“There are two qualities you can’t teach people.” Years ago, I interviewed Soledad O’Brien, the broadcast journalist, about the leadership lessons she had learned from running her own production company, Starfish Media Group. When she started her “two qualities” riff, I leaned in closer, eager to hear her theory. The first? “I don’t think you can teach people to be curious,” she said. And the second? “I’m obsessed with attention to detail. I don’t know that you can teach that—either that triggers you to stay for the next two hours to fix something, or you’re the kind of person who will just let it slide.”
