Though I ABHOR the Home Shopping Network (find it manipulative), I liked this interview with HSN’s Chief Executive, Mindy Grossman.

Q. Let’s talk about hiring.

A. There are a number of things that are really important to me. One — and people laugh that I have this philosophy — is that you only hire Tiggers. You don’t hire Eeyores. It doesn’t mean they have to be loud, but I need energy-givers and I have to get a feeling that this person is going to be able to inspire people. Are they going to be optimistic about where they’re going? Are they going to attract people who are like that?

No. 2 is, will they be able to stand up to me when they believe in something? I’m very passionate. I need people who are going to be able to make me look at things in a different way. So, I have to ask those questions, like, “Give me an instance where you really believed in something and you were able to change the course and it was successful, whatever that was.” That’s really important, because you don’t want people telling you what you already know, or not telling you what you need to know.

Q. What else?

A. Quality of values is really important to me — what people believe. I ask people what they abhor most in companies or people. On the flip side, what are they most passionate about outside of work? What lessons have they learned about right and wrong in cultures? I look for successes that people have had.

The other thing that’s really important to me is people who have taken risks. They’ve had to put themselves in a situation, whether they took a lateral move to get to the next step or they went to a company that wasn’t performing, and it was their first opportunity to manage a team that had to do a turnaround.

Specifically, in this culture, I have to have people who not only can manage change, but have an appetite for it. I love asking people how they made their career decisions, why they made those decisions.

What I find is that a lot of people I relate to or even work with have taken segues like that. They tend to be more intellectually curious, that they don’t just have vertical climbs. I ask for those stories. I love hearing them and it gives me a real sense of the person.

Q. What career advice do you give people just starting out?

A. One, take the time to absolutely find what makes you excited to wake up in the morning. Take the time. You don’t have to decide in five minutes. Two, don’t be afraid to take risks, but know when there’s a difference between risk and suicide. Know what that line is for you, because everybody is different. Three, be very, very watchful, careful and cognizant of who you want to work with and for, and make sure that that is aligned with your values, because that’s going to make you feel whole.

Q. What do you think business schools should teach more of, or less of?

A. I definitely think they need to teach more around those core qualities of leadership, outside of the business strategy, and what it means to motivate people, and more on the psychology of what makes someone successful than the quantitative part of it.

I’ve hired incredible, top-school M.B.A.’s and I’ve had to fire some, too. It was never because of intelligence. It was never because of business acumen. It was because of their inability to motivate, relate to and inspire people.

When I hire people, I love to see practical work experience, even prior to an M.B.A., so people who have lived in the real world don’t see the job as a hypothetical case study. Business is a case study every single day, but you have to be able to get the nuances.