Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

You can't change the people you hire

21 Jul 2025

Watch on YouTube

This is a YouTube video titled "You can't change the people you hire" containing a monologue or talk from July 21, 2025, discussing hiring practices and the challenges of trying to change employees after hiring them. The speaker shares personal insights on the importance of making immediate decisions about firing and the futility of attempting to change someone's core traits.

The heuristic I have is if I ever think, should I fire this person even once? I should fire them immediately. The biggest mistake I made in my early career was I would hire people because I liked them on gut and I would think that I could change them. It's kind of like in romantic relationships, it never works out well. If you get married to someone and you go, okay, well, this is going to be a great relationship as long as I can convert them to Christianity or I can change their parents or their personality or whatever it is. I've just found that I've never been able to change someone. You can never mentor someone into being a good employee.