Bad hires almost never happen the way people think they do.
When I talk with someone after an employee doesn’t work out, the conversation usually starts the same way.
“We really thought they were the right person.”
And I believe them.
I’ve never met a business owner who wanted to hire the wrong person. Most spent weeks reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates, checking references, and talking things through with their team.
They weren’t careless.
They were trying to make the best decision they could.
For a long time, I thought companies simply made bad hiring decisions.
I don’t believe that anymore.
I think they make the best decision their hiring process allows them to make.
That may sound like the same thing, but it isn’t.
By the time a candidate walks into an interview, dozens of decisions have already been made.
Most people think hiring starts when two finalists are sitting in front of them.
I think it starts much earlier.
It starts when you decide what success in the role looks like.
It starts when you decide what skills really matter.
It starts when you decide what questions you’ll ask.
It starts when you decide how you’ll judge the answers.
It starts when everyone involved agrees on what they’re actually looking for.
None of those choices feel like hiring decisions.
But together, they usually determine who gets hired.
If those decisions aren’t clear, the interview can’t fix them. It simply produces the result the process was built to produce.
That’s why the wrong person rarely looks wrong at the time.
They seem qualified.
They interview well.
And everyone leaves the room feeling optimistic.
The problems don’t show up until weeks or months later. Deadlines start slipping. Expectations aren’t met. Your best employees spend their time fixing work instead of moving the business forward.
That’s when people say, “We made a bad hiring decision.”
Maybe they did.
Or maybe the hiring process never gave them enough information to make the right decision in the first place.
Looking back, I’ve realized the candidates we hire are usually the result of decisions we made long before we ever met them.
A struggling business usually isn’t the result of one bad employee. It’s the result of dozens of small decisions that didn’t seem important when they were made.
Great businesses grow the same way.
They aren’t built on one brilliant decision. They’re built on hundreds of thoughtful decisions that add up over time.
Hiring is one of those decisions.
Not because it’s more important than everything else, but because the people you bring into your business influence almost everything that comes after.
Change those choices, and over time, you change the business you’re building. That’s playing the long game.
Keep playing the long game!
When you start a business, nobody hands you a manual. That’s why I write The Long Game.
Each week, I share stories, insights, and observations from the lessons I’ve learned—and the ones I’m still learning—about building a business, hiring the right people and creating a culture people want to be part of.
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