There is a person on your team right now who keeps you awake at night.

You know who it is. You don’t even have to think about the name. It pops into your head instantly.

They are not a bad person. In fact, you probably like them. They might be funny. They might have a family you know about. They might try really hard.

But they are drowning.

Their work is consistently below the bar. They miss deadlines. They make the same mistakes over and over again despite your coaching. Your high performers are starting to get annoyed because they have to clean up the mess. You are starting to resent the time you spend managing them.

And yet, you wait.

You give them another chance. You put them on another performance improvement plan. You tell yourself that you are being kind. You tell yourself that firing them would be cruel.

I want to challenge that assumption.

I want to suggest that your hesitation is not actually kindness. It is conflict avoidance wearing a costume of kindness.

And worse, by keeping them in a role they are failing at, you are actually doing damage to their career, your business, and your own mental health.

We need to unpack the difficult philosophy of Hiring Slow and Firing Fast, but we need to strip away the corporate ruthlessness often associated with it and look at it through a lens of radical compassion.

The Slow Hire: Protecting the Ecosystem

Why do we hire fast in the first place? Usually, it is because we are in pain.

We are overworked. A key employee just quit. We have a new client and nobody to handle the account. We feel the pressure of the vacuum.

So we grab the first person who looks halfway decent. We ignore the red flags. We skip the reference checks. We just want a body in the seat.

This is the root of the problem.

When you hire out of desperation, you are bringing chaos into your ecosystem. A team is a delicate biological organism. It relies on trust, shared standards, and unspoken rhythms. When you inject a mismatch into that system, the organism gets sick.

Hiring slow is not about bureaucracy. It is about rigor.

It is about waiting until you find the person who raises the average of the team rather than lowering it. It is about being willing to feel the pain of the open role for an extra month so that you do not have to feel the pain of a bad hire for the next year.

Are you willing to suffer in the short term to thrive in the long term? That is the test of leadership.

The Toxicity of the Wrong Fit

Let’s go back to that employee who is struggling.

Think about what their daily life is like. They know they are failing. Human beings are perceptive. They can feel your frustration. They can see the eye rolls of their colleagues. They wake up every morning with a knot of anxiety in their stomach, knowing they are about to spend eight hours doing something they are not good at.

That is a miserable existence.

By keeping them in the role, you are prolonging their suffering. You are eroding their confidence. Every day they stay is a day they are not finding the job where they could be a superstar.

And the damage to the team is even worse.

High performers want to work with other high performers. When they see you tolerating mediocrity, they lose respect for you. They start to wonder why they are working so hard when the person next to them is getting paid the same amount to do half the work.

Eventually, they quit.

So in your attempt to be “nice” to the wrong person, you end up losing the right people.

This is the mathematical reality of management. You cannot protect everyone. You have to choose who to protect.

The Mechanics of the Compassionate Fire

So how do we fire fast without being a monster?

It starts with clear expectations. You cannot fire someone for failing a test they didn’t know they were taking.

Step 1: The Clarity Conversation As soon as you see the gap, name it. “I noticed this report had errors. Here is the standard I expect. Can you hit that standard?”

Step 2: The Support Phase Give them the tools. Give them the training. Ask them what they need. This removes the excuse of “I didn’t know how.”

Step 3: The Reality Check If the behavior doesn’t change, you have the hard conversation. “We have tried X and Y, but I am not seeing the results. I am worried this role isn’t the right fit for your strengths.”

Notice the language. It is not “You are bad.” It is “This is a bad fit.”

When you frame it as a fit issue, you remove the judgment. You can be a great driver and still be terrible at flying a plane. It doesn’t mean you are a bad person. It means you shouldn’t be in the cockpit.

When the final moment comes, do it quickly. Do not drag it out. Do not make them guess.

“We have decided to part ways. Today is your last day.”

And then, be generous.

This is where the compassion comes in. Offer a generous severance package if you can. Offer to pay for career coaching. Offer to write a recommendation for their skills that are actually good.

Help them land on their feet.

Compassion is not about avoiding the decision. It is about how you handle the aftermath.

The Relief of the Truth

I have had to fire many people in my career. It never gets easy. My hands still shake before the meeting.

But almost every single time, something strange happens.

A few months later, I will get an email from the person I fired.

They will say, “Thank you.”

They will tell me that they found a new job that they love. They will tell me that they were miserable too, but they were too scared to quit. They will tell me that getting pushed out was the wake up call they needed to find their true path.

By ripping off the bandage, you are giving them their life back.

You are freeing them from the prison of your expectations.

And you are freeing yourself.

Think about the energy you spend worrying about this person. Think about the time you spend fixing their mistakes. Imagine if you could reinvest that energy into your top performers. Imagine if you could spend that time building your business.

The Empty Chair

Many managers are terrified of the empty chair. They think a warm body is better than nobody.

This is a lie.

An empty chair does not make mistakes. An empty chair does not bring down morale. An empty chair does not require constant supervision.

An empty chair is an opportunity. It is a space waiting for greatness.

When you finally let the wrong person go, the air in the office changes. The tension dissipates. The team breathes a sigh of relief.

You will realize that you were carrying a backpack full of rocks.

Do not wait for the perfect moment. There is no perfect moment to have a hard conversation.

Do it for the business. Do it for the team.

But mostly, do it for them.

Stop letting them fail in slow motion. Let them go so they can succeed somewhere else.