Dave Kashen coaches someone through hiring mistakes, using a baseball analogy where even great hitters fail two-thirds of the time. They explore the guilt and embarrassment that come with bad hires, and how reframing those feelings as data points rather than personal failures helps you make better decisions next time.
if, if, if you have an over .300 batting average for a long period of time. Like, it's, it's, it's really outstanding. And, um, I'm not— I don't know that much about basketball— baseball, but I know enough to, to know that that's true. And so, like, 1 in 3. So baseball is actually a very interesting analogy for that reason.
Yeah. So if you, if you start with that premise that getting it right 1 out of 3 times is winning, there's a lot less self-judgment. And, you know, it's interesting you use the word embarrassment and guilt Um, it was funny, like I, you know, I just made a mistake, right? So I said 2 out of 3, it was, it was actually 1 out of 3. Um, I can feel a little bit of like a twinge of embarrassment and, um, I just, yeah, it's an, like, just as a coaching moment for you, uh, I would, there's a general theme I would say of welcome the feeling, question the story. So if I was coaching you on that, um, and supporting you to have a more, um, you know, preferred experience around letting people go, I would welcome the feeling of embarrassment cuz feelings just are, but I would question the story that like you did something wrong. And actually that, right? There, there's like an embarrassment, like I screwed up in some way and that's bad. And so I would, you know, given that what we just said, you know, you got, if you're, you still have 50% of your people, maybe you're, you know, you're, you're Hall of Fame territory. Um, so I would just invite you to question the story that like, oh, that, that's bad. Like that, that, um, you could feel the embarrassment if that's what you feel, but that like, I ought to be embarrassed because I made a mistake in hiring. Um, and then guilt requires a story that you did something wrong more in the sense of like ethically. And again, welcome the guilt as a feeling. And I would invite you to question that story that you did, you're doing something wrong in letting someone go, because you might be letting them go find their next amazing career or boss.
On some level, recognizing that I might have made a mistake at the beginning where I hired the wrong person, or that I might have made a mistake along the way and how I managed them or what expectations I set for them. Um, also my story is that it helps me do better next time. It sort of provides a drive. And one of the big challenges, like, just to take this very macro that I've had over my career, is like I told you the story about how I started. Like, I started to put food on the table for my family, particularly long-term economic stability, you know. And I've now delivered that. Like, my family doesn't have economic challenges anymore. And congratulations. Thank you. It's a, it's a huge relief. It's a big deal. Every day— not every day, but like every, every month or two, you recognize this and you think to yourself, like, like, pinch me, you know?
But, um, you feel grateful. Very grateful. Like, yeah.
