"Our Last Person Didn't Work Out"

I hear that from business owners all the time.

And it's almost never said with frustration. It's said months later. Calmly. Like the business has already absorbed the loss.

That's the thing about a bad hire. Most don't fail dramatically. They leak.

The work gets done, but not particularly well. Deadlines move. Standards slip. Your strongest people start compensating for the gap.

And because nothing is completely broken, the problem survives far longer than it should.

By the time you finally call it, you've already paid for it. In lost momentum. In leadership attention. In opportunities that never quite happened.

Most founders think the hire failed when the person joined. I'm not convinced.

I think most hiring failures happen much earlier than that. Before the interview. Before the shortlist. Before anyone is even in the room.