BEST OF: E189 Liane Hornsey: Career as a People Leader At Google & Uber & Palo Alto Networks

First Air Date: 12/02/21

Liane Hornsey is the EVP & Chief People Officer at Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader that’s shaping the way people and organizations operate in a cloud-centric future. Liane previously served as chief people officer at Uber Technologies, Inc. where she helped transform the culture during a period of significant turbulence.

Prior to that, she served as Chief Administrative Officer and operating partner at SoftBank and became Google’s first female Vice President in Human Resources. Liane has also held senior leadership roles at lastminute.com Group, Virgin Media, and BMG Music.

Liane is widely recognized as one of the world’s pre-eminent practitioners in people operations as well as organization and leadership development.

This Episode’s Heavy-hitters:

Liane explains the importance of not getting caught up in the hype of upwards movement early in your career. She says that in your 20’s, moving horizontally and gaining skills is more important than incremental movements up the corporate ladder. That way, you can find your lane for your career and growth.

When interviewing for Google, Liane was interviewed a whopping 18 times. She helped restructure the hiring process once she came on board and discussed how going through it herself gave her insight.

Perhaps more important than companies and their brands– people look to other people when deciding to join an organization. Liane practices what she preaches here, and has followed a trusted colleague to multiple of the past companies she’s worked for.

Liane walked into a firestorm when she started at Uber and began the toughest point in her career. Just weeks after she started as SVP & Chief People Officer, a former employee posted an article detailing alleged sexual harassment and toxic company culture. Liane talks about her role in reform and rebuilding the company.

We talk about the potential biases of returning to the office for work, and how to mitigate those biases to maintain equal opportunity amongst remote and in-person employees.

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