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LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky: ‘Your next best employee is most likely your current employee’

LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky: 'Your next best employee is most likely your current employee’


My dad kept that Shakespeare quote next to his work phone for years, but it wasn’t until I was 10 that I suspected it wasn’t about boating.

When I asked my dad why he’d cut out the line he told me, “Ryan, true character and success are defined not by how you act when everything is going your way, rather it’s how you act when everything isn’t.”

That conversation stuck with me, and it was a lesson I lived through all over again back in early 2020 when I took on the job as CEO of LinkedIn. At the time, I never could have imagined the challenges we were about to encounter. I had a plan in mind and a general feel for how my leadership style would translate to the new role. It was important for us to provide a sense of consistency and stability, especially given our previous CEO had been in the seat for over a decade. No sudden or big changes all at once.

However, as with many of the best-laid plans, things took some unexpected turns that changed my entire outlook.

A global health crisis shook the world, halting business as usual and forcing major cities into lockdown. Entire sectors adopted remote and hybrid working in a matter of weeks. A supply chain crisis created bottlenecks in getting goods to millions of customers. And even today, an environment of economic uncertainty still looms large and presents major challenges for every business.

The tech sector has been hit particularly hard by these conditions, forcing all leaders to take a hard look at team and talent and, in some instances, make the decision to make workforce reductions. While this is crucial in ensuring our companies are resilient and can emerge stronger from this dynamic environment, there is simply no harder decision to make as a leader.

We were undoubtedly in turbulent waters and the waters remain choppy still–but navigating these unpredictable tides has driven us to move faster and to think up new ways of doing things.

Facing negative headwinds, many businesses instinctively play to the lowest common denominator and see change as a tax or burden to be dealt with. Meanwhile, adaptive leaders are playing up, playing to win. This means seeing change as a growth opportunity and not shying away from making bold decisions, even when it goes against what others around you are doing.

In 2020, this all came to a head but instead of retrenching, we saw an opportunity to rise to the moment by adapting and trying new things. For us, this meant rolling out…

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