Trust but Verify
"Trust but verify."
A saying my dad said to me often when I was younger that has stuck with me throughout the years (and probably the reason I’m so skeptical).
And after this past week, it rings true more than ever.
The amazing new hire
As many of you know, I’ve been working on expanding the team in anticipation for some BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals) big in 2024.
So, a few months back I brought on a new operations manager to help scale our processes and service delivery.
This person came by referral as a top manager, and in the hiring process and initial and probationary period, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.
Slowly, but in the general right direction. ⏩
When it came time for their first performance review (about 45-days in), while outcomes looked okay on the surface, it became clear we lacked definition around specific KPIs and expectations for this high-level role.
When we would examine an outcome, the completion was often “kind of” or “technically.”
Mistake number one (aka, “lesson number one”) was not having crystal clear, documented expectations in place from day one for his role.
I know the importance of having clear outcomes for a role, but this role is big one and defining good outcomes was quite the challenge. We did have some vague outcomes set and a clear week-by-week roadmap, but still, the outcomes were gray and not black-or-white.
Unclear outcomes forced us to rely on subjective evaluation—which left too much room for interpretation during review. So, I gave her the benefit of the doubt since she came so highly referred and we extended the probationary period with the goal of getting very specific.
With these expectations more clearly lined out, we set off to reach new heights as a team!
But after just a few days of being crystal clear on expectations, it was also clear that production and accountability were slipping.
I spoke with her about it and she had excellent excuses (aren’t they all? lol) as to why things were how they were. She’s a great communicator (aka, BS-er) but I knew in my gut that something was off.
So, we reduced her to a part-time position to make her production look more desirable, with the intention of putting her back to full-time once she got these basics down.
A few more weeks passed, and still, hardly anything. But this time, the numbers were clear.
17 key outcomes for the week. 2 were completed (by me).
So after some more BS-ing, I promptly removed her from the team, with a small severance.
The aftermath
Over the next few days as I was cleaning up her mess in anticipation for the next great hire, I noticed something alarming…
Come to find out, she had been working with multiple agencies at once under “full time” conditions.
When I brought this to other agency owners in my network, it turned out she had done the same song and dance job-hopping between their teams too without anyone’s knowledge. A real lack of integrity.
Fortunately, I was able to get rid of this amazing operations manager relatively quickly with little lasting damage. No client accounts were impacted at all and the security of our team and clients was all kept in-tact thanks to our security policies (and my skepticism 👀).
The lesson
The lesson here is a big one — and one that can be made by you (more than once) if you’re not careful.
No matter how promising someone may seem initially or how badly you want to believe in them, you have to protect your business first.
Trust is earned over time through objective proof, not subjective feelings or empty claims. Be skeptical. Give trust to a new hire but verify everything until they have proved themselves.
With every hire, your approach should be:
Clear, documented roles and expectations.
30-60-90 day performance reviews based on data, not opinions.
Track hourly workload and client commitments, even for salaried positions.
Rigorous training on your processes from day one.
This way, you don't have to make a subjective call and potentially get burned--the numbers will tell the story either way.
But what really hit home was how other businesses had fallen into the same trap by not holding this amazing ops manager strictly accountable to clear metrics from the very beginning.
I know delegation is crucial as we grow, but we can’t delegate critical roles without proper onboarding and quantifiable result tracking. This was an expensive lesson, but one that will serve us and any future team members well.
Our culture and systems are stronger for it.
This Monday
Start the week off thinking objectively.
Stay disciplined out there and especially when bringing someone new onboard.
Clear expectations and data-driven reviews will protect you and your business, so you can trust and verify simultaneously.
Email me if you want a hiring masterclass 💪