Be curious vs Be questioning
Recently I’ve started reading the book Turn the Ship around — Turning the followers into leaders. The book introduces the model leader-leader and explains why it's more effective than the traditional leader-follower model. Written by David Marquet the book outlines how he implemented the leader-leader model while being the captain of a nuclear submarine, the USS Santa Fe.

One of the things that really caught my attention was “Being curious” vs “Be questioning”. Let me quote what David has written in the book:
Walking the ship, I would ask the crew questions about their equipment and what they were working on. They were skeptical about these questions initially. That’s because normally I would have been “questioning,” not curious. I would have been asking questions to make sure they knew the equipment. Now I was asking questions to make sure I knew the equipment.
This made me think. Am I curious enough when I ask questions to my colleagues? I am sure many times I was questioning than being curious.
Like mentioned above, you know whether it is the curiosity or questioning by seeing how skeptic the other person is. Sometimes I was at the receiving end too i.e. Questioning me than being curious about certain decisions I’ve taken. This usually happens one is afraid of giving control.
This brings the four pillars of the leader-leader model:
- Control — Give control, don’t take control. This is probably the hardest for most leaders since the more stressful times become, the more we try to control the situation.
- Competence — Give your team the tools they need to be technically competent. A technically competent team provides the foundation for trust.
- Clarity — State the organization’s goals clearly, openly, and honestly. Make sure everyone is working towards the same goals.
- Courage — Resist the urge to fall back into the leader-follower model. It is important to continue to trust your team to deliver, even in the face of adversity.
David summarises the model in the below video:
I’ve written another post about how this model helps in creating awesome results in our software industry.
