The corner office is a bastion of great leadership ideas, which is why The New York Times has a regular Q&A feature of the same name. Recently, they spoke with Kon Leong, co-founder of ZL Technologies, a creator of electronic content archiving software, and talked a lot about his hiring practices.
Leong said he asks prospective employees, “How curious are you?” Discovering what they find interesting — outside of the current headlines — tells him a lot about that person. To some degree, he is interested not so much in what they are curious about, but in confirming that they are curious at all.
“In a fast-changing environment, you need to learn more and more and more. There’s so much to learn, and you can’t be taught all the permutations and combinations of the answers, so you have to learn on your own. And to learn on your own, you need curiosity,” Leong said.
He also admitted that he isn’t always quick with an answer when questioned by a subordinate. “Certain aspects of my management style are extremely frustrating. There are many, many questions posed to me, many decisions asked of me. I try not to make them. I respond with more questions, because I want them to find the answer. It can be very frustrating to my employees, but I’m trying to get others to scale up and learn. They understand and accept my approach, but many still feel frustrated because they just want the answer.”
