I used to think speed in hiring was a strength.
If a role opened, I wanted it filled quickly. It felt efficient. Decisive. Like I was keeping momentum in the business.
A position empty for too long felt like a problem. Work would pile up, delivery would slow down, and there was always that pressure in the background to fix it fast.
So I would move quickly.
Review candidates, pick the strongest one available, get them started.
On paper, it worked.
The role was filled. Things kept moving.
But a few weeks in, something would feel off.
Not wrong enough to fail immediately. Just slightly misaligned. More questions than expected. More back and forth. More involvement from me than I planned.
And that’s when I started to notice a pattern.
Hiring fast solves the immediate problem.
But it creates a different one.
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The issue isn’t that the person is bad.
Most of the time, they’re capable.
They have the skills. They understand the role. They’re willing to work.
The problem is deeper than that.
It’s how they think. How they operate. How they handle things when there’s no clear instruction.
And those are not things you can fully see if you rush the process.
You only discover them once they’re already inside the system.
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When I hire too fast, I’m usually reacting to pressure.
A client needs support. A role needs to be filled. Something is delayed.
It feels urgent.
And when something feels urgent, your standards start to shift without you noticing.
You become more flexible.
“This is good enough.”
“We can train this.”
“They’ll adjust.”
Sometimes that works.
But more often, it doesn’t hold.
Because you’re not just hiring for capability.
You’re hiring for how someone fits into how the business runs.
And that takes time to see.
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I’ve learned that the cost of a wrong hire isn’t just replacing them.
It’s everything around it.
The time spent onboarding.
The adjustments made to accommodate them.
The small inefficiencies that start to build.
The energy it takes to manage something that should run smoothly.
And the hardest part is that none of this is obvious at first.
It shows up slowly.
Which makes it easier to ignore.
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There’s also a subtle shift that happens when you hire someone who doesn’t fully align.
You start compensating.
You give more instructions.
You check more often.
You adjust your expectations.
Again, not in a big way.
Just small changes.
But those changes add up.
And before you realize it, you’re more involved than you should be.
That defeats the point of hiring in the first place.
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What I’ve noticed is that good hires reduce noise.
You don’t have to think about them constantly.
They take ownership. They move things forward. They handle situations without needing everything defined.
With the wrong hire, even if they’re “performing,” there’s always something in the background.
Something you need to watch, fix, or think about.
That’s where the real cost is.
Not in performance.
In attention.
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So now I move differently.
Not slow for the sake of being slow.
Just deliberate.
I take more time to understand how someone thinks.
How they approach problems.
How they respond when things are unclear.
I don’t rush to fill the role just because it’s open.
If anything, I’d rather carry the gap a bit longer than fill it with the wrong person.
Because a temporary gap is easier to manage than a long-term misalignment.
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There’s a tension here.
Because in business, speed matters.
You can’t delay everything.
Opportunities move. Clients expect results. Things need to happen.
So I’m not avoiding speed completely.
I’m just more careful about where I apply it.
Execution can be fast.
Hiring needs to be steady.
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I’ve also accepted that some level of pressure will always be there.
There will always be moments where I feel like I need someone now.
That doesn’t go away.
What changes is how I respond to it.
Instead of trying to eliminate the pressure by hiring quickly, I manage the pressure directly.
I adjust timelines. I communicate clearly. I handle what I can.
And I wait until I find the right fit.
—
I’ve made enough hiring mistakes to recognize the pattern.
They rarely come from choosing the worst candidate.
They come from choosing too early.
From deciding before I’ve seen enough.
From prioritizing speed over alignment.
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There are still times when I get it wrong.
When I think someone fits, and later realize they don’t.
That’s part of it.
But it happens less when I give the process the space it needs.
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If I step back, hiring is less about filling a role and more about protecting how the business operates.
Every person you bring in either strengthens that or adds friction to it.
And that effect compounds over time.
—
So now, when I feel that urgency to hire quickly, I pause.
Not to slow everything down.
Just to make sure I’m not solving a short-term problem by creating a longer-term one.
Because I’ve done that enough times to know how it ends.
And it’s always heavier than just waiting a little longer.