Blog

Why hire for curiosity

At senior and executive levels

Our world is governed by uncertainty and disruption. To stay relevant, we need a workforce that can be efficient and productive during regular and uncertain times. One skill that enables talent to work under these diverse circumstances is –curiosity. The ability to ask critical questions, be curious, suspend judgement, to learn new things and challenge perception is what matters.

Curiosity as a leadership skill, helps managers and employees to adapt to uncertainty, changing market conditions and global pressures. Curiosity enables us to think critically, suspend judgement, and to develop creative solutions. Curious people are credited with bringing new ideas into teams and curiosity is a catalyst for job satisfaction, innovation and high performance.

Some of the benefits of hiring for curiosity include:

Fewer decision-making errors – less fixed on a single solution and more open to perceptions being challenged
Mindset for innovation – tough situations and challenges are viewed less seriously, and more creatively, enabling us to be open to new and diverse ideas
An empathic team – teams can consider new and divergent ideas and push themselves out of their comfort zones, reducing conflict and enabling better results
Openness and transparency – if curiosity is encouraged, team members tend to share information openly and tend to listen more carefully to others
Excitement and optimism – curious minds are attracted to new ways of doing things. Curious people are open to adventure and readily explore the unknown and uncertain

Curiosity opens our mind and enables us to learn things faster. While learning enables change, curiosity underpins an intentional learning mindset. Curiosity is an intention to seek out new experiences, to explore variety and to step out of your comfort zone. These are the foundations for discovery. Living in uncertain times requires a workforce and team members who are agile and can be productive during uncertainty. Hiring for curiosity enables you to grow a team that can function under almost any circumstances -be productive, bounce back and maintain form.

At Talent Trace, we specialize in hiring for potential -like curiosity -and helping companies to find the right fit first time round. Our team are highly experienced at understanding the job to be performed, expectations from potential candidates and the right candidate profile for performing a Senior Management or Executive role. Our team are specialists at sourcing talent to fill a senior role, first time.