Steve Cadigan

Retention is dead. That's not a hot take — it's a reality that LinkedIn's first Chief Human Resources Officer, Steve Cadigan, learned the hard way while scaling one of Silicon Valley's fastest-growing companies. In this segment, Steve breaks down why chasing retention is a losing strategy in today's workforce — and what the smartest leaders are doing instead. From Tesla's dominance over century-old automakers to college basketball's one-and-done revolution, Steve reframes the modern talent eq...

Most leaders think about scaling in terms of revenue, product, and market share. But what about the people systems that have to grow with it? In this episode, Tony sits down with Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn's first ever Chief Human Resources Officer, who helped scale the company from 400 to 4,000 employees in just over three years through an IPO. Steve didn't walk into a polished HR machine. He walked into chaos: no policies, no job architecture, no compensation philosophy, and a leadership team skeptical of HR. This is the story of what it actually takes to build a talent strategy from scratch in a hyper growth environment, and why most of what we've been taught about retention, culture, and leadership development is built for a world that no longer exists. What you'll learn: Why builders and sustainers are two different profiles (and how to know which one you are) The moment LinkedIn's board admitted they had no answers for the growth ahead How LinkedIn stopped trying to win the recruit…