Indeed.com published a blog post earlier this year titled, “Top 12 Qualities Every CEO Shares.”

I have a strong opinion about what should be No. 1 on such a list, so I took a look.

There, in 12^th place—after optimistic, accepting, loyal, understanding, trustworthy, inspirational, confident, critical thinker, compassionate, reliable, and passionate—the word I was waiting for finally appeared:

Curious.

I’ve discovered over and over in my eight years as a CEO that intense curiosity may not be the most obvious attribute for someone heading a company, but it’s ultimately the most indispensable one. Curiosity lays the groundwork for so many traits one would ascribe to a corporate leader—most of those on the Indeed.com list and others like decisiveness, big-picture thinking, transparency.

You don’t have to take my word for it—some of the smartest and most successful folks in history agree.

Asked to name the one quality that CEOs need most to succeed in turbulent times, billionaire entrepreneur Michael Dell said, “I would place my bet on curiosity.”

Sam Walton’s innate curiosity famously led him to make frequent, unannounced visits to his Walmart stores to ask questions and check on virtually every detail, from cleanliness to the product-return process. “Curiosity doesn’t kill the cat,” Walton said, “it kills the competition.”

Albert Einstein valued curiosity so much that his quotes on the topic fill an entire web page. “I have no special talent,” he said, “I am only passionately curious.”

I’m no Einstein, but I know I wouldn’t last long in my job without an inquisitive nature and a zeal to learn. Here are three big reasons why curiosity is so vital.

CEOS DON’T KNOW IT ALL; CURIOSITY FILLS THE GAP

Let’s unpack this on two levels, both of which speak to management realities for CEOs.

It has been said that artificial intelligence is 100% confident but not 100% accurate. That is, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools use available data to respond to queries, and sound very self-assured in doing so, but those answers nevertheless can contain inaccuracies.

By contrast, a CEO who is genuinely curious, who asks the right questions and truly leans in and listens, improves their chances of making correct decisions. A CEO who lacks curiosity and then is unwilling to admit mistakes, to go back to people and say, “Yeah, I sure got that one wrong,” travels on a fraught path.

CEOs often are responsible for entire functions they have little or no prior experience in. For example, they may lack a background in financial operations, yet are the final arbiter (working with the CFO) on corporate finance matters. This dynamic forces CEOs to be genuinely interested in all the work going on company-wide and ask thoughtful questions of the real experts. It’s the only way to develop thorough knowledge about all those unfamiliar topics that touch corporate strategy.

CURIOSITY ESPECIALLY FITS THESE TIMES

It’s cliché to say we live in uncertain times—every period throughout history has been tumultuous in some way—but can we agree that the 2020s feel uniquely uncertain? From digital disruption to the pandemic’s impact to political anxiety, acute unpredictability has become the norm.

In this environment, CEOs must somehow get comfortable with enormous ambiguity, a world in which market conditions can change in an instant and often do. Until someone invents a crystal ball, relentlessly curious CEOs can at least devour enough information from multiple sources to try to make smart decisions.

The same holds true for CEOs’ role as stewards of a positive and empathetic company culture, where everyone now expects (rightfully so, obviously) to be highly valued as employees and people. It has never been more critical for CEOs to understand employees on a deeper level. What are their jobs like? What are their lives like?

So, curiosity is an indispensable quality both externally (market success) and internally (employee engagement and well-being).

As a Duke University CEO survey put it, “The challenges facing leaders today are less predictable, solutions need to be more systemic, and the power to effect change requires moving collectives through influence as opposed to formal authority. . . . When asked how leaders need to adapt to these circumstances and challenges, several participants brought up the need for more curiosity.” This study actually came out 10 years ago, but the words ring truer than ever.

CURIOSITY MAKES THE JOB MORE FUN!

I can’t imagine enjoying this job without a relish for asking questions and a “learn-or-die” attitude.

In a way, curiosity is a CEO survival skill. On a typical day, a chief executive’s meeting schedule veers every half hour to cover one disparate subject or another. Finding fun in that—enjoying that variety and flow of information—tends to be a prerequisite for the position.

CEOs may want to think of themselves as the unmanned Mars rover—appropriately named Curiosity—that has been exploring the Red Planet’s landscape for 11 years, logging a growing list of discoveries. On September 18, NASA announced that the craft managed to reach the Gediz Vallis Ridge, a precarious mountain range expected to hold clues of Mars’ watery past.

As my list of three shows, curiosity is vital in helping CEOs guide their own companies up tall mountains.