“I’ve hired so many people in the past that just didn’t do anything.”
I hear this phrase constantly when I start working with a new client. It’s the go-to explanation for why their business isn’t scaling. Why operations feel chaotic. Why they’re still answering every phone call at 9 PM.
It’s also a lie.
Not an intentional one. But a lie nonetheless.
What they’re really saying is: “I don’t know how to set clear expectations, monitor performance, or build systems that make accountability visible.” But that’s harder to admit. So they look out the window and blame the hires.
Jim Collins called this the inverse of Level 5 leadership. Great leaders look out the window to credit success and in the mirror to own failure. Struggling leaders do the opposite.
The Real Pattern Behind Bad Hires
When I hear the “bad hires” excuse, I ask three questions:
How did you monitor their performance?
What systems did you have in place to set them up for success?
Were you clear on your expectations from the outset?
The silence that follows tells me everything.
Most business owners think they were clear. They assume the person understood what needed to happen. But there’s a communication gap on both sides. The owner didn’t articulate the outcome. The hire didn’t ask for the resources they needed.
I’m not immune to this. I hired subcontractors to run a Facebook group posting strategy for a client. About 45 days in, I checked their work and found glaring omissions. They were falling short of my expectations.
I could have blamed them. Instead, I looked in the mirror.
What could I have done differently? I could have asked them to articulate their strategy upfront. I could have done a spot check review at one week instead of waiting 45 days. The failure wasn’t theirs alone. It was mine.
When the Owner Becomes the Bottleneck
Here’s the paradox: business owners say they don’t have time to monitor people. That’s exactly why they’re stuck hiring people who underperform.
Research shows that 70% of leaders are uncomfortable delegating, rooted in fear of losing control. Meanwhile, CEOs who excel at delegation generate 33% more revenue than those who don’t.
The reason they don’t have time? They’re doing $5 an hour tasks instead of making $10,000 decisions.
I worked with a contractor who was drowning. All calls came to his cell phone. He was out doing estimates, talking with subcontractors, managing his own schedule. He was paying for leads through advertising but missing the calls because he was driving or on another job site.
Before we started working together, he was doing maybe five estimates per week.
Within 30 days of taking him off the phones and implementing a lead handling system, he was doing 20 to 25 estimates per week.
That’s a 4x to 5x increase. Not because the leads got better. Because he stopped being the bottleneck.
But here’s what’s interesting: he didn’t take credit for the turnaround. He acknowledged the system fixed what he couldn’t see before. That’s the Window and Mirror principle in action.
The Client Who Never Looked in the Mirror
Not every engagement works out.
Years ago, I worked with a criminal defense attorney who had built a decent-sized firm. A few lawyers, some law clerks, an assistant. And me, handling marketing at the time.
No matter what I did, it wasn’t enough. There was always something else I could be doing, should be doing. If only I did those things, the results would be different.
She never looked in the mirror. Never asked what support I needed. What resources would help me succeed. What communication gaps existed between us.
The engagement ended when she didn’t pay my latest invoice. I stopped working. She didn’t reach out. I didn’t reach out. It just faded.
Looking back with the Window and Mirror framework, I see my own failure. I wasn’t vocal enough about what I needed. I didn’t communicate clearly when resources weren’t available. I didn’t negotiate a path forward.
I was looking out the window too.
Making the Mirror Impossible to Avoid
The question business owners ask me: How do you make Window and Mirror behavior automatic instead of optional?
You don’t. But you can make the bottleneck visible.
For that contractor client, we tracked estimates generated and estimates converted. The bottleneck shifted from getting estimates to turning estimates into quotes. I built him an upload platform and templates to speed up the process.
He’s not using them consistently yet. Which means he’s still the bottleneck. He can’t blame the leads. Can’t blame the system. The mirror is right there.
When I work with clients now, I’m direct: I’m doing everything I can on my end. But I don’t have the full picture. If you can’t give me the feedback I need, we won’t move as fast. That puts your goals at risk.
The first action I have them take? Count how many tasks they moved off their plate this week.
Not next month. This week.
That number becomes their mirror. You can’t argue with it. You can’t externalize it. It’s either zero or it’s not.
The Language Shift That Signals Change
When business owners finally internalize this principle, their language changes.
They stop saying “I hired bad people.” They start saying “Now I can see that with the systems you’ve put in place, we can get to where I want to go.”
Notice the shift. From “they failed me” to “we can get there.”
That’s the Window and Mirror principle becoming operational. Not just a character trait to admire in Jim Collins case studies. But a daily practice measured in tasks delegated, systems implemented, and bottlenecks made visible.
The question isn’t whether you’re a good leader or a bad one.
The question is: How soon do you want to start getting results?
Because to get those results, you have to accept that you need to do things differently. Until you’re willing to look in the mirror and count what you’ve actually changed this week, things will largely stay the same.