Curiosity Is Not a Soft Skill, It Is a Leadership Survival Skill

About this episode

Julia Felton discusses the importance of curiosity in leadership with Ryan Ware, emphasizing its role in navigating change and fostering psychological safety.

Host Julia Felton welcomes Ryan Ware, CEO of Connective Consulting Group, to discuss why curiosity is essential in business, especially in construction where teams and conditions constantly change. Ryan explains how “hand-me-down” answers and routines can prevent validation and learning, and how fear on both sides of change can block curiosity, making psychological safety critical. They explore connecting the human side of work to technology and process shifts (including AI), building relationships as social capital, and reducing judgment through asking better questions. Ryan shares an example of leading a change-fatigued team by apologising for past churn, creating space to learn, testing like a laboratory, and building shared ownership that enabled larger national projects and leadership growth. He closes with his legacy: helping people build stronger relationships with change through empathy, clarity, choice, and connection. 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 01:00 Why Curiosity Matters 02:49 Questioning Old Habits 04:45 Fear and Psychological Safety 07:45 Connecting Humans to Change 12:02 Building Connection on Projects 16:04 Social Capital and Conversations 19:47 Case Study…

People in this episode

Host: Julia Felton

Guest: Ryan Ware

Topics covered

• curiosity
• leadership
• psychological safety
• change management
• social capital
• business relationships

Keywords

• curiosity
• leadership
• psychological safety
• change management
• social capital
• business
• construction

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Connective Consulting Group

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