1-2-1: Your hiring problem is a leverage problem

I've stopped accepting "we need to hire" at face value. It's usually shorthand for "I need leverage, and headcount is the only lever I know."

You've been trying to hire for that role since February. You're still doing the work yourself.

1 Principle

The default growth move is "hire". The new move is "build leverage".

One costs £60-80k loaded and six months to ramp. The other is the gap between AI-absent and AI-native. The work AI can already handle is the work you've been pricing in headcount.

2 Things Top of Mind

#1 The leverage I couldn't hire for

I have humans in my team. But most of my time this year has gone on the agents. There are two kinds of leverage they give us. Some work can be automated: agents that run on a schedule and do what someone in the team would have done manually. Other work can be augmented: agents that extend what each of us can do, letting us take on work we couldn't before. The first moves boring work off our plates. The second lets us focus on the work that needs us. Both increase leverage. Both lower cost.

This week: Pick one role you've been trying to fill, or at least thinking about. Write the job description. That becomes an agent spec. Two outcomes: you either find the work doesn't need a human, or you find the part that does. Either is leverage you didn't have.

#2 The role that won't fill

You've reposted the role three times in six months. Every shortlist has someone close but not quite. Every offer falls through. The market is tight. The bar is high. The timing is wrong. All of that is true. There's also another reason: the role you're hiring for, in the shape you wrote it, has been overtaken by what AI can do. The market knows. The candidates know. You haven't said it out loud yet.

This week: Pick the role you most want to fill. Spend 30 minutes asking your team a different question: if this role didn't exist, what work would they actually want help with? Their answer is the real shape of the leverage you need.

1 Question

What's the next hire you were about to make that's really a leverage problem in disguise?