I’ve sometimes seen a desire to throw $100,000 in salary and benefits at a “bandwidth problem” when it’s really just a prioritization problem.
Sometimes, hiring is absolutely the right decision. But sometimes, the better solution isn’t hiring, it’s doing fewer things better.
Before you hire, ask these questions:
- Are we trying to do too much? The instinct to say yes to everything creates artificial capacity problems. What if the issue isn’t a lack of people, but a lack of focus?
- Can we cut or pause lower-priority projects? Every initiative competes for attention. Which ones could you shelve without meaningfully impacting your core objectives?
- Are we clear on what actually created results? If you can’t identify your highest-impact activities, adding more people just increases the confusion.
- Could we streamline operations or automate some work first? Process improvements and automation often free up more bandwidth than a new hire, without the ongoing cost.
Hiring should be a strategic growth move, not a reflex to wrangle chaos. Sometimes the real answer isn’t adding people, it’s tightening focus.
