In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Meagan Murray, Head of People at Anduril Industries. Meagan previously held leadership positions at well-known brands such as Riot Games, Facebook, Cruise Automation, and Karat.

Culture permeates every single aspect of every single organization. All companies have a specific vision-mission that involves a specific product or service; however, the entire operation that brings these products to market cannot stand without a set of values serving as the foundation of the business. Every business, after all, is made up of people. What these people believe in, how they infuse their work with these beliefs, and how they work with each other according to these beliefs dictates the direction and scale of the company in the grand scheme of things—and these same values can keep the company afloat even amid the various challenges presented by COVID-19.

Listen in as Meagan discusses how COVID-19 has shifted the focus of every organization onto the health and wellbeing of its people, the foundational role of culture in every business, adapting to the virtual workplace, and traits that make up a great recruiter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [1:12] How contracting COVID-19 shaped Meagan’s 2020
• [8:43] Meagan’s thoughts on companies now focusing on wellbeing
• [11:25] Anduril’s mission and Meagan’s role at the company
• [13:53] Culture is the bedrock of any organization
• [14:52] Anduril’s core values and how they contribute to their culture
• [17:03] Leadership-related challenges in 2020
• [19:07] Keeping people immersed in their work while being isolated
• [21:17] Measuring productivity in a virtual workplace
• [22:28] Why vulnerability makes better leaders
• [24:55] Highlights from working at Facebook, Riot Games, Cruise, and Karat
• [29:34] Working in a hypergrowth company
• [32:38] What makes a great recruiter?
• [35:21] The consulting aspect of recruiting
• [39:07] Does Meagan believe in recruiting “up-and-comers”?

Key quotes:

• “As HR professionals, we always tend to put the needs of others before ours, but we actually really need to take care of ourselves first if we want to be effective leaders in the long run.”
• “The best leaders I’ve seen are able to be vulnerable when the situation calls for it.”
• “Selling your company’s vision to a prospective hire is about finding out what is important to the candidate and linking that up to what we have in the company.”
• “I can’t stand it when people say that recruiting is sales. In fact, it drives me nuts. We’re not in sales. The best recruiters are the ones that aren’t trying to sell the opportunity. They’re trying to support the candidate to make the right decision—they’re trying to see if the organization is the right match for them.”
• “Curiosity is the number one thing that makes a TA specialist or recruiter awesome.”