Small businesses often pride themselves on agility, but agility alone is not enough to sustain long-term growth. Teams thrive when they feel safe questioning assumptions, evaluating the latest ideas and surface concerns without fear. Gregory Hold, CEO and founder of Hold Brothers Capital, recognizes that curiosity and transparency are not optional values but vital tools for building resilient organizations. His perspective reflects a larger trend in leadership, that success is no longer defined solely by discipline and execution, but also by openness and learning.
Leaders must create environments where curiosity and transparency are woven into daily operations. It requires more than policies or slogans; it calls for practices that encourage experimentation and communication at every level of the business. When employees feel safe sharing ideas, questioning decisions and even failing occasionally, the organization becomes stronger and more adaptive in uncertain markets.
Why Curiosity Matters
Curiosity fuels innovation by pushing employees to look beyond routine tasks and explore novel solutions. In small businesses, where resources may be limited, curiosity often sparks creative ways to solve problems, without heavy investment. A curious employee might notice inefficiencies in how clients are served and propose a slight change that saves time or improves satisfaction.
Small firms thrive because curiosity is encouraged. A family-owned bakery might explore gluten-free recipes after noticing a shift in customer demand, leading to a loyal new customer base. A neighborhood hardware store might experiment with weekend workshops based on customer questions, creating stronger community ties and boosting sales. These examples show that curiosity is not about grand innovation, but about noticing opportunities and acting on them.
Creating Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is the foundation that makes curiosity possible. If employees fear embarrassment or punishment for speaking up, they will not take the risk of sharing untested ideas. Leaders must demonstrate that questions are welcome and that mistakes are seen as learning opportunities, rather than failures.
Research shows that teams with higher psychological safety outperform those where silence is the norm. Google’s “Project Aristotle,” for instance, found that psychological safety was the single most crucial factor behind effective teams. When people feel safe to take risks, they bring more creativity, energy and problem-solving to the table. For small businesses, this is especially important since each team member often wears multiple hats, and their contributions carry extra weight.
Transparency Builds Trust
Transparency in communication strengthens both teams and leadership credibility. Employees want to know why decisions are made and how their work contributes to the larger mission. Sharing reasoning openly allows staff to align with goals and reduces the uncertainty that fuels disengagement.
Transparency doesn’t have to be complicated. Some small businesses share key financial numbers with their teams, while others take a few minutes in a meeting to explain why a big decision was made. Even small gestures of openness matter. By making honesty a habit, leaders build trust that carries their teams through both smooth sailing and rough waters.
Encouraging Experimentation
Experimentation is where curiosity and transparency converge. Small businesses cannot afford to remain static, and testing novel approaches provides a low-risk way to adapt. Leaders can develop this mindset by creating spaces for trial projects or pilot programs. Even when experiments fail, the lessons gained are valuable.
Treating experimentation as a structured process also helps reduce risk. A retailer might evaluate new store hours for one month before deciding whether to adopt them. A small consultancy firm might pilot a new service with a handful of clients before scaling. When experiments are transparent and results shared openly, the entire organization learns together. This habit not only sparks innovation but also builds confidence that failure will be treated as progress, rather than punishment.
Leadership Practices That Support Openness
Leaders can bring these values to life with simple, practical actions. Regular team meetings where everyone’s ideas are welcomed without judgment signal that input truly matters. One-on-one check-ins offer a quieter space for employees who might be hesitant to speak up in a group, making inclusion feel personal and genuine.
Leaders can also model curiosity by asking thoughtful questions themselves. When managers demonstrate that they are learners too, employees feel more comfortable adopting the same stance. Over time, these small, consistent actions build a culture where openness and inquiry are part of the company identity, rather than occasional gestures.
The Role of Feedback
Feedback systems are central to a transparent culture. Constructive feedback helps employees grow, while signaling that their contributions are being noticed. But transparency requires that feedback flows in both directions. Leaders who solicit feedback from their teams demonstrate humility and openness to change.
This reciprocity strengthens relationships. Employees who see their feedback taken seriously become more invested in the company’s success. They understand that transparency is not one-sided, but a shared responsibility between leaders and staff. Over time, this builds a cycle of trust, where both leaders and employees feel safe speaking up and acting on insights.
Building Long-Term Resilience
Curiosity and transparency are not just cultural buzzwords. They equip small businesses to withstand uncertainty. A curious team continually seeks improvement, while a transparent one builds trust and engagement. Together, these qualities make companies more adaptable and less fragile when challenges appear.
For small businesses, resilience is often the difference between weathering a storm and closing doors. When employees are encouraged to explore ideas and leaders share information openly, the organization can pivot faster, and with more confidence. This resilience compounds over time, creating businesses that grow stronger with each test they face.
Growing Through Openness
The long-term value of curiosity and transparency is that they compound. A single curious idea might streamline a process, but a culture of curiosity ensures ongoing innovation. One act of transparency may build trust in the short term, but a consistent pattern of openness builds a reputation that attracts both talent and customers.
Gregory Hold stresses that leaders who encourage curiosity and transparency are not simply shaping internal culture, they are preparing their companies for the future. His perspective highlights that these values create organizations that learn faster, adapt more effectively and maintain trust through uncertainty. At Hold Brothers Capital, this principle is evident in how leadership emphasizes openness in decision-making and fosters a culture where inquiry is valued—demonstrating how curiosity and transparency directly strengthen resilience. By embedding curiosity and transparency into daily practice, small business leaders build teams capable of thriving in any environment.
Hold Brothers Capital is a group of affiliated companies, founded by Gregory Hold.
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