Five Secret Questions To Ask Candidates in Interviews To Identify A-Level Talent With Steve Cadigan

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Five Secret Questions To Ask Candidates in Interviews To Identify A-Level Talent With Steve Cadigan

Five Secret Questions To Ask Candidates in Interviews To Identify A-Level Talent With Steve CadiganSteve Cadigan is the Advisor and Talent Hacker at Cadigan Talent Ventures, a talent strategies advisory firm based in Silicon Valley. He’s also LinkedIn’s inaugural Chief HR Officer and author of Workquake: Embracing the Aftershocks of COVID-19 to Create a Better Model of Working. A luminary in talent advisory, Steve is sought after by esteemed organizations like Google, Salesforce, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the BBC. His expertise also benefits top-tier venture capital and consulting firms, including Sequoia and McKinsey.

Throughout his illustrious career, Steve has consistently excelled in team-building, shaping workplace culture, and transforming organizations into world-class performers. Acknowledged by publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine, Steve was named one of the Top 200 Global Thought Leaders in People and Talent in 2021. Recently, he transitioned to assisting new businesses and entrepreneurs in shaping workplace cultures and building teams to scale their enterprises.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • Why Steve Cadigan shifted his attention to small startups
  • Building a strong company culture for success and scalability
  • How can companies attract and retain the right employees?
  • Leading a team for improvement, learning, and growth
  • Identifying self-autonomous A-players
  • Steve’s hiring process and interviewing techniques
  • Questions to ask during a reference check
  • Why Steve advocates for a trial hiring period

In this episode…

In the competitive world of recruitment, discovering A-level talent demands a strategic approach. To facilitate more informed decisions in assembling a high-performing team, what are essential questions to ask to gather a deeper understanding of candidates?

Uncovering A-level talent necessitates a thoughtful approach. To build a high-performing team, former Chief HR Officer of LinkedIn Steve Cadigan advises defining the culture you aim to cultivate within your organization. Besides asking what sets you apart from industry giants, clarify why potential employees would choose your company. During the interview process, Steve says it’s vital to delve into the candidate’s resumé to understand why they left previous roles and pinpoint their proudest achievements. Uncover their experiences with managers — both positive and negative — to gauge their expectations. Additionally, assess the environments where they’ve thrived or created. A critical aspect is the questions candidates pose, reflecting their engagement and understanding.

In this episode of the eComm Breakthrough Podcast, Josh Hadley interviews Steve Cadigan, Advisor and Talent Hacker at Cadigan Talent Ventures, about essential elements to shape your company culture and assemble teams to elevate your brand. Steve advises on how to build a strong company culture for success and scalability, how to attract and retain the right employees, and shares strategic hiring processes and interviewing techniques.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Special Mention(s):

Related Episode(s):

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Ecomm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure ecommerce owners grow to eight figures. Of course…

I started Hadley Designs in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years.

I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks.

If you’ve hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then go to www.EcommBreakthrough.com (that’s Ecomm with two M’s) to learn more.

As a special bonus to my podcast listeners, this month I’m giving away one $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit session at no cost. Email me at josh@ecommbreakthrough.com with the subject line “Strategy Audit” and tell me why your business should win the free audit for the chance to win and don’t worry, if you don’t win the free strategy audit this month, you’ll automatically be entered for future months.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the eComm Breakthrough Podcast. Are you ready to unlock the full potential and growth in your business? You’ve already crossed seven figures in sales, but the challenge is knowing how to take your business to the next level. Join Josh Hadley, an eight-figure e-comm business owner and investor, as he interviews highly successful business owners get ready because you’re going to learn specific actions you can take today to help your business reach its full potential and leave a lasting impact on the world.

Josh Hadley 0:35

Well, welcome to the e-comm breakthrough podcast. I’m your host, Josh Hadley, where I interview the top business leaders in e-commerce. Past guests include Adam Heist, Kevin King, and Michael E. Gerber, the author of The E-Myth. Today I’m speaking with Steve Cadigan, an Advisor and Talent Hacker of Cadigan Talent Ventures. He’s LinkedIn’s first Chief HR Officer, and the author of Workquake: Embracing the Aftershocks of COVID-19 to Create a Better Model of Working. And today we’re going to be talking a lot about shaping your culture and building a team to help take your brand to the next level. This episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting, where I help seven-figure companies grow to eight figures and beyond. Listen, Steve, I started my business in 2015. And I grew it to an eight figure brand and seven years, I made a lot of mistakes along the way that made the path of getting to eight figures take a lot longer than it needed to. I certainly made a lot of mistakes as it related to hiring my first team members, how do I actually identify A-level talent? And how do I actually build an operating system where my team could actually work efficiently in and help take our brand to the next level. So to our listeners, those of you who have hit similar plateaus, and want to know the next steps to take your brand to the next level, then go to eCommBreakthrough.com. That’s e-comm with two M’s to learn more. And as a special bonus to my podcast listeners. This month I’m giving away one $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit session at no cost. All you need to do is email me at Josh@eCommBreakthrough.com, and in your subject line, say Strategy Audit, and then tell me why I should choose you and your brand to work with for this month strategy on it. But today I am super excited to introduce you all to Steve. Steve is a true luminary in the world of talent advisory. His expertise has been sought after by some of the most prestigious organizations on the planet, including giants like Google, Salesforce, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the BBC. Not only that, he’s been a trusted adviser of top-tier venture capital and consulting firms like Sequoia and McKinsey. Throughout his illustrious career, Steve has consistently demonstrated his ability to build teams, shaped cultures and transform organizations into nothing less than world class performers. His remarkable achievements have garnered accolades from esteemed publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune Magazine, solidifying his reputation as a true industry visionary in recognition of his outstanding contributions, Steve catagen, was rightfully named one of the top 200 global thought leaders in the realm of people and talent in 2021. And he has recently pivoted into helping new businesses and entrepreneurs shape their own cultures and build teams in order to help scale their businesses. So today, we are super excited to have Steve on to the podcast. So Steve, welcome. Great to be here. Josh,

Steve Cadigan 3:42

I’m really looking forward to this.

Josh Hadley 3:45

Steve, obviously, from that bio, you’ve got so much experience, you have seen so much of it you know, throughout your experience of, you know, advising, providing a lot of recommendations to giants, like you mentioned, Google, Salesforce, etc. And then all the way down to helping new startups. And so today for our entrepreneurs that are listening to this show, like you are going to be dropping some knowledge bombs, I think are going to help them experience some mindset shifts that they’ve never experienced before. So super grateful to have you here. Steve, I would I’m gonna start by kind of segwaying our conversation into you’ve worked with so many big consulting firms and corporations. Why are you focusing now on small startups?

Steve Cadigan 4:31

Well, you know, it’s interesting, Josh, and I really liked the way you started talking about yourself in the beginning, which is starting with humility, and authenticity, that we’re here because of, you know, in recognition of how we learn from our mistakes, right. And what I learned over time, is that whilst I love the complexity of large organizations, what is infinitely harder to do is change a culture than it is to build a culture and what I like to really focus on right now and feel like I’ve had the great honor of having that my last regular ride be the rocketship of LinkedIn. I have a lot of experience, you know, with changing big cultures. But it’s a lot more fun, I think, to grow a culture, for sure. So that’s sort of the main reason why I like to stay in that space.

Josh Hadley 5:18

I love that. And, Steve, I think that that’s what’s so interesting, out of all the things that you can talk about, there’s hiring hacks to talk about, there’s you know, how to get the most productivity out of your team. The one thing that you, you know, gone back to is this subject of culture. So, tell me, why is building culture so important? And as entrepreneurs begin their adventure of, you know, scaling their business, hiring team members? How should they be thinking about building their own culture? Well,

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