Why Vision Matters: The Two-Month Hire

I got a call this week from a client. Their hire of two months just left.

I knew the candidate. I'm not surprised.

He'd spent five years at his previous company waiting for direction. He asked twice for a path forward, got empty promises, read the writing on the wall, and left. He took a $6/hour raise at a new shop - same type of role, different logo on the building.

Two months later, he's gone again.

Why? Same problem. No vision. No partnership. Just a job.

The Real Cost

This wasn't a big company with layers of HR and onboarding programs. This was a small shop - 4-6 employees. Every hire matters. Every departure hurts.

Think about what that owner was counting on: they finally got the hire they needed. They started leaning into growth. They made commitments to customers. They built pipeline assuming they had capacity to deliver.

Now they're scrambling. Deliverables at risk. Momentum gone. Two months of wages, training, lost productivity - and they're back to square one, except now they're behind.

What Actually Went Wrong

The candidate didn't leave because of money. He got a raise when he joined.

He left because he didn't trust that the environment had what he needed. He didn't see a future. He didn't feel like a partner - he felt like a tool.

Maybe he was right. Maybe two months isn't enough time to know. Small businesses can transform overnight with the right leadership.

But here's the thing: he never got the chance to find out. Nobody talked about vision. Nobody asked what he needed. Nobody established partnership. He was hired to fill a seat, not to build something together.

Partnership Isn't Equity

Let me be clear: partnership doesn't mean ownership stakes or profit sharing. Those can be tools, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Partnership means conversations, not just directives. It means shared goals that everyone understands. It means making people feel heard - not just utilized. It means being human, recognizing that people have lives outside work, and meeting them where they are.

When you do this, something shifts. People become advocates. They develop loyalty. They stay when recruiters call. That's worth more than compensation alone.

The Hard Questions

If you're running a small shop, ask yourself:

Do you have a vision you can articulate? Not a mission statement. A real answer to "where are we going and why does it matter?"

Are you hiring for partnership or just filling gaps? There's a difference between "I need a body in this role" and "I need someone who wants to build this with me."

What can you actually offer? Not everyone needs a growth path. Some people want stability, good culture, fair pay. That's legitimate. But you need to know what you're offering - and hire people who actually want that.

Have you given your first hire the reins yet? What got you from startup to first hire was grit. What got you to hire two was partnership. By hire four or five, you need structure. Do you have it?

If you're content being a 5-person shop, what's the plan? That's a valid choice. But you still need to know what type of people fit that culture and communicate it clearly.

The Bottom Line

When you don't screen for fit - when you just take the hire because you need someone - you're not solving a problem. You're gambling.

You're guessing that this person's motivations align with what you can offer. You're hoping they'll stick around. You're assuming the relationship will work itself out.

Hope isn't a hiring strategy.

Growth comes from planning and diligence. You can hire transactionally and hope people stick. Some will. Many won't.

Or you can get clear on your vision, honest about what you're offering, and intentional about finding people who actually want what you have. People want to be invested in. They want partnership. Meet them there, and they'll meet you back.

If this felt uncomfortable, that's usually the signal.

Want to talk this through?

These conversations usually happen before a role ever gets posted.

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Evidence behind this insight:

• Nearly half of employees report they would trade compensation for greater trust in leadership (Cerby / Qualtrics)
• Employees with high trust in leadership are significantly less likely to seek new roles and report materially higher motivation (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• Organizations with strong trust cultures experience meaningfully lower turnover than industry peers (Great Place to Work Institute)