It’s Spring which means baseball for all!
I was driving through my neighborhood and a familiar Spring sight caught my eye. The family playing in the driveway included a young toddler girl playing T-ball with her dad while mom watched. She was in a pink puffy jacket holding a big pink plastic bat about to hit a ball atop a pink and purple plastic t-ball stand.
Cute.
She whacked the ball and got a good shot off! Visions of college athletic scholarships dancing in his head, I imagine, as the dad caught the ball.
Adults move to outcomes quickly. We’ve been goal-conditioned and that means action!
The little girl had not yet been action oriented. When she hit the ball, she knocked the stand over. She didn’t move into immediate action of ball on stand for another shot at perfecting her hit. Rather, she stopped to examine the bottom of the stand.
She was curious about the design on the bottom of the stand. Perfection of the swing could wait for a moment as she explored the mermaid or princess or dolphin image on the plastic bottom. The complete and utter transparency of her curiosity inspired me.
We as leaders can learn something from her child-like curiosity. You see, it was totally transparent, open, unashamed and natural to explore and wonder. Somewhere along the way, our adult lives have sucked the curiosity out of us and we can judge ourselves for taking our eye off of the ball to see what else there is to see.
Where are we masking our curiosity? Where do we create smoke and mirrors about asking questions? Where do we hide our wonder?
What would it take to be completely transparent about our curiosity? Do you think if people knew we were open and transparent and genuinely curious, they might be much more open to us?
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