Don’t Hire Around a Problem You Haven’t Defined

“We need someone” can mean several different things. There may be more good work than the team can handle. A capability may be missing. Or the same unresolved decisions may be landing on the founder’s desk every afternoon. Those situations can feel equally exhausting. They do not necessarily call for the same hire.

A vacancy is easier to discuss than an operating problem. You can give it a title and start interviewing. But a job description can quickly become a collection of things the current team would like to stop worrying about.

Imagine three leaders agreeing that they need an operations manager. One wants someone to enforce the existing process. Another wants someone to rebuild it. The third wants a helpful person who will keep customers happy without changing how anyone else works. Agreement on the title has concealed disagreement about the job.

More experience will not resolve that contradiction. The people creating the expectations have to resolve it.

Before recruiting, get specific about what needs to improve. A growing backlog might justify more capacity. Work that repeatedly comes back for correction may need different expertise. Decisions that wait days for approval may need an owner with authority to act. Some work may deserve to stop.

Give the person something they can own

Responsibility sounds generous in a recruiting conversation. It becomes rather less generous when the new employee is accountable for results but needs permission to change anything that produces them. Before you hire someone to take responsibility, decide what you are willing to let them decide.

What should be visibly better six months after they start? Describe a change in the business, rather than a list of activities. If the person would still be waiting for the same approvals, settle that before making the offer.

Strong people can keep a badly defined role alive for a long time. They work late, negotiate around conflicting instructions, and quietly take care of things outside their remit. Leadership sees progress and assumes the role makes sense. The employee is absorbing the confusion. You may not see how much until they leave.

Some jobs should evolve, and a good hire can help shape the work. Be honest about which parts are open for discovery. Do not present unresolved disagreement as an exciting blank canvas. A stretched team should not wait for an immaculate job description, but it deserves a role that someone can succeed in.