Hiring Slow

I had a call last week with a founder who was three months into a bad hire.

He knew within the first two weeks something was off. The energy was wrong, the work ethic didn't match what was sold in the interview, and the team was already starting to compensate for this person's gaps.

But he kept waiting. Hoping it would turn around.

It didn't. And by the time he let the person go, he had lost three months of momentum, spent real money, and watched two of his best people quietly grow frustrated.

Here's what I told him: the real mistake wasn't the bad hire. It was the rushed hire.

When you're busy, when a role has been open too long, when the pressure to fill a seat becomes louder than your judgment, you start lowering the bar without realizing it. You start selling the candidate instead of evaluating them. You start rationalizing small red flags instead of taking them seriously.

Hiring slow feels counterintuitive when you're stretched thin. But a wrong hire costs you far more than a longer search ever will. It costs you time, money, culture, and the trust of the people already doing good work around you.

The business that runs without you is built on the right people, not just filled seats.

So here's the question worth sitting with: are you hiring to solve your short-term discomfort, or to build something that actually lasts?

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From "The Owner's Almanac" - 90 days to build a business that runs without you. Available on Amazon.