One key trait separates the best CEOs from all others, according to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
While some leaders can get complacent in their lofty roles, a great CEO prioritizes learning, inquisitive conversations and taking genuine interest in other people’s points of view, Dimon, 68, told LinkedIn’s “This is Working” video series last week.
“I think leaders have to get out [from behind their desks],” Dimon said. “They have to get out all the time. They have to be curious, ask a million questions. They’re learning from competitors, they’re learning from clients.”
One of Dimon’s top priorities for himself is meeting with clients and competitors — so he can ask questions and get firsthand accounts about where his company is excelling or doing poorly, he said.
“I always tell a client, ‘When you complain to us, you’re doing us a favor. If we’re torturing you, we’re probably torturing another 10,000 [or] 100,000 people,'” Dimon said. “I think CEOs, any business leader, who can’t get out [or is] too busy, they’re making a huge mistake.”
Dimon isn’t the only CEO who values inquiring minds in the workplace: The trait separates highly successful employees and leaders from their peers, according to Amazon boss Andy Jassy.
“You have to be ravenous and hungry to find ways to learn,” Jassy said last week in a video published by Amazon, about the company’s list of 16 leadership principles. The biggest difference between people with successful careers and those who remain “stagnant” is a constant, humble drive for knowledge and self-improvement, he added.
“For some people, at a certain point, they find it too threatening or too difficult to keep learning,” said Jassy. “The second you think there’s little left for you to learn is the second that you are unwinding as an individual and as a learning professional.”
Curiosity and desire to learn can take you further in your career than your technical skills, LinkedIn vice president and workforce expert Aneesh Raman told CNBC Make It in March. The two traits are especially beneficial for young professionals, helping them stand out in the hiring market and reframe setbacks as learning opportunities, he said.
“[A growth mindset] is the new degree, the way that you’ve been looking for a Harvard degree,” said Raman.
To strengthen your inquisitiveness, try dedicating 20 to 30 minutes each day to learning something new, TedX speaker and organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic wrote in the Harvard Business Review last year. You could research a subject you’ve always been interested in, set up a coffee chat to learn more about a colleague or read a challenging book about an unfamiliar subject.
Ask yourself questions like, “What area do I want to be an expert in?” and “What topics could I spend all day thinking about?” Chamorro-Premuzic wrote.
Continuing to learn and explore, in both familiar and new areas of interest, helps people avoid “complacency” and build the “heart and grit” they need to advance their careers, said Dimon.
“If you don’t have an accurate assessment of the real world out there, what’s changing, what the ideas are, you will eventually fail,” he said.
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