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How many direct reports is the right amount?
If you’re a small business owner, you became a leader the moment you hired your first person. You might not have intended to add “leader” to your title, but here you are. And whether you’re managing employees or outsourcing to contractors, leading people requires emotional energy, time, and bandwidth. So…
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How to choose your hiring team
Why Every Hiring Process Needs One Decision Maker Choosing the right people for your business is the most important thing you will do. So you might think that you need a team to get it right. Getting buy-in is a real thing, but it’s also a huge risk if not…
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What to pay attention to in interviews
Look for Evidence, Not Performance Interviews are a strange game when you really think about it. Two strangers meet, and in less than an hour, one tries to convince the other that they’re the perfect fit—while the other tries to figure out who they really are, based on very little…
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Pros and cons of investing in personality assessments
Hiring is a strange game. You’re trying to decide, after a few conversations, who someone actually is—and if they’ll thrive in your company. Personality assessments won’t give you a crystal ball, but used wisely, they can add just enough insight to help you make better, faster decisions. When to Use…
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The critical role of skills testing
Interviewing, in general, is kind of ridiculous. You meet someone. Ask a few questions back and forth. Maybe meet again. Or a few times. And then you enter into a contract to work together. A little wild. As someone who goes on vibe and overthinks everything, I’m still baffled by…
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Biases in interviewing: Confusing personality for potential
Hiring bias doesn’t just show up as prejudice. It also shows up as personality preference. And it’s common. But don’t let mistaking surface-level chemistry for real alignment sabotage your goals. When Personality Tricks You Into Saying Yes We’ve all done it. You sit down for an interview. Five minutes in,…
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Not everyone’s coming with you
When you make a big change in your business—whether it’s scaling up, adding infrastructure, hiring leadership, or evolving into a version of the company you’ve been building toward—there will be disruption. And not the bad kind. Disruption is not failure. It’s growth—with all the friction and stretch marks that come…
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How to fire gracefully
How to Let Someone Go Without Losing Yourself (or Your Team’s Trust) If you’ve built your business with care, firing someone might feel like the hardest thing you’ll ever do. You’ve built relationships. You’ve invested in people. And if you’re like most small business owners, you care deeply about both…
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Bringing people with you: Why promotions and cross-promotions matter
One of the biggest blind spots in growing a business is treating your team like a fixed puzzle—filling the open spaces and expecting nothing to shift. But people aren’t puzzle pieces. They’re living, evolving, and looking for momentum. In fact, the movement in your business might be what attracted them…
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Pre-screening: Saving your interview sanity
If you’ve ever found yourself burned out by, or dreading interviewing, you’re not alone. You start out with the best of intentions—“I’ll just meet people and see who feels right.” But after three awkward Zoom calls, a no-show, and two people who clearly didn’t read the job description—you start asking…
