Michael Waltrip Quotes

A company is only as good as the people it keeps.

It's better to grow your employees, steer them into a place that they can learn and succeed, and want to work hard and be loyal, than to have a revolving door of employees. That's demoralizing.

Selecting the right person for the right job is the largest part of coaching.

Many founders hire just because it seems like a cool thing to do, and people always ask how many employees you have.

How do you make your company a good place to work in general? That's a really, really, really large and complex set of skills. A lot of it is on-the-job training, combined with excellent mentorship.

People leave their manager; they don't leave companies.

The need for strong partners and employees persists throughout the life of a company, but it is especially important in the beginning.

Startups need to focus on building a foundation for their company culture early, and then they need to revisit it often. Every time a hire is made, a feature is launched, a Facebook status is updated, a press interview is given, a round of financing is raised, or a meeting is held, culture should be part of the decision-making process.

Walk away from anyone who is unduly focused on vacation and compensation. It's a sign of potential trouble. No matter how talented you are, if you don't really want to work at TOMS, you'll never work out here.

Start-up teams are always in flux, so, like all start-ups, we're always talking to candidates for various key roles.

Somehow, the company must stay true to the founding vision while avoiding the pitfalls of rapid growth - and perhaps survive the hiring of a previously successful executive who doesn't work out.

I've always been really internally focused. I tend to focus on hiring - ensuring that every person we hire is both a really good fit and really good - and also that everything we put out to our users is very high-quality.

We just want to have great people working for us.

Successful companies hire people.

In our first decade, I interviewed about five thousand people in pursuit of the talent that would create our future. As our success grew, we became known across the four corners of finance not just for our outstanding returns, but also for our outstanding people.

I think I'm overrated as a recruiter.

A well-run organization turns over 10% of their organizations, including senior leadership. I don't have the heart to do that.

The employee relationships are important, investment in our people is important, and the ability to do work at multiple sites is important.

The first thing you always do is seek out the best people that you can find for your organization. If you find the best people, you can basically go anywhere you want to go because they will take you there.

Accountability is a two way street. We can't just make it easier for us to fire people; we must make it easier for us to hire people. It takes VA an average of 240 days to complete the hiring process for executives joining VA from outside government. We are losing talented people because it simply takes too long.

You have to give people more than one chance. We hire people in job A, and if it doesn't work out, we try them on job B. We'll generally give them three different tries. You have to be more committed to training, but you know they have the right stuff because someone you think highly of has recommended them.

I think the most important thing is not only do you want to build a roster, but you also want to establish a culture within any given organization.

I've fired quite a few, but I've never had an employee quit on me.

You'd like to transition with continuity, have people in your own organization rise up and continue forward, whether in coaching or personnel or players.

Building a great team is the lifeblood of any startup, and finding great talent is one of the hardest and costliest tasks any CEO will ever face.