The Misdiagnosis Trap

Most founders don’t fire people because of performance.

They fire them because they misread what changed.

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You have someone who was solid for 12–18 months.

Then something shifts:

• slower execution
• less ownership
• energy feels off

So the story becomes:

“they’re slipping”

But here’s the problem:

That’s a surface label, not a diagnosis.

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In a lot of cases, the visible drop is downstream of something else:

• role quietly changed
• manager dynamic shifted
• expectations drifted
• pressure increased in a way that broke fit

The behavior is real. But the interpretation is wrong.

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And once you misdiagnose it, the next move compounds it:

• pushing harder when the issue is structural
• pulling back when clarity is needed
• or exiting someone who could have recovered

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I’ve been working on a simple diagnostic approach for this.

Not HR software. Not surveys.

Just a structured way to answer:

What actually changed here?

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If you have a case like this:

“This person used to be good. Now something feels off.”

Send it to me.

I’ll run it manually and return a structured diagnostic:

• what likely changed
• what might be getting misread
• what I would (and wouldn’t) do next

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I’m running these manually right now to make sure the signal is real before turning it into a product.