we should follow our instincts unquestioningly, but neither should we automatically dismiss them. Sometimes an instinct is simply a signal that something deserves further investigation.
What’s interesting is that curiosity didn’t lead me to abandon my original position. It helped me examine it, challenge it and eventually understand why I still believed it had value. I’ve changed my mind about countless things throughout my life, from business decisions to personal beliefs, but curiosity doesn’t always have to produce a different conclusion. Sometimes it enables us to reach the same conclusion through better reasoning.
Curious Leaders Create Curious Teams
Throughout my leadership career, I’ve believed that one of the most effective ways to encourage curiosity is to demonstrate it yourself. If people regularly see their manager asking questions, admitting they don’t know something or investigating alternative approaches, they begin to understand that such behaviour is acceptable. Equally important is creating an environment where people have the time and confidence to explore their own questions without fearing embarrassment or criticism.
I’ve sometimes asked questions in large meetings that others might have considered silly. My intention wasn’t to demonstrate how little I knew, but to make sure I understood the subject properly while reinforcing that nobody should feel uncomfortable seeking clarification. I’ve always believed there is no such thing as a silly question. The only silly question is the one you don’t ask, particularly when the answer could improve the quality of a decision.
Unfortunately, not every organisation encourages this behaviour. In her 2018 Harvard Business Review article, The Business Case for Curiosity, Francesca Gino reported research involving more than 3,000 employees. Around 70% said they encountered barriers to asking more questions at work, despite leaders frequently expressing support for curiosity and innovation.[3] The contradiction is revealing. Organisations may say they want inquisitive employees while rewarding speed, conformity and the appearance of certainty.
The Financial Times has also explored the importance of understanding the people and cultures within organisations rather than relying exclusively on performance figures. Its Working It discussion on how much leaders should know about their teams highlighted the value of listening across organisational levels and remaining open to perspectives that challenge established assumptions.[4] For me, this is where leadership curiosity becomes practical. Giving people permission to speak is only useful if we’re genuinely prepared to listen.
I examined a closely related theme in The Senior Leader’s New Job Is Learning in Public. Leadership has changed considerably since I first became a manager in the 1990s. I’ve moved from a more hierarchical approach, where confidence and decisiveness were strongly emphasised, towards recognising the value of openness, collaboration and acknowledging when my own thinking needs to change.
A July 2026 article in BMJ Leader described this as epistemic humility: recognising that our knowledge is incomplete and that other people may possess insights we lack.[5] The author, Maiedha Raza, argues that leaders must create opportunities for challenge rather than allowing their certainty to close conversations. I think that’s an increasingly important responsibility for anybody who leads experienced professionals.
Curiosity Killed the Cat. Can We Have Too Much?
We’ve all heard the expression curiosity killed the cat, usually as a warning against investigating something unnecessarily. Interestingly, the original saying referred to care rather than curiosity, with care meaning worry or sorrow. The modern version emerged much later, as explained in an interesting historical examination published by The BMJ.[6]
Nevertheless, I think the warning contains an important lesson. Curiosity isn’t automatically beneficial simply because somebody is asking questions or seeking additional information. It can become intrusive, distract us from more important priorities or encourage endless investigation without any meaningful progress. There’s a difference between wanting to understand something and becoming so absorbed in exploration that we never move forward.
I’ve also seen how questioning can become counterproductive when people repeatedly seek advice from others without demonstrating any intention of using what they’ve learned. Not every piece of advice needs to be accepted, and disagreement can lead to further learning. But continually consuming somebody else’s time without reflection, appreciation or action can become frustrating for everyone involved.
A particularly relevant research review was published online in September 2026 by Todd Kashdan, Patrick McKnight and Spencer Harrison. Writing in the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, they describe curiosity as a form of productive inefficiency.[7] Their argument is that exploring possibilities can slow decisions and consume resources in the short term while supporting innovation, adaptability and learning over longer periods.
Importantly, the researchers don’t advocate maximising curiosity without limits. They suggest it should be managed as a strategic resource, recognising that exploration carries costs as well as benefits. That strikes me as a sensible distinction. Good leaders need to know when further investigation is justified and when they have enough information to act. Curiosity without judgement can become indecision; curiosity without action can become little more than an intellectual exercise.
How Curiosity Changes Throughout Our Lives
Watching my two-year-old son explore the world occasionally brings back my own childhood experiences. He might become fascinated by how a pop-up book works or spend time investigating a toy, completely absorbed in understanding something that adults take for granted. Seeing that excitement reminds me of the boy who wanted to dismantle everything within reach.
I probably don’t have the same playful curiosity today, partly because adult responsibilities leave fewer opportunities to investigate things simply for the pleasure of doing so. That doesn’t mean I’ve lost the desire to learn. I still have wide-ranging interests, continue to enjoy discovering unfamiliar subjects and increasingly find that understanding people is more fascinating than understanding objects.
Curiosity has also become fundamental to the work I now do as an executive coach. I’ve always been interested in people, but coaching gives me the opportunity to explore their thinking, assumptions, ambitions and challenges in considerable depth. It’s one of the aspects of my work I enjoy most. I don’t enter those conversations believing I already know the answers. My responsibility is to help clients examine their circumstances and discover possibilities they may not previously have considered.
This is closely connected to my article, What High Performers Need Most Is Not More Advice: It’s Better Challenge. Many of the doctors, lawyers, CEOs, founders and senior professionals I work with already possess substantial knowledge and experience. Their difficulty isn’t necessarily a lack of information. Sometimes their greatest opportunity comes from questioning an assumption that has quietly shaped their decisions for years.
Curiosity enables those conversations to move beyond the obvious. It helps us understand not only what somebody wants to achieve, but why they want it, what might be preventing them and whether their current approach still serves them. However, insight alone isn’t enough. Within my Elevation Model™, greater awareness needs to translate into pathways, commitment and ultimately changed behaviour.
The Leaders Who Stay Curious Keep Growing
We live in a world where accessing information has become extraordinarily easy. Artificial intelligence can summarise research, analyse data and provide possible answers to complex questions within seconds. But access to more information doesn’t automatically mean we’re approaching the right problem. A 2025 Forbes article by Curt Steinhorst explored how curiosity remains a valuable leadership capability in an AI-enabled workplace because it encourages people to challenge assumptions and reconsider what they’re trying to achieve.[8]
I use AI extensively, and I value the time it saves me. But I also regularly question its answers, challenge its assumptions and investigate information that doesn’t appear quite right. For me, that’s another expression of curiosity: being willing to examine what we’re presented with rather than accepting it simply because the source appears knowledgeable or authoritative.
At 50, I don’t think I’m less curious than I was as a child. I’m curious about different things, and I’m more conscious of maintaining that quality. Sometimes I still come away from a conversation wishing I’d explored something further, but perhaps that awareness is useful in itself. It reminds me that there is always something else to understand, regardless of how much experience I’ve accumulated.
I don’t believe curiosity alone makes somebody a great leader, and I certainly don’t believe we should spend our lives questioning everything indefinitely. Experience, evidence, judgement and the courage to act remain essential. But when experience becomes certainty, and certainty removes our willingness to explore alternative perspectives, we risk limiting our own development.
The leaders who continue growing aren’t necessarily those who know the most. They’re the ones who remain willing to discover what they don’t know, reconsider what they believe and act on what they learn.
And perhaps one of the most useful questions any experienced leader can ask is simply this:
What am I missing?
References and Further Reading
- Kashdan, T. B., Disabato, D. J., Goodman, F. R. and Naughton, C. (2018). The Five Dimensions of Curiosity. Harvard Business Review.
- Singh, H., Connor, D. M. and Dhaliwal, G. (2022). Five Strategies for Clinicians to Advance Diagnostic Excellence. The BMJ, 376.
- Gino, F. (2018). The Business Case for Curiosity. Harvard Business Review.
- Financial Times (2024). How Much Should a Leader Know About Their Team?. Working It.
- Raza, M. (2026). Beyond Compassion: Why Healthcare Leaders Need Epistemic Humility. BMJ Leader.
- Aronson, J. (2021). When I Use a Word… Curiosity. The BMJ.
- Kashdan, T. B., McKnight, P. E. and Harrison, S. H. (2026). Curiosity at Work: A Productive Inefficiency Model. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, advance online publication.
- Steinhorst, C. (2025). Curiosity: A Leadership Advantage AI Still Can’t Replicate. Forbes.
About Laurence Loxam
I’m Laurence Loxam. I’ve pushed limits in business, on mountains and at the finish line.
Now I help high-performing professionals do the same, pushing past the point most people stop.
I coach CEOs, doctors, lawyers, founders and senior leaders who’ve achieved success but still feel there’s more. Together, we unlock clarity, sharpen confidence and lead with conviction.
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