Hire Slow, Fire Fast
Think about the worst hire you ever made.
Not the person who couldn't do the job.
The person who could.
The person who quietly made your company a worse place to work.
When I sit with a founder pulling apart what went wrong, I often ask one question.
When did you first know?
The answer is rarely six months in.
It is usually much earlier.
The second interview.
A strange comment about their previous CEO.
A moment that didn't quite feel right.
Something the founder noticed but couldn't explain.
And then they hired them anyway.
You Usually Know Earlier Than You Think
This isn't about stupidity.
The role has been open for months.
Someone on the team is quietly doing two jobs.
The board has asked about it.
Everyone wants the position filled.
And the thing you noticed was small.
Maybe it was a flicker when you pushed back on an answer.
Maybe it was the temperature of how they talked about their old team.
Nothing you could easily put into a hiring debrief without feeling like you'd lost the plot.
So you do what capable people often do under pressure.
You build a case against yourself.
"I don't have evidence."
"It wouldn't be fair."
"You can't reject someone over a feeling."
All of those things can be true.
But that doesn't mean you should ignore what you've noticed.
Slow Doesn't Mean More Interviews
I know slowing down can sound like a luxury when your team is stretched.
But slow was never really about the calendar.
You don't necessarily need a longer hiring process.
You may need a better one.
One ninety-minute interview can become ninety minutes of two people doing impressions of themselves.
Three shorter conversations across a couple of weeks can reveal something very different.
Nobody can hold a performance forever.
Eventually, the actual person tends to turn up.
That's where slowing down becomes useful.
Not because you need more process.
Because you need more information.
Your Gut Isn't the Problem
Your instincts are useful.
Years of reading people, reading rooms, and noticing patterns don't disappear when you walk into an interview.
But your gut isn't alone in the room.
Your own history is there too.
The boss who humiliated you years ago.
The personality type that makes you feel small.
The behaviour that reminds you of someone you already know you don't like.
That stuff doesn't announce itself.
It can show up disguised as professional judgement.
So the skill isn't simply trusting your instincts.
It's knowing which instinct is talking.
Are You Triggered or Uncomfortable?
Here's one simple test.
Pay attention to the temperature.
If you feel triggered, that's yours.
If you feel uncomfortable, that's information.
Triggered feels hot.
Fast.
Loud.
It comes with a story attached, and the story is usually about you.
You feel small.
Judged.
Like you're suddenly fifteen again.
Uncomfortable feels different.
It's quieter.
It doesn't need to prove anything.
And sometimes it stays.
You notice it in the interview.
Then you still notice it the next morning.
You're driving to work and you're not even thinking about hiring, but something still doesn't sit right.
Heat is old. Stillness that stays is new.
The Real Problem Isn't Decisiveness
You probably don't need to become more decisive.
Founders are usually very decisive about money.
Product.
Strategy.
Growth.
It's people where things can get complicated.
Because people aren't spreadsheets.
You care about them.
You don't want to be unfair.
You don't want to make the wrong call.
And sometimes you don't want to admit that you already know something isn't right.
That's where slowing down matters.
Not to avoid the decision.
To get clear enough to make it.
This Goes Beyond Hiring
The same thing happens outside interviews.
You do it with your co-founder.
You do it with the number in the deck you don't quite believe.
You do it with the decision you've been postponing because you don't want to deal with what it might mean.
The pattern is the same.
Something tells you to look again.
And instead of looking, you explain it away.
Sometimes the hardest part isn't seeing the problem.
It's allowing yourself to act on what you've already seen.
Final Thought
The goal isn't to blindly trust your gut.
And it isn't to ignore it because you can't put every feeling into a spreadsheet.
The goal is to slow down enough to understand what you're actually feeling.
Then check the temperature.
Because sometimes you already know.
You've known for a while.
The question is whether you're willing to listen.
What’s Next?
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