When building a team, be it getting ready to interview or surveying your network, these are strong traits to be seeking that will create a team that can both meet a challenge and continue to grow beyond it. Often recruiters and interviewers focus on sufficient background to meet a current challenge but forget that meeting the challenge is only the first step.
According to an article in the journal Human Resource Management, people deep in learning agility are those who:
Seek out experiences from which to learn; are attracted to “newness”;
Enjoy delving into complex problems associated with new experiences and analyzing them through contrasts, parallels, and searching for meaning;
Acquire more value from these new experiences because they have a desire to make sense out of them;
Are strong at simplifying and synthesizing and are effective at presenting their views to others; and
Perform better because they are able to apply new skills and insights to their challenges and responsibilities and bring others along for the ride.
What does this mean for each of us as we head into 2014? Both as it relates to our own work and hiring others, we should:
Be eager to learn about ourselves, others, and the world around us;
Ask questions, ask more questions… repeat;
Show a fundamental interest in learning from feedback and changing behavior as a result;
Encourage ourselves and others to experiment, think critically, and learn. via James Citrin Big Idea 2014: The One Crucial Leadership Skill is Agility