Most founders hire people who think just like them. It feels right. And it's still the most expensive mistake you can make.
According to Kienbaum, bad hires cost German SMEs between €30,000 and €100,000. Per person. Not just salary. Lost months, frustrated teams, missed deals.
And here's the crazy part: Most of these bad hires don't fail because of missing skills. They fail because the wrong type of person is sitting in the wrong role.
Before you post your next job listing, ask yourself these six questions.
Question 1: What Gap Am I Filling — Skill or Type?
You need a new team member. But what exactly for?
Skill gaps are obvious. No developer on the team? Hire a developer. No accountant? Hire an accountant. That's simple.
But there's a second kind of gap that most founders overlook: the type gap.
Who drives projects forward on your team? Who keeps client relationships alive? Who builds systems that work even when you're not watching?
The CORE framework distinguishes four entrepreneur types: Constructor, Operator, Rainmaker and Explorer. Each type brings a different energy to the team. And when a type is missing, you don't notice it through an open position. You notice it because something isn't working even though all positions are filled.
Typical example: Your agency has enough people working on projects. But nothing grows. No new revenue, no new clients, no movement. You don't need another Operator. You need a Rainmaker.
Before you write a job posting, ask yourself: Am I missing a skill? Or am I missing a type?
Question 2: Am I Hiring Someone Who Thinks Like Me?
Once you know which gap to fill, here comes the next trap: confirmation bias in hiring.
Founders preferentially hire people who are similar to them. It's human nature. You understand this person, you think alike, the chemistry clicks instantly. But that's exactly the problem.
An Explorer founder who hires another Explorer gets double innovation. But zero execution. Two visionaries constantly generating new ideas. Nobody implementing them.
A Constructor founder who brings in a second Constructor builds perfect systems. But nobody brings in clients. The machine runs. It just has no fuel.
The solution is DNA complement, not DNA copy.
Ask yourself: What CORE type am I? And which type complements me instead of mirroring me? A personality test for entrepreneurs helps more than any gut feeling. Not the generic tests like DISC or MBTI that are made for everyone. But an assessment built specifically for founders and business owners.
If you take a strengths assessment as an agency founder and discover you're a Rainmaker, then you don't need a second Rainmaker. You need an Operator who holds things together while you close deals.
Question 3: Is the Role Clear — Or Just the Feeling?
Even if you've identified the right type: Is the role actually clear?
"We need someone for sales." That's not a role profile. That's a feeling.
Reactive hiring works like this: Something's on fire, you quickly post a job, you hire the first person who sort of fits. PwC puts the bad hire rate for reactive hiring at around 20 percent. One in five hires fails because the role was never properly defined.
Strategic hiring works differently. The WHO method from Geoff Smart's book of the same name suggests: Before you write a job posting, write a scorecard. What are the three measurable outcomes this person must deliver in the first 90 days? What competencies do they need? What's the mission of the role?
30 minutes of scorecard work save you three months of frustration. Especially when you're redefining your role as an agency owner and planning your next hire strategically instead of reactively.
And here's where it gets interesting: The scorecard doesn't just show you what the person needs to be able to do. It also shows you which type of person is most likely to deliver those outcomes.
Question 4: Does the Type Fit the Role — Or Just the Team?
The role is defined. But does the person actually fit?
"Culture fit" is one of the most dangerous phrases in hiring. Because it usually means: This person is like us. They fit in. Everyone likes them.
But what you need is culture add. Someone who complements the team, not doubles it.
And more importantly: The type must fit the role, not just the team. An Operator as sales lead? That gets you a full pipeline spreadsheet and an empty calendar of client meetings. Perfect processes, zero closes.
There are clear type-role combinations that work. And ones that are guaranteed to fail:
Operator → Operations, service delivery, project management: Fits. Sales, innovation: Doesn't fit.
Rainmaker → Sales, partnerships, client acquisition: Fits. Process work, detail management: Doesn't fit.
Constructor → System building, product development, structures: Fits. Networking, spontaneous client work: Doesn't fit.
Explorer → Innovation, new markets, R&D: Fits. Operational leadership, repetitive tasks: Doesn't fit.
If you want to know who to hire next as an agency founder, don't just check the resume. Check the type-role fit.
Question 5: What Happens If This Hire Fails?
And what if you're still wrong?
You know the direct costs: €30,000 to €100,000 per bad hire according to Kienbaum. Salary, recruiting, onboarding, severance.
But the real costs are invisible. A wrong hire drags two to three other people down with them. Team dynamics tip. Your best people start asking questions. And you as the founder are back at 60 hours a week because you're filling the gap yourself that someone else was supposed to close.
Every CORE type has a shadow risk when sitting in the wrong role:
A Constructor in a leadership role without clear creative latitude becomes a control freak. Micromanagement, bottleneck, team frustration.
A Rainmaker who moves from sales to management promises clients things the team can't deliver. Overpromise, underdeliver, loss of trust.
An Explorer in an operational leadership role becomes toxic. Constantly new direction, no focus, the team no longer knows what they're working on.
An Operator without a clear area of responsibility optimizes processes nobody needs. Busywork instead of impact.
Ask yourself before every hire: What's the worst-case scenario with this type in this role? If you can't name it, you haven't understood the role yet.
Question 6: Do I Have a System — Or Am I Hiring on Gut Feeling?
The good news: You don't have to get it wrong.
EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, has a simple principle: Right People, Right Seats. The right people in the right positions. Sounds logical. But how do you recognize who the "right people" are?
Gut feeling alone isn't enough. Every founder has blind spots. You favor types who are similar to you. You overvalue chemistry. You undervalue systematic type analysis.
But frameworks alone aren't enough either. A rigid system without intuition produces hires that look perfect on paper and fail in practice.
The best combination: gut feeling plus framework.
CORE Navigator gives you a practical tool for this. Four types, clear mapping, immediately applicable. No 12-week coaching. No vague personality profiles. Instead: a concrete next-hire profile that tells you which type you need next and why.
As a DISC test alternative or complement to MBTI, CORE Navigator is built specifically for entrepreneurs and founders. Not for everyone. For you.
Six Questions. Zero Excuses.
None of these questions requires a recruiter, an agency, or an expensive tool. But all of them require one thing: that you know which founder type you are. And which type your team needs right now.
Most agency growth problems aren't market problems. They're staffing problems. And you don't solve staffing problems with more budget. You solve them with clarity.
About the Author
Founder
Joram Hoefs is the founder of CORE-Navigator. With over a decade of experience in business consulting and personality diagnostics, he has made it his mission to develop data-driven tools that help entrepreneurs understand and leverage their unique DNA.
More posts by Joram Hoefs