Hire Slow, Fire Fast (But Only for One Thing)

In the last year, I've discovered a very interesting pattern across all of our business clients. And I'm talking about businesses with 5 employees, businesses with 20 employees, some with 20 locations.

Through all of those different sizes, there is one particular struggle that shows up consistently. And here's what makes it fascinating: It's the thing they come to us for help with. It's the thing they need the most help with. And at the same time, it's the thing they're most indecisive about.

It creates the most struggle. And most business owners hate doing it.

Firing people. Letting people go.

They Already Know

Here's the interesting part: A lot of times, they already know. They know the person isn't working. They know the person needs to be replaced. They know there's a flaw.

And here's the thing, it's usually not a technical skill. It's usually a character flaw that the business is not aligned with.

And that's what makes it so hard, because it's easy to justify: "Well, they're kind of doing their job. So I don't want to fire them. They're not doing a great job, but..."

But what if they have an attitude, they talk back, and the team doesn't like them? Maybe they're a little bit mean. Maybe they're indecisive. Maybe they come late. Maybe they leave early. Maybe they don't show up when they're supposed to. Maybe they lose their temper. Maybe they say inappropriate things.

All of those things are happening. And yet, the manager or the owner just... waits. They know it's not the right person. But they're still not firing them.

The Pattern

They wait until something really big and unacceptable happens. Or the person leaves on their own, which is often a relief. The business owner thinks, "Oh, I didn't have to do that. Thank God."

Or it escalates. The bad behavior gets so bad that eventually the owner has no choice. They can't allow the person to stay anymore.

But here's the thing: They knew it from the beginning. They knew there was a problem. And they waited and waited until it got worse. And only then did they let the person go. Or the person left on their own.

The pattern I keep seeing is this: Business owner hires someone. There are early signs that something is off. But the owner hopes it will improve. Or justifies it because the person has a valuable skill. Or doesn't want to go through the hiring process again.

Months go by. The behavior doesn't improve. It might even get worse. The team starts to complain. The owner knows something has to change. But they wait. They document. They have "conversations." They give warnings.

And finally, sometimes a year later, sometimes longer, they let the person go. And every single time, the owner says the same thing afterward: "I should have done this six months ago."

Every time.

What the Research Shows

I've always thought about working with people as "Hire slow, fire fast." But I need to clarify something important. I do not fire fast for skills that can be learned. If you missed a button, if you made a technical mistake, if you're still learning the system, that's not a character issue. That's a training issue. And training issues can be fixed.

But if you're not treating people well? If you're not communicating well? If you're displaying what everybody calls "soft skills" problems? That's different. And the research backs this up in a striking way.

A landmark Leadership IQ study analyzed over 20,000 new hires and found that attitudes drive 89% of hiring failures, while technical skills account for only 11%. Let me say that again: 89% of people who fail at work fail because of character and soft skills. Not technical ability.

The study also found that 46% of newly hired employees fail within 18 months. And only 19% achieve unequivocal success. The specific soft skill breakdowns that drove failure were coachability (inability to accept feedback), emotional intelligence (poor self-awareness and interpersonal regulation), motivation (disengagement from the role), and temperament (personality mismatch with the job or team).

And here's the most telling part: 82% of hiring managers admitted they saw signs of the likely failure during the interview process but ignored them. They knew. And they hired them anyway.

This pattern shows up across multiple studies. Research from Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford Research Center all concluded that 85% of job success comes from well-developed soft and people skills, while only 15% comes from technical skills and knowledge.

A 2025 TestGorilla report found that 78% of employers had hired a candidate with strong technical skills who didn't perform well because of a lack of soft skills or cultural fit. LinkedIn's Global Talent Trends report found that 89% of employers said a failed hire was due to a lack of soft skills, yet hiring processes continue to over-index on technical skill because it's easier to measure.

Bottom line: People get hired for their technical skills and fired for who they are, how they communicate, handle conflict, respond to feedback, and work within a team. This is the pattern I see across all kinds of organizations. And the research confirms it's not just my observation. It's a documented, measurable reality.

Why This Is So Hard

I think the reason this is so hard is because character issues feel subjective. Technical problems are clean. You either know how to use the software, or you don't. You either hit the deadline or you didn't. You either completed the task correctly or you made an error.

But character? That feels messy. How do you quantify "attitude"? How do you put "they make everyone uncomfortable" in a performance review? How do you fire someone for "the way they talk to people"?

So business owners wait. They hope it gets better. They give another chance. And another. And another.

And I think we wait because firing someone feels like failure. We made a bad hire. Like, we didn't manage them well enough. Like we should have been able to fix it. And sometimes, it feels personal. Especially in small businesses where you know the person's story, their family situation, their financial pressures.

But here's the truth: Keeping someone in a role they're not suited for isn't kindness. It's not helping them. It's not helping your team. And it's not helping your business. And the longer you wait, the harder it gets.

What the Team Sees

And meanwhile, the rest of the team is watching. And they're wondering why this person is still here.

Because here's what the team knows that the owner doesn't always realize: The team already knows who the problem is. They know who shows up late. Who doesn't pull their weight. Who's rude in meetings. Who makes the environment harder to work in.

They know. And every day that person stays, the team is getting a message: This behavior is acceptable here.

Even if the owner doesn't mean to send that message. Even if the owner is "working on it", or "documenting it", or "giving them one more chance." The team sees someone behaving badly. And they see that person still employed. And they draw their own conclusions.

There's a quote I like: "The standard you walk past is the standard you accept."

If you walk past someone being rude to your team, you've accepted rudeness as a standard. If you walk past someone consistently showing up late, you've accepted that lateness is fine. If you walk past someone creating a toxic environment, you've accepted toxicity.

And your team is watching. And they're adjusting their own behavior accordingly.

The Cost of Waiting

And here's the real cost: It's not just that one person's bad behavior. It's the good employees who start to disengage. Because if that person can get away with showing up late, why should I show up on time? If that person can be rude and keep their job, why am I working so hard to be respectful?

It's the erosion of standards. The slow drift toward "good enough" instead of excellent.

It's the conversations the owner has to have with other team members to apologize for the person's behavior, to explain why they're still here, to ask for patience while "we work through this."

And it's the owner's own stress. The dread before that person walks in. The tension during interactions. The relief when they're not there.

All of that is a cost. And it compounds every single day the decision gets delayed.

The Relief That Follows

And here's what I've noticed: Every single time a business owner finally lets that person go, there is relief. Not just for the owner. For the whole team.

The tension lifts. The energy shifts. People start operating differently because they're no longer working around that person.

And the owner always, always says: "I wish I had done this sooner." Because the cost of waiting was so much higher than the discomfort of the conversation.

Hire Slow, Fire Fast, But Only for Character

So here's my position: Hire slow, fire fast, but only for character.

If someone has a skill gap, invest in them. Train them. Give them time to learn. Be patient with the learning curve. That's part of building a team.

But if someone has a character flaw that misaligns with your values? If they treat people poorly? If they create a toxic environment? If the team is suffering because of how this person operates?

That's not something you can train away. And waiting won't make it better.

Because character doesn't change. At least not in the timeframe your business can afford to wait. Skills can be taught. Character can't.

And if you hire for character and train for skill, you'll spend a lot less time managing problems and a lot more time building something great.

The Question to Ask

So here's the question I ask business owners when they're struggling with this decision: If this person quit tomorrow, would you feel relieved?

If the answer is yes, you already know what you need to do. You're just waiting for permission. Or for it to get bad enough that you don't have a choice.

But you do have a choice. And the longer you wait, the more it's costing you.

This Is Leadership

This is a leadership issue and a hiring issue.

Because leadership is making hard decisions even when they're uncomfortable. It's holding standards even when it's easier to let things slide. It's protecting your team culture even when it means having difficult conversations.

And one of the hardest leadership decisions is recognizing when someone isn't the right fit, and acting on that knowledge instead of waiting for it to get worse.

This is the work of leadership that nobody talks about. Not the vision. Not the strategy. Not the growth plans. The hard conversations. The uncomfortable decisions. The moments where you have to choose between what's easy and what's right for the company.

And firing someone who isn't aligned with your values, even if they're "kind of doing their job", is one of those moments. It's not personal. It's not cruel. It's not failure. It's leadership.

And your team is waiting for you to lead.

What the Research Tells Us About Prevention

Here's what all of this research is really telling us: The problem isn't just that we wait too long to fire people for character issues. The problem is that we're not investing in developing those soft skills in the first place.

If 89% of hiring failures are driven by coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, and temperament, and 82% of hiring managers see the signs during the interview but hire anyway, then we have two problems.

First, we're not screening for character during hiring. We're screening for technical skills because they're easier to measure.

And second, we're not developing those critical soft skills in the people we already have. We assume they either have them or they don't. And we're wrong.

Coachability can be developed. Emotional intelligence can be trained. Self-awareness can be built. The ability to receive feedback, regulate under pressure, and work collaboratively within a team, these are learnable skills.

But most organizations don't invest in them until there's a problem. And by then, it's often too late.

At The Academy of MotivAction®, this is exactly what we address through our C.A.R.E.S.™ Framework. We work with leaders and teams to build the interpersonal and emotional resilience skills that research shows are responsible for 85-89% of job success.

Not after someone's already failing. Before. As a foundational investment in your team's ability to communicate, collaborate, and perform under pressure.

Because the cost of a bad hire, or a slow-burning toxic dynamic, is measurable. And the ROI of developing these skills proactively is even more so.