Finding Curiosity

Heat Treat Today publishes eight print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the editor, Bethany Leone. In this letter, Bethany ponders the variables that set leaders apart from the rest of the workforce. Are you a curious person? Does a pursuit of knowledge inform the approach you take to your place in the industry? Read more of what Bethany has discovered about the qualities of leaders in this letter, which first appeared in the September 2024 People of Heat Treat print edition.

Feel free to contact Bethany at bethany@heattreattoday.com if you have a question or comment.

Leadership is nothing new. The buzz continues as we each have to lead, or be led, in every capacity of life. Too easily, that buzz becomes white noise, truisms filling an otherwise empty page. And that’s actually okay. I don’t mean that it’s good to become numb to valuable information, but the talk around leadership is confined to finding different ways to identify old truths. What we emphasize from space to space can only encapsulate a portion of leadership.

But this summer found me preparing for a book study I was to lead. (Would recommend the read: Till We Have Faces.) The questions to orient the group were sent in June, and we looked forward to converging our thoughts in a discussion mid-August. As the day approached, I found myself wrestling with ways to lead in a way where the group would not be harnessed to my way of thinking, nor would the reins be so loose that the discussion wanders into flat silence.

Coincidentally, I came upon podcast episode #66 on Rust Belt Rundown, interviewing a chronic entrepreneur. One old truism that I heard afresh was this:

Be a facilitator: Stay curious, asking the right questions at the right time.

It got in my head. “How does one stay curious?” This I had attempted again and again — in management, giving interviews, teaching — with varying measures of success. But I hadn’t unlocked this mindset. I pondered this in light of the upcoming book discussion.

The day came. I reconsidered what the plan would be. And we talked. And the discussion flourished. Somehow, I had remained curious. Was it just that? And why now?

A book group is a good place to explore curiosity.

It seems that curiosity was more than a mindset to assume, neither was it just a practice of asking questions at the right time. Its power comes in conjunction with several other attributes of leadership:

Know your expertise. It is not impossible to lead others if one is not an expert, but the best mentors, leaders, teachers, and managers all know what they know (and what they don’t know). For myself, the discussion was more enjoyable since I didn’t have to wrestle with the onslaught of new ideas; I could stay curious and consider when to ask the right question.
Know your exit strategy. What is the end goal of your leadership? Perhaps, like how my book discussion was to bring a group to a deeper place of shared understanding for independent thought others empowered, as with training new hires on inspection machinery. Whatever it is, know what you as a leader want to see happen when you “exit” the situation. This will determine how you begin, how you endure, and (of course) how you exit.
Know your lifestyle goal. This comes in opposition to “exit strategy,” but often, the end game is to become something or do something sustainably for life. It may mean, as it did for me, a mindset to not solve a problem that someone is working through and letting them work through tests, failures, and ultimate success for themselves.
Never undervalue character. It doesn’t matter how successful you are. A leader without character is only a powerful person. You may make things move, but you will move more people against you than with you.

The last of these four qualities is often the one that catches my eye when the final 40 Under 40 honorees are announced in each September magazine edition (click here to see the 2024 awardees). Perhaps this is the result of so many intelligent people lined up in rows of accomplishments. But somehow still, that father quietly serving a local charity apart from his vocation or young woman being thrilled to take on challenges because it assures a better working environment for her team kindles a desire to follow. In this magazine edition, there’s also a special focus on Heat Treat Veteran MG TJ Wright, and his willingness to take responsibility for the lives of those whom he leads only makes his accomplishments glow brighter (perhaps to his chagrin).

Being a leader isn’t the result of reading about it and forcing oneself to fake a certain set of skills. While those helpful truisms and guideposts about staying curious and asking the right questions can be helpful to prescriptively recognize leadership, the roots of a leader are deeper. In this edition, you’ll see these roots in hunger to know the industry, commitment to take the first step (even if the step trips us or turns us backwards), and ever-conscious care to place your people first.

Contact Bethany at bethany@heattreattoday.com.