Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Ilene Gordon, C.E.O. of Ingredion, which turns raw materials into ingredients for the food, beverage and other industries.

To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Photo credit: Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

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Bryant: What are some leadership lessons you’ve learned from mentors over the years?

Gordon: There was one gentleman in particular. He had three daughters and his attitude was: “Look, you’re really smart, you’re very ambitious and focused. I can help teach you about business.” This was around 1982, and I’d already been out of business school for several years. He made it a priority to help me to hone my business skills.

I was a strategist by training, and I was doing acquisitions. I was smart, I was analytical, but he said to me: “You ought to run some of these businesses and see how good your analysis was. It may look great on paper, but you have to motivate and inspire people. You’re 30 years old and the guy you’re leading is 55. How do you get the best out of him? That’s your challenge.”

So, early on, this mentor gave me that opportunity to run businesses. I’ve been running them since I was 32.

He had a philosophy of putting people in jobs that were bigger than they were. If somebody has talent and good people skills and drive, I think you can stretch them and put them in a job that they’re not quite ready for, so they grow into it. That’s what people did for me, so I’m a big believer in doing that and taking young people and stretching them.

And employees love to hear that, because they feel like they’re going to get opportunities. There’s a big competition for talent. People will leave their company if they think they’ll have more opportunities elsewhere. So you need to offer opportunities to your young people. And you’ll have a much better retention.

It’s not all about a 2 percent raise; it’s really about opportunity. I’m taking these lessons in how people treated me as a young professional and use those lessons today to excite our people.

Bryant: How do you know if somebody’s able to stretch into a big new job?

Gordon: One question somebody once asked me was, “What do you think are important attributes to be successful in leadership?” I said it’s about tenacity. It’s never giving up. It’s having a Plan B. And that’s one of my favorite expressions: Have a Plan B, because Plan A doesn’t always go well, or maybe it’s derailed by a competitor or somebody else’s new product or some type of regulation.

My point is to always have a Plan B that you can implement. Maybe you have to go to Plan C or D, but the point is that you always have to have a backup plan.

I look for young people who have a lot of energy, and who treat other people well, because we’re not looking for bullies. Some people push their way through things and they’re not collaborative. I look for people who don’t give up, who are very focused and organized but are also able to collaborate with other people, because in today’s organizations, you actually may not have anybody directly reporting to you but may have a team of 10 people from other parts of the organization. They’re your virtual team.

So I look for young people who have the energy and drive to get things done, to keep their eye on where they’re going but at the same time realize they can’t do it alone. It’s not just a one-person show. You can’t be the micromanager; you have to be able to get things done through others.

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Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times‘ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.