Leading With Curiosity: What Our Exec Track Students Taught Me About Problem-Solving and Self-Awareness

Last night’s Exec Track meeting reminded me how important it is that we prioritize creating space for reflection on not just what  we do as leaders (or future leaders), but how we think, feel, and respond in moments that matter.

Lynn Turner, CORE XP Business Solutions

Our January focus was problem-solving and critical thinking in leadership, and we were lucky to be joined by Lynn Turner of CORE XP Business Solutions. Lynn brought both deep expertise and real-world perspective as a certified business coach, leadership development, interpersonal dynamics specialist, and an AgileBrain Master Practitioner.

Since our Exec Track participants are working toward their own AgileBrain certifications, who better to hear from then a master herself!

BVHub Exec Track students

We dove into emotional intelligence, brain state, and the difference between limbic system reactions and rational thought.

I appreciated Lynn's framing of emotions not as something to “manage away,” but rather as data and a tool we can use to better understand ourselves and others.

One of the biggest takeaways was the distinction between responding vs reacting. That space between stimulus and response, what we call metacognition, is where real leadership lives.

Research consistently shows that leaders who develop metacognitive and emotional intelligence skills are more effective, resilient, and successful, with stronger decision-making and team outcomes.

What impressed me most was how naturally our Exec Track students engaged. As Lynn walked them through scenarios, they offered thoughtful, reflective, and truly emotionally mature responses. Reading situations not just for surface-level facts, but for what might be happening underneath.

Watching them apply these concepts made it clear - they're ahead of the game.  

While many adults are just beginning to unlearn reactive leadership patterns, our Exec Track participants are already practicing curiosity, reflection, and intentional response.

It was really inspiring to be witness to it.

References

1. Turner, L. (2025, November 2). Leading with curiosity: Shifting from expert to explorer in today’s VUCA World. Core Business XP. https://www.corebusinessxp.com/blog/leading-with-curiosity-shifting-from-expert-to-explorer-in-todays-vuca-world

2. Metacognition. Metacognition | Teaching + Learning Lab. (n.d.). https://tll.mit.edu/teaching-resources/how-people-learn/metacognition/

3. Mango, Emmanuel & Koshal, Jeremiah & Ouma, Caren. (2019). Metacognitive Ability Effect on Leadership Development. Integrated Journal of Business and Economics. 3. 279. 10.33019/ijbe.v3i3.232.

4. Volpe-White, J. (2024). “I know what I don’t know”: Metacognition in leadership learning. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2024(183), 121 – 130. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20633

5. Tsoutsoulas, M. (2025). How metacognition helps students. Kritik. https://www.kritik.io/blog-post/how-metacognition-helps-students