How Leaders Lead with David Novak

#67: Aneel Bhusri, Workday Cofounder, Co-CEO & Chairman—Walk the Talk of Your Core Values


Listen Later

Today's guest is Aneel Bhusri, the Co-Founder, Co-CEO and Chairman of Workday, an American on‑demand financial management and human capital management software vendor. When Aneel started Workday with David Duffield, they defined a handful of core values for their company. Now this is pretty common practice for business leaders, but here's the problem. A lot of leaders write down the company values and never think about them again. They even laminate them, put them up on the wall, but I’ve got to tell you, all they do is collect dust. But that wasn't the case with Aneel and his Co-Founder Dave Duffield, they decided that investing in their people was going to be the number one value at their company. So how did they live out that value? 


Well, believe it or not, they personally interviewed the first 500 team members they hired. Now that's something that says they value people over anything else. The key lesson here is that they aligned their schedules and their priorities with the company's number one value. You see, the great leaders I know walk the talk of their core values. They just don't write them down and forget them. They actually use their core values to dictate how they spend their time, and how they focus their energy. We have a lot to learn from today's conversation, including:


  • Why Aneel shifted from applying for a job at Apple to join an HR software startup instead
  • How a hostile takeover led to a new venture
  • What value system Aneel and Dave built the company around
  • Why the Co-Founders interviewed the first 500 employees together, regardless of other work and time priorities 
  • Why Aneel looks for “shiny new penny folks” when hiring talent
  • Why the tech team goes off-site every few years to talk about the future
  • How to get customers involved in innovation
  • How to build partnerships between humans and machines that don’t compromise the work value of either
  • Why Aneel prefers having a Co-CEO
  • Why Phil Mickelson does Workday advertising
  • PLUS Aneel’s advice for aspiring leaders

  • Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:


    The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go 

    Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day


    Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    How Leaders Lead with David NovakBy David Novak

    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8

    4.8

    541 ratings


    More shows like How Leaders Lead with David Novak

    View all
    Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak

    Coaching for Leaders

    1,460 Listeners

    The Tim Ferriss Show by Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

    The Tim Ferriss Show

    16,101 Listeners

    The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk by Ryan Hawk

    The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

    1,288 Listeners

    Founders by David Senra

    Founders

    1,906 Listeners

    How I Built This with Guy Raz by Guy Raz | Wondery

    How I Built This with Guy Raz

    30,223 Listeners

    The Double Win by Michael Hyatt & Megan Hyatt-Miller

    The Double Win

    1,430 Listeners

    The Jon Gordon Podcast by Jon Gordon

    The Jon Gordon Podcast

    1,214 Listeners

    Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast by John Maxwell

    Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast

    378 Listeners

    The David Rubenstein Show by Bloomberg

    The David Rubenstein Show

    152 Listeners

    The Fort by Chris Powers

    The Fort

    474 Listeners

    Maxwell Leadership Podcast by John Maxwell

    Maxwell Leadership Podcast

    2,460 Listeners

    Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz by Guy Raz | Luminary

    Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

    469 Listeners

    At The Table with Patrick Lencioni by Patrick Lencioni

    At The Table with Patrick Lencioni

    1,133 Listeners

    In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen by Norges Bank Investment Management

    In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

    187 Listeners

    Glue Guys by Glue Guys

    Glue Guys

    83 Listeners