Sandra E. Peterson Quotes

My philosophy is to always find the smartest people you can. Hire people smarter than you.

CEOs who can hire properly, that's the most important part of the job. The CEO's job is really to hire the right team and execute the vision second.

In the long run, we need to build a leadership force of people. We have a whole strategy around not only providing folks with the foundational experience during their two years with us, but also then accelerating their leadership in ways that is strategic for the broader education reform movement.

The best way to be productive is to have a great team. So I spend more time than most CEOs on human resources. That's 20 percent of my week.

I look for something unique, and I look for people who haven't reached their potential. I think I'm pretty good at developing talent.

All companies of any size have to continue to push to make sure you get the right leaders, the right team, the right people to be fast acting, and fast moving in the marketplace. We've got great leaders, and we continue to attract and promote great new leaders.

Just looking at Onex: We hire almost entirely at the most bottom level and bring them through a nine-year training program. We're probably 70/30 today not requiring an MBA.

Get the best people and train them well.

There would not be enough talent that's educated, developed and ready to take on the next leadership challenge, and it would cap our growth. Now we've put programs in place not to have that happen, but that could be a weakness.

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

I have a good eye for talent, and my talent performs the best.

I've said many times that people are policy. And to be truly successful in any big organization you need to put people into jobs where they have relevant experience, relevant subject-matter expertise and the capacity to actually perform.

Successful business leaders who have helped build institutions of lasting value - all are committed to talent and a culture of excellence. This is usually accomplished by the identification, retention, and development of great people.

If you can help an employee get to that extra level of skill, you have a great executive.

The best way to build the best workforce is to focus on the largest talent pool you have.

If people can spot talent rather than the talent having to come to us, then I think you might find that the quality of stuff goes up.

In my 35 years in the army I was in school for 6 years. I think corporations should take a look at whether they are investing enough in the development of their human capital.

Hire people smarter than you are and encourage them to bloom.

Acquiring and keeping good people is a leader's most important task.

One of the great things about building a tech company is the amazing people that you can hire.

You want to think about what is the path for my first 10 or 15 employees going to be as the company grows.

The quickest way to grow the sales of your business is to grow your people.

People are not your most important asset....the right people are.

Good leaders must know how to reward those who succeed and know when to retrain, move, or fire ineffective staff.

In any organization men would move up form the bottom to the top. That develops loyalty, ambition and talent, because there is a chance for promotion.