Listen instead on your Monday Morning Drive:

“Where can I find good people?” is the most common question I hear during my coaching calls. Business owners want better freelancers, a deeper bench, and stronger hires. And they’re convinced the talent pool is the problem.

My response is always the same: “Why aren’t good people finding you?”

The Wrong People Are in the Way

The best hire you can make starts with firing somebody who doesn’t fit. If you’ve got people on your team you wouldn’t hire again knowing what you know now, they’re occupying seats better people could fill.

This is hard to hear when it applies to somebody who’s been with you for 20 years. It’s easier when it’s somebody who’s been there for two. Either way, the wrong people in the wrong roles make you unattractive to the right candidates.

Recruiting (whether freelancers or employees) is marketing. If good people aren’t lining up at your door, that says more about you than it does about them. 

Good people are looking for great companies. If your team includes people their peers don’t respect, they won’t answer your call.

What Freelancers See

Freelancers talk. If they see who you’re already using and think, “That person is charging $400 a day and is worth $250,” top talent won’t make space in their calendar for you.

It works the same for full-time hires. What are you hiring them into? If the role exists because your process is broken and you’re not giving them the authority to fix it, you’re just throwing a skilled body at a problem. Nobody wants that job.

When candidates look at your business, they see where you’ve settled for mediocrity. Maybe it’s the warehouse team. Maybe it’s field support. Whatever it is, top candidates notice.

If that’s the area that would support them in the field, they’re walking away.

What Good People Need From You

If the candidate you want isn’t replacing someone, ask why. An extra body isn’t an attractive job. A specific role that needs improvement is.

Every time you bring in a good person, shift other people around and refine their roles. Don’t let mediocre performers hold seats just because they’ve been there a long time. That’s loyalty misapplied, and it costs you the people who could actually move the business forward.

Think about authority. If a freelancer in the field can’t call back to the shop and say, “We need this down here now” without being argued with about cost, every freelancer will know. Nobody will want to work for you.

If you don’t feel you can give people authority because you’ve been burned, that says more about your hiring than the people who burned you. Hire people good enough to trust. Give them the opportunity to succeed.

Four Signs You Hired the Right Person

Within two weeks of a great hire, you’ll see four indicators.

They force you to change. They don’t settle into the status quo. They look at how you’ve been doing it and start making recommendations immediately. Hire that person.

They challenge the status quo. Their job isn’t to come in and find the flow. Their job is to come in and say, “I see you’ve been doing this a long time. Let me suggest a better way.” They don’t have to be pushy. They have to read the room and speak up anyway.

They’re cooperative but evaluating. They’ll play along, but they’re assessing everything. They try your process, then come back with specifics: “I tried this. Here are the challenges. Here’s what I think would work better.” They’re kind, thoughtful, and impatient about processes that don’t have legs.

They threaten the old guard. If a 20-year veteran feels threatened by the new hire, you picked the right person. Two outcomes follow: the veteran steps up and remembers what makes them valuable, or they get frustrated and move on. Both are good for the company. Defining the right roles makes this transition smoother.

Build the Company Good People Want to Work For

As your company grows, distance increases between you and your employees. You have to constantly assess whether you have the right team and identify the emotional gaps: energy, compliance, and aptitude.

Embrace discomfort. Bring in people who challenge the way you operate. If you don’t like the disruption, get comfortable with rejection, because the best people won’t seek you out, and if you recruit them, they’ll take one look at you and pass.

Be the company good people want to work with. Outsource what makes sense. Give your team clear roles and real authority. Stop carrying people you wouldn’t rehire.

The talent pool isn’t the problem. Your doorstep is.