Entering my sixth season as a head coach, I'm far from alone in saying that one of the hardest things about leading a program is not only firing people, but knowing when the time is right to let that person go.
The coaching profession has many parallels to the business world, so I have always tried to learn as much as from accomplished leaders in the business world as I do from coaches.
One of the people that I enjoy hearing perspective from in the business realm is Gary Vaynerchuk, who went from expanding his families wine business, to co-founding Resy and establishing New York based communications giants VanyerX and VaynerMedia, and is a well known speaker and popular internet personality.
At a recent speaking event, Vaynerchuk was asked by an audience member how they know if a hire is going to work out.
Actually, before the guy could even get the question out, Vaynerchuk knew where it was heading and interrupted him with, "You don't."
"I've got really good hiring advice. Learn to fire fast."
"You guys have your ego tied up in your hiring. You think you're so good at hiring. Then you hire somebody and they're shit, but you pretend that they're not because firing them admits that you were wrong. So it's your own ego that is holding you back."
Vaynerchuk goes on to share a story that he hired someone six months ago for a six-figure position at VaynerMedia. He interviewed them three times, and then made the decision to fire him after one day on the job.
We edited the original clip due to some colorful language.
After sharing the Gary Vee video on Twitter over the weekend, college coaching veteran and former VMI head coach Scott Wachenheim shared some valid hiring thoughts opposite of Vaynerchuk's worth sharing.
From my experience, Gary Vee's advice struck a chord immediately because I've had a few hires that I should have parted ways with as soon as I saw they weren't a fit, because the chances of something like that changing are very, very slim and keeping the wrong hire around can do a whole lot of peripheral damage.
However, if I would have taken some of Wachneheim's advice for the hiring process, I probably wouldn't have found myself in that situation in the first place.
Both guys bring some great perspective to the conversation.
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