Why We All Need a Curiosity Check With Jeff Wetzler 7 | 41

Radical Candor: Communication at Work

Radical Candor

Careers, Relationships, Society & Culture, Business

4.7 • 740 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Difficult conversations don’t get easier by avoiding them—but they can get better when you prepare for them by getting curious. On this episode of The Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Jeff Wetzler, author of ASK, about how staying curious helps us understand what others are really thinking and feeling. Jeff walks us through the curiosity curve and explains how to move into greater curiosity to reduce misunderstandings, deepen trust, and make space for more honest, helpful conversations—at work and at home. If you’ve ever faced a moment where you weren’t sure how to start, what to say, or how someone might react, this episode offers simple tools to help you connect with care and communicate with greater clarity. Get all of the show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠RadicalCandor.com⁠ Episode Links:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Transcript⁠ ⁠Jeff Wetzler ⁠Book | Ask ⁠Article | The Right Way To Prepare for High Stakes Conversations ⁠Jason Rosoff : Get Curious Not Furious | YouTube Connect: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Chapters: (00:00) Preparing for High Stakes Conversations Jeff and Kim chat about why curiosity is essential for high stakes conversations (03:17) The Curiosity Arc Jeff introduces the sections of the Arc (12:34) The Curiosity Check Checking in to see where you are and where you want to be (18:16) How to Move Along the Arc Jeff explains head, heart, and hand-based ways to move along the Arc (27:06) Letting Go The importance of exhaling and letting go of the agenda in leadership (31:34) Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Kim & Jeff discuss the use of DBT (32:43) Checking Someone Else’s Curiosity Level Jeff explains how to help others get curious (37:56) Curiosity and Candor Kim explores why curiosity is essential to candor (41:54) Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Anna, I've got a new secret weapon for print. Print? Vista print, right? That's not a secret.
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0:10.2	even photo books from your last holiday. If you need it, we print it at vistaprint.co.uk.
0:19.8	Hello, everybody. Welcome to our LinkedIn Live. I'm here with Jeff Wetzler, who is the author of Ask and who wrote an incredible article that has, I would say, gone business viral. Do you think that's fair, Jeff?
0:37.4	I think that's fair.
0:38.9	Excellent.
0:40.8	So, Jeff, tell us about what was the inspiration behind this article, the right way to prepare for high-stakes conversations.
0:48.7	Yeah.
0:49.2	Well, first of all, it's great to be back here with you, Kim.
0:51.9	Yes, I love your rough ask.
0:54.0	Thank you. I should have worn the hat on the Yes, I love your book to ask. Thank you.
0:54.8	I was, I should have worn the hat on the show, but I was wearing your hat yesterday.
0:59.5	I love it.
1:00.1	I love it.
1:00.4	You were such an important contributor and thought partner in the book.
1:03.9	So the inspiration, the impetus for the article was really this idea that in so many different professions, people have ways of preparing when things are high stakes.
1:14.3	You know, a pilot would not take off on a plane without doing a safety check.
1:19.2	Yes.
1:19.8	A surgeon would not do surgery without checking all the different things that, you know, even a software engineer, we're not ship code without checking things.
1:26.7	And yet we in our, you know, in our fields of people who talk for a living, basically,
1:31.3	we go into all kinds of high stakes situations.
1:33.3	And I think by and large, we either don't prepare or we don't prepare right.
	...

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