The Diary of a CPO - Chapter 7

How my curiosity became my super power.

Do you ever wonder how you got to where you are today?

Photo by Fallon Michael on Unsplash

I don’t think about my career trajectory all that much, but when someone specifically asks me how I rose up in my career, it makes me stop and think.

I’ll be the first to say, I’m not an exceptional “brainiac” and there are many people who have done far greater things than I have. However, I can say I am very good at the things I do, and I think I’ve figured out what has contributed to my success. 

As with anything, there are a variety of skills I honed in on to become great at like learning to articulate myself clearly; using logic and objectivity to validate a point; being careful to look around corners so that I’ve thought of every angle and avoid potential mistakes; learning to collaborate and share ideas with others, etc.

But those are really table stakes. Lots of people do those things, or they can learn to do them and do them well. 

What I think has contributed to my success is something that I didn’t consciously think about until I got older, and that was my innate curiosity.

Think about the people around you or your family members and friends. How truly curious are they? Curious enough to ask questions (even the dumb ones)? Curious enough to take action (even if it means more work for you)? Curious enough to rock the boat (because you know the way we’re doing things now is just wrong)?

The truth is, not all people are curious and they are satisfied to go on with their day-to-day lives without questioning anything or wondering why it simply is the way it is. Some people just aren’t curious enough and so they accept.

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When I graduated from university, one of my first jobs was at Dell where I worked as a customer service agent on the phone. I was excited to be joining a hardware tech company and they put a large group of us through a 2 week training program. During one of those training sessions, a manager was trying to explain that when you get a complaint from a customer, you’ll oftentimes need to work with team members from other departments to resolve the issue. For example, if a customer called to say their computer order wasn’t placed properly, you would need to go find the sales rep that took the original order from this customer to resolve the issue. The only problem was, we were instructed that you aren’t allowed to go over to that team member to talk to them face to face, in real life (even though that team sat right next to our team on the same floor).

You would only be allowed to email them.

I thought that was odd, considering we were all physically there together in one building sitting next to one another. This was also a long time ago, prior to software programs that allowed you to text one another like Slack, so emails were really cumbersome when you had to go back and forth to discuss something in detail.

So I asked this training manager, why are we only allowed to email one another? Why can’t we walk over and have a conversation with our colleague, or even call them on the phone to discuss the situation. Wasn’t emailing one another wasting time and effort going back and forth?

She looked at me, smiled smugly and said, “Because Michael Dell wants it that way.”

Seriously…that was her answer to me? That didn’t provide me with any insight into the “why” except for the fact that he sounded completely arrogant and power hungry and this manager sounded content to take Mr. Dell’s command and proudly implement it to everyone. Even if she didn’t agree with him, couldn’t she have thought up a better response to my question, just so that us newbies could be more aligned?

When I looked around the room, everyone just sort of stared at her, nodded and accepted it. Everyone except for me. I still didn’t understand why that was the rule, and I didn’t think it was a good one. It was inefficient. It didn’t allow for close collaboration between teams. It resulted in longer resolution times. It created communication issues that would have been better revolved through a conversation. And it didn’t create an environment where we could all solve problems as one team. We were being trained to work in a bubble and a silo. I mean, why bother even commuting into work if we aren’t allowed to talk to one another?

So I decided that Dell wasn’t the place for me and I left that role shortly after.

Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash

Throughout my career, I let my curiosity lead the way. Even early in my career as a new manager where I was given more responsibility and autonomy to do things, I always looked closely at how things worked or why we did things a certain way. If I thought something could be done better, more efficiently or with less mistakes, I would go ahead and “fix” it. I gained great satisfaction seeing the results of my labour and I continued to view the world with this curiosity and how things could be better.

My managers always thought I was just hard working or engaged, but it wasn’t even just that. I’ve always worked incredibly hard and I often choose jobs that engage me, but those weren't the only things that allowed me to succeed. It was and still is the genuine curiosity I have within me to look at something and wonder, is there a better way to do this? What would I do if this was my business? How would I manage this function if I was in that person’s shoes? I wasn’t sure if everyone thinks this way, but those were the things that were always in my head, even to this day. It never gets old.

I was at a hair salon one day getting my hair done. A customer went up to pay and was about to get her jacket from the coat rack near the cash register and she was surprised that it was missing. She asked the cashier and her hairdresser about her jacket, her red leather jacket, and they were all surprised and said someone must have taken it by mistake. A red leather jacket, by mistake? Probably not. But I remember thinking, if I was the owner of this salon, I would never leave customer coats on an open rack for people to freely take. I would have built a coat closet and ensured that customers got a coat check chip to store their belongings safely, just like they do when you go to a restaurant and they take your coat. Why wouldn’t you do the same at a hair salon?

I was lining up at Aritizia and there were no signs to instruct customers of where the line begins and ends. Two  lines started forming, one from one side of the cash counter and one from the other. I knew that eventually, someone from the cash desk would tell one side of the customer line that the line starts on the other side of the counter. That was eventually directed at me and the people behind me, so we had to leave the line that had formed and walk over to the other side to get behind the long line that was formed on that end. Remember, there were no signs, no stickers with arrows on the floor, nothing. This was frustrating for customers and also unnecessary, but for some reason, the cashiers didn’t seem to care and sure enough, every few minutes they had to tell one side of the line to get to the other side, over and over again, probably many times in their 8 hour shift. When I went back a month later, I thought surely they must have put up signs by now, but nope, it was still the same. And they were still telling customers to get to the other side of the line. So why expend so much energy to do this when you could be fixing the situation and making both customers and cashiers happy?

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I walked into a HomeSense and thought I would just pick a few small items. I ended up going through every aisle and picking up more and more stuff, little things that kept piling up in my arms. I hadn’t picked up a basket when I entered the store but now, I regretted not doing so because my hands were full. I decided it was time to cash out as I didn’t have the ability to carry anything else. As I stood in line with my purchases, I gazed at the front of the store and wondered, “Why do they only have baskets at the front of the store? Surely if placed baskets at different areas of the store, customers could easily drop their purchases into one and would likely end up buying more and continue shopping longer?” In my mind, I imagined stacking baskets in the middle of the store, the back of the store and maybe near the changing rooms.

So when you think about it, almost everything starts with curiosity. Then, when you ask the questions and gather the facts, you have an opportunity to take action. Once you take action, you have made change. And with change, you have 1. Resolved a problem, 2. Made something more efficient, or 3. You have created a new and refreshing way of doing something.

So think about what you could accomplish by applying this way of working at your job? Imagine how much more efficient you could become by resolving issues that cause friction and pain points and creating better solutions for daily problems at work. 

And better yet, imagine if your manager could witness you doing all these amazing things simply spurred on by curiosity. Doesn’t all of this show initiative? Don’t you become the most valuable player on the team simply because you can and will solve problems? Perhaps you’ll become the MVP because you do what most others don’t…you see something, you do something.

For me, I find my curiosity becomes stronger when I start a new job at a company. During those first 3 months when I come into a job with a fresh set of eyes, I want to know how everything works in my domain. Joining a new company and taking on the function of HR means I have the opportunity to change how we provide services and programs to our employees who are the ones we serve. 

Why are we only providing learning and development programs online? Have we tried looking into more interactive programs or is this just the way it’s always been done?

Why is turnover so high for this vertical/team? Is there an issue with the manager leading this team or are there other concerns we should be looking into?

Why did our engagement score drop by 15 points last year? Was there a major event that occurred that affected employees in a negative way or did we divert our attention from employee engagement?

Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash

The reality is, all leaders should be curious so that complacency and comfort doesn’t settle in (we must all avoid going on autopilot), but I truly believe that it’s magnified when you are in an HR role. In HR, you are in a role that requires unbiased judgment calls for almost every aspect of your work because you deal with people the most. In order to have an unbiased view of a situation, you need the facts. In order to get the facts, you have to ask questions, dig into details, probe where things feel misaligned and ensure that no stone has been left unturned. And then you fix. You take action.

Maybe I was always destined to work in HR and be really good at it because I had this innate curiosity to look under every stone. Maybe I just landed in HR and it taught me to be curious, more than I ever was. Or maybe some people are born with it and they make good use of it because not every HR person I’ve known has been truly curious.

My advice to you is to never stop being curious, asking questions and making things better. You can either be a passenger in life or you can be in the driver’s seat. I choose to be in the driver’s seat - it’s way more fun!