Hire Slow, Fire Fast
The day you first think you should fire someone is the day you should.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 87%
Liniger's rule is to hire very slowly and fire very fast, guided by a seminar lesson: the first time you think you should fire someone is the day you should. Because salespeople and entrepreneurs want to be liked, they tolerate nonsense for years, then wake up the morning after finally firing someone asking why they waited a decade. Not deciding to fire is itself a decision to keep tolerating the problem. He frames the cost as harming three groups: the pigeonholed individual, their frustrated team, and himself and his shareholders. He models owning the failure publicly as a lack of personal courage.
Origin
Liniger, who once bragged that no officer had left RE/MAX in 38 years, took a management course teaching 'the first day you think you should fire someone is the day you should,' then role-played with his wife Gail and finally fired four long-tenured officers who had lost their fire.
Core principles
- 01Hire very slowly and fire very fast.
- 02The first day you think you should fire someone is the day you should.
- 03Not deciding to fire is itself a decision to tolerate the problem.
- 04Keeping an incompetent person hurts them, their team, and your shareholders.
How to run it
- 1
Hire slowly
Be deliberate and patient in hiring to avoid the far more painful problem of firing later.
- 2
Act on the first firing signal
Treat the first day you seriously think someone should be fired as the day to do it, rather than tolerating the problem for years.
Pro tip The morning after, you'll ask why you didn't do it 10 years ago.
Watch out Waiting because you want to be liked lets nonsense from underperformers fester.
- 3
Offer a dignified exit
Give the person a clear, fair choice, such as resign for a larger severance or be fired for a smaller one, and hold the decision firmly.
Watch out Reopening the argument invites endless negotiation; state the decision is made.
In the wild
Liniger identified four long-tenured officers who had lost the fire in their belly. He called each in individually and offered a choice: resign for a one-year severance, or be fired with a two-week severance. All four resigned.
→ He removed the underperformers, and later, publicly asked at a 400-person meeting why he'd waited, admitted his lack of courage, and the room applauded.
Common mistakes
Tolerating underperformers to be liked
Delaying a firing because you value the friendship harms the pigeonholed individual, their team who know they're weak, and the shareholders.
Mistaking indecision for neutrality
Not making the firing decision IS a decision to put up with the problem indefinitely.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and managers who struggle to fire people they are personally close to.
Not ideal for
Situations requiring documented performance-improvement processes or where legal due process is mandatory.
From the transcript
“hiring you should hire very very slow and F and fire very very fast”
“the first time you think that you ought to fire somebody is the day you should fire them”
From the episode
Dave Liniger: Top Leadership Principles to Achieve Extraordinary Entrepreneurship Success
Dave Liniger