Turning talent into superstars – how Arizona Cardinals CPO is aligning people strategy with business success

“How do we really equip our leaders with the skills, mindsets, and tools needed to drive high performance, navigate change, and support their teams’ success?” Shaun Mayo, Chief People Officer for American football team Arizona Cardinals and UNLEASH America 2026 speaker asks. 

For Mayo, this is a question that has set the tone for 2026 – a year in which the Arizona Cardinals are pursuing five ambitious people objectives.

The first priority is leadership and managerial effectiveness, ensuring leaders are prepared to guide their teams through change and deliver results.

Next, Mayo and his team are focused on building strong organizational capabilities – enhancing business acumen, embracing AI and technological readiness in sports, and establishing robust structures and communication across the organization.

The Arizona Cardinals also want to be known as one of the best places to work – creating an environment focused on inclusivity and wellbeing that ensures every team member feels valued and connected. 

Learning and development is the fourth objective, helping employees maximize their potential while preparing talent for future opportunities.

And finally, the organization is working to optimize HR systems by streamlining operations to better prepare for the future of work.

Together, these initiatives reflect a holistic approach: building a resilient, high-performing organization where people and teams are empowered to thrive.

In an exclusive interview with UNLEASH, Mayo shares how he’s helping the Arizona Cardinals achieve these goals by turning strategic objectives into everyday practices. 

Fostering an environment employees want to stay in

Having worked across a number of industries – spanning HRM, retail, e-commerce, and now NFL – Mayo identified a key challenge that is consistent throughout all industries: the ability to attract, develop, and retain top talent. 

Yet in the sporting sector, he notes that “the attraction piece is a little bit different” as “tons of people want to work in sports,” but it’s finding the people that want to work in the industry for the “right reasons”.

“When I think about the sport side of things, you draft folks and you have to develop them,” Mayo shares. “A lot of intentionality is placed on the development aspect.

“How do you get folks in and help them to reach above what they may even believe to be their ceilings? You’re taking some big bets on talent early on with the intent to develop them into superstars.”

He therefore advises that “businesses can take a really simple approach” by asking how they can get deeper into talent pools, to identify talent early on.

How can we help develop them [talent] within the organization to be great?,” he asks. “I would urge organizations to get as deep as possible within their organizations to help identify that talent early.”

Once HR leaders have spotted the right talent, their job is to help people grow and thrive.

As the Arizona Cardinals operate in a “relatively flat organization”, Mayo is faced with the challenge of intentionally developing talent from early careers to more senior positions, to help employees grow to be able to take on more scale, scope, and responsibility.

Mayo explains how having a flat organization structure can create challenges around retention, as it can be perceived that there’s limited room for upward mobility. 

To counter this, he and his team have focused on helping employees succeed both “personally and professionally, by developing their skills as progression incentive”. 

“My experience has been that there’s got to be a lot of intentionality into diving into those things that matter to the organization as it relates to talent,” Mayo adds. 

“I’ve been a part of some organizations where people are seen as just a part of the process – a cog in the wheel – versus an organization that really, truly puts its people at the center of what it does.”

Typically, your headcount and your people are going to be a big part of the cost of doing business. Those that really take an opportunity to nourish those people typically are able to retain talent. 

“It’s culture, it’s compensation, and then: do people feel like they belong to an organization?,” he asks. “If you’re invested in those spaces, typically you’ve got a pretty high chance to retain talent at a high level. 

“It’s just the intentionality aspect of really pouring into the people that work for you.”

Defining the Cardinals’ inclusive culture

Of course, a key part of employee retention is fostering an inclusive company culture – but what this means for different businesses can differ greatly.

For Mayo, organizations have to “define their culture” – otherwise they run the risk of it being “defined for them”. 

“In all cases, culture exists whether you define it or not,” he says. “I think being really intentional with what it means to be a part of your organization is key.”

He uses the example of a manifesto created a few years ago called The Cardinals Way – which is a way of defining what it really means to be an employee of the Arizona Cardinals. 

“We redeveloped a mission statement, a vision statement, values for the organization, and then behaviors for each level of our organization” he explains. 

“We’ve used those as anchor points to help really define and maintain our culture. At any point, if any decision is in conflict with the work we did around defining The Cardinals Way, we know which actions to take.”

Yet to ensure this culture appealed to all employees, the entire business was invited to share their input. 

This didn’t become a top-down, HR-led process; it was total company participation,” Mayo adds. “The end result of that has been a lot of self-governance and ownership by everybody in the organization. 

“It’s having the right anchors and having the right people involved in helping to drive that aspect.”

Likewise, HR plays a huge role in building resilience, not just in individuals, but also across organizations as a whole.

A key focus in Mayo’s objectives has been managerial and organizational effectiveness – particularly in shaping mindsets.

“HR sits at a critical point where we get a good look across the organization and have the ability to really influence across the business,” he expresses. “When we think about what makes organizations successful, that resilience piece is really important.

“It’s part of our responsibility to help build organizations that sustain change and can be resilient and bounce back.”

Yet he confesses that there isn’t a “secret sauce” to get HR transformation to stick within organizations – but achieving “alignment across the business as possible” should be a priority. 

The Arizona Cardinals have been through “a lot of transformation,” but for the organization, they were seen as a business objective, rather than an HR project. 

It became a business objective and imperative that had the entire business bought into what we were doing,” he explains. “How do you make it a part of the business? That is what I found helps to make it ‘sticky’.”

Similarly, while many organizations attempt to reinvent HR, it’s important to be mindful of common pitfalls that can undermine the effort.

“You have to think about the end state and the end customer, or your client, or the business,” Mayo warns. 

“HR transformation can’t necessarily be about HR; it’s got to be about the value that it’s going to bring to the business and the capabilities that it’s going to allow for the business in which you’re supporting.” 

He continues to explain that a “common pitfall” is making an HR transformation about HR, rather than “focusing on what business outcomes” will come as a result of that work. “This tends to help it resonate and help make it successful.”

As a result, Mayo believes that “2026 is another year of transformation and change”. 

HR leaders are therefore in a key position to “help lead the organization through whatever presents itself” by ensuring employers have “the right people with the right capabilities to help drive the organization into the future,” he concludes.

“The world seems to be getting more complex as time goes on, and I think we are uniquely positioned to help lead that charge to make sure that we are able to adjust to the shifting times and make sure organizations are in a position to thrive.”

Want to hear more from Shaun Mayo?

On May 19th, Mayo will be taking center stage to discuss ‘Winning Strategies: What Sports HR Leaders Teach Us About HR Reinvention.’ 

After seeing the speaker line up, Mayo shares his excitement for the event, stating “this is a really great convening of exceptional HR talent. 

I’m really looking forward to being in the space and hearing from many of my peers across different industries,” he adds. “People can always learn from one another, so I’m looking forward to the wide array of different speakers.”

It’s not too late to grab a pass to join us in Las Vegas, March 17 to 19, for UNLEASH America 2026.