"You can never hire the right people too early. And you often hire them too late."
That's one of the key takeaways Cheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, said she learned from her time at Google, according to Fortune magazine.
"Fast growth means you are always behind," she said. Ms. Sandberg has firsthand experience with this after leaving her post as vice president of online sales and operations at Google in 2008 to join Facebook as then 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg's No. 2.
Facebook had just 550 total employees at that time, but Ms. Sandberg knew how to scale a business. She had grown her business unit at Google from four to 4,000 employees in five years, and helped Mr. Zuckerberg grow his cadre to the 11,000 employees Facebook has today, according to the report.
One thing Ms. Sandberg has emphasized throughout her career is the importance of lining up successors far in advance of promotions.
"How can you go on without someone in place who can do your job?" she recalled asking a colleague at Google. "You should always have several people who could succeed you — and then several people who can succeed them — so that you're prepared for future challenges."
Her main point: No team can have too many strong performers, according to Fortune. "Building your bench is one of the most important things a leader can do."