Fractional talent fails not because of the people but because leaders skip the basics: onboarding, expectation setting, and clear accountability checkpoints. Lia shares three keys that fix the most common freelancer and contractor breakdowns before they become expensive disasters. This episode is essential for founders, team leads, and anyone leaning on freelancers or agencies to scale right now.
This episode is part of the Hiring, Onboarding & New Team Members series. Browse all episodes →
Mic drop moments
“…the most excited someone will ever be is on that first job, right? Because they came here, it’s like, yes, I have a new thing. Let’s go.”
“…if someone feels really uncomfortable, you are gonna take that excitement from a 10 to like a two in a matter of hours.”
“…you have so much control over making sure that your new hire has a successful first impression with the team, right? That’s on you.”
“…doing anything is better than doing nothing.”
Episode highlights
The two scenarios that signal broken onboarding
Lia opens with two scenes every leader will recognize. In the first, a new hire sits quietly through week one, barely moving, while the leader wonders why they are not jumping in. In the second, the new hire walks into their first meeting firing off suggestions and referencing their old job until teammates are visibly annoyed. Both scenarios feel like a problem with the person. They are not. They are a problem with the process, specifically the absence of one.
Why leaders skip onboarding planning (and why that is just as costly as a bad hire)
The reason onboarding gets skipped is not negligence. It is exhaustion. By the time a new hire walks through the door, the leader has been covering that role themselves, running on fumes, and the instinct is to hand everything off immediately and get out of the way. Lia reframes that instinct: handing off without setting expectations is just as wasteful as hiring the wrong person in the first place. All that effort to find the right hire evaporates if day one is a blank slate with no structure.
What new hires are actually experiencing (that leaders forget)
New hires carry imposter feelings from minute one. They do not want to ask too many questions and look incompetent. They do not want to bother their manager. They also may have uprooted their lives, left a job they liked, or gone through a grueling search to land this role. Lia makes the point plainly: the most excited someone will ever be about a job is on day one. A poor onboarding experience can take that excitement from a ten to a two in a matter of hours, and that baseline rarely recovers.
Lia’s own first day as the case study
Lia moved from San Francisco to Seattle alone, leaving her husband behind, to take what felt like a career-defining opportunity in tech. She arrived dressed up, parked in the lot, got walked to her office, and was told her computer had not arrived yet and her manager was at an offsite for two days. She sat there from 8:30 to 5 with nothing to do, no note, no one stopping by. By the end of that day she had decided the company was not a long-term fit. She never recovered the excitement she walked in with. Her manager was not a bad person. She was busy and had not thought about what day one would feel like for someone who had just moved 800 miles for the role.
The one move that fixes both scenarios
Set expectations before day one. If you need the new hire to come in fast and start solving problems, tell them that. If you need them to absorb and observe for the first few weeks, tell them that too. They are not going to guess correctly. They will default to whatever worked at their last job, and that may be completely wrong for your team. A short conversation or even a note changes everything.
Building an onboarding process that actually sticks
Onboarding does not need to take weeks to design or hours to maintain. Lia’s guidance is simple: do something, then refine it by asking new hires what worked and what they would change. Over time it becomes an embedded part of how the team operates. The details, checklists, pacing guidelines, and communication norms, are covered in depth in The New Manager Playbook. The core principle is that doing anything is better than doing nothing, and the leader has full control over whether a new hire’s first impression of the team is a good one.
Related episodes in this cluster
- Ep 235: Why your new hire is not working out (and how to fix it before it costs you). When a new hire is not working out, it is almost never a people problem. It is a process problem caused by two gaps: an interview that skips values and expectations, and an onboarding that skips knowledge transfer. Lia walks through both gaps with a real example from Google and gives you the fixes to de-risk your next senior hire.
- Ep 219: Did you make a bad hire? How to know and what to do next. Most ‘bad hire’ situations are actually bad onboarding or missing feedback situations. Lia walks through a 30/60/90-day check-in framework that helps you assess a new team member clearly, without panic or dragging it out too long. This episode is especially useful for founders and small team leaders who are second-guessing a recent hire.
- Ep 190: Three hiring mistakes that wreck your team (and what to do instead). The three most common hiring mistakes are moving too fast, underpaying, and bringing on a high-skill but low-collaboration person who poisons team culture. Lia walks through each mistake with real examples and shares how slowing down, paying fairly, and enforcing a no-jerk rule are your best protection against costly turnover. This episode is essential for founders, team leads, and new managers who have ever felt the pressure to fill a seat fast.
- Ep 188: How to manage contractors and freelancers without the headache. Fractional talent fails not because of the people but because leaders skip the basics: onboarding, expectation setting, and clear accountability checkpoints. Lia shares three keys that fix the most common freelancer and contractor breakdowns before they become expensive disasters. This episode is essential for founders, team leads, and anyone leaning on freelancers or agencies to scale right now.
Want to go deeper?
The Unstoppable Team. How to build a team that runs without you in the room.
Full transcript (click to expand)
You finally find that perfect new hire, and then they start their first day, they’re super excited. They come in right on time and you’re thinking, okay, this is it. And then they kind of sit there the first day and you talk with them about, oh, here’s some things to dive into. Here’s our Google drive, here’s our Asana, here’s our clickup boards. And, and they’re, they’re doing a little bit, but another day goes by and another day goes by and you’re at the end of week one, and you’re like, what is this person doing?
I needed somebody to come in and get started right away. Why are they just sitting around now? What about the other situation? You hire someone, it’s their first day and immediately first meeting, they’re raising their hand, they’re making suggestions. They’re saying, Hey, here’s how we do this in my previous job, here’s what I think we should do. And everyone on your team is looking around and like, who brought this guy in? And they start to kind of piss some people off really early.
It’s the third meeting they’re in and they’re thinking they’re calling the shots gonna change everything around. And by the end of the first week you’re thinking, whoa, this person came in way too strong. Now, both these scenarios, this is what happens when you haven’t thought through how you want to approach onboarding. And this is something that we have to get right so that the new hires, we spent so much fricking time and energy trying to bring in.
Actually last actually can thrive, can be successful, especially in the context of your broader team. Because when we don’t get this right, this is where all that effort really goes to waste. And it’s something that I see happen every single day. That’s why I wanna solve this. I’m Leah Garvin, and this is the New Manager Playbook, where I am dedicated to making it easier for you to be a manager. I want managing your team to be the easiest part of your job.
And so in the show, I share tips, tools, strategy stories, all the good stuff to make managing a little bit easier. And since hiring is so freaking hard, onboarding is something we really, really, really want to focus on because it is where we take all that energy and we really make or break the situation. I know last week I talked all about how to hire, how to avoid some big hiring mistakes. This is something that is the part one, right?
The hiring. Taking enough time, right? Avoiding hiring divas, right? We’re making sure we’re paying people the right amount so they’re not just walking out the door soon. Now we take that and then what happens day one? What happens week one? What happens month one? Right now, the situation of people coming in way too strong or being way too reserved. This, as I said, this is a product of not having set any expectations around onboarding. And so that’s really where I think we go wrong is we, we don’t really establish a process.
We don’t really think about it, and that doesn’t happen because we are bad at our jobs or we’re not thoughtful people. Usually when we bring someone on, it’s because we are spread so thin. We needed this role so bad, we might have been doing this job ourselves. And so when someone finally walks through door, it’s like, yes, okay, go take it. I don’t have time for this. But that sort of running without thinking about it, that’s just as bad as if we didn’t think about who we wanted to hire in the first place.
Because I gotta ask you. How is that person gonna know? If you want them to jump in and roll up their sleeves and start solving problems, or if you want them to come and really slow and be more in this absorbing mode, the person’s not gonna know that. I wanna share an example of a challenge that, you know, a, a person I was coaching several years ago, she was an engineer at a tech company and she joined and you know.
She was more junior. She was right outta college. And so she was really nervous about asking questions, right? She wanted just to show you, you made the right choice. You hired me for a reason. And so her manager said, okay, you know, here’s where you find the code to look at. And here’s, here’s some files to kind of get up to speed with with the team. Here’s our intranet. Let me know what questions you have. And as I was coaching this woman, she came to me because she was really struggling with the onboarding.
She was spending hours and hours pouring through documents trying to figure things out herself because, well, she didn’t know what questions to ask her manager. She didn’t know what she didn’t know. She didn’t know what she was supposed to know, and she didn’t know his expectation for the onboarding. She literally hours and hours in the evening muscling through things, trying to connect the dots, trying to figure out, well, is this what I’m supposed to be doing?
Because she didn’t know what questions, and frankly, she was, she was an early in her career. She didn’t wanna bother him, and she didn’t wanna come across like she doesn’t know, or that he’d think like, whoa, this is who I hired. And so we’ve gotta put ourselves in the shoes of the people that we’re bringing in, because when someone joins a team. They there, there is imposter feelings. They are literally, they’re new. Whenever we’re new, we feel imposter feelings, right?
So think about your team member coming in, trying to get the lay of the land on your team, in your company, in your business, whatever it is. And they won. Don’t come want to come across as like, I don’t know, things or I said I was really good at this and now I need help. Right? They don’t wanna do that. They don’t wanna bother you. A lot of times sometimes you’re gonna say, oh, my new hires are fine, bothering me.
Okay, but there’s a lot of times where someone doesn’t wanna bug you or they don’t know when it’s the right time to ask you. Now let’s flip that, right? It could also be they’re bothering you constantly and and you wish that there was some boundaries set, right? So let’s say they’re not sure the right way to be communicating with you. Maybe they shouldn’t be communicating with you at all. Maybe there’s someone else they should be going to.
When you put yourself in someone’s shoes, they come into this new place. They have no idea what what you expect of them at all, right? How would they know? And even if you said a little bit in the interview process, they don’t know they’re walking through the doors. It’s a clean slate. Now, the other thing that’s going through this person’s mind is they might’ve uprooted their whole life to come and work on your team. They might’ve relocated.
They might’ve left a job that they liked, but this was a better opportunity. They might have been in the middle of a really long job search, and this is a huge adjustment for them. And the more we think about what this person is going through, the more we can think, okay, well what would the right transition here look like? Not that you design a new onboarding process for everyone, but just bringing that empathy and that compassion right to the process that, hey, if someone, you know that this is why we bring a thoughtful onboarding process, right?
It’s not to change it, but it’s because someone is coming in a situation of being a little bit vulnerable. Now the last thing I want us to remember when we think about this new hire, put ourselves in their shoes, is the most excited someone will ever be is on that first job, right? Because they came here, it’s like, yes, I have a new thing. Let’s go. The most excited someone’s ever gonna be. And so if you blow it with onboarding or don’t have anything, or they’re just kind of like, ah, I don’t know what, what you want or what, what this looks like or where to find anything, I’m just kind of sitting here trying to like say hi, I am new.
You know, if, if someone feels really uncomfortable. You are gonna take that excitement from a 10 to like a two in a matter of hours. Like why would you do that? And how do I know? Because I have been there. So when I got my first job in tech, I was living in San Francisco and I had a job that I loved. I was working at a, a branding design agency. It was super close knit. Um, it was, it was such a fun environment and I loved it.
But I got an email that said, hello from x, y, z tech company. When I got that email, I knew this was gonna change my life because I had always wanted to work in tech and it was a huge opportunity. I’m not an engineer. I, I, you know, don’t come from that background. So, to, to be recruited to work in tech was a huge deal. Now, mind you, uh, I was living in San Francisco. My husband was in school, and so if I were to take this job, it required me relocating by myself.
But I said, okay, well, we decided, you know, it’s, it’s worth it, you know, we have a strong relationship, you know, it’ll put a little bit to the test. But this was a career opportunity of a lifetime. So. I fly up there to Seattle, I do the interviews, I crush it. I get the job, and I end up having to move there on my own, get a studio apartment because we have our other apartment in San Francisco.
Um, but again, it’s worth it. Okay. This is gonna really open up this whole new career path. First day comes, I’m all dressed up. I drive, I park in the parking lot, the reception, the admin for the team meets me in the, in the lobby. And she walks me up to, to up to our floor and into my office and I think, oh my God, I have an office. I’ve really made it. And then she says, okay, just get settled in.
You know, we don’t have your computer yet. Um, and, uh, your manager’s, she’s, uh, at a offsite today and tomorrow. So just, you know, kind of just get settled in and let me know if you need anything. So I sat there from eight 30. Until about five having no idea what to do. No computer, no like, hello, you know, letter from my manager. No one stopped by my office. I had to kind of wander around and figure out where the bathroom was, figure out where the lunchroom was, and I sat there all day thinking, Ugh, why did I do this?
This was the biggest mistake of my life. I put my, my relationship in jeopardy. I’ve rented a second apartment. I’m financially out like this is what I was devastated. And why was that? Because my manager hadn’t thought about, she was busy. She had this offsite to be at. She hadn’t thought about what the experience might be for someone day one when they’ve moved across the, the coast. Right. I moved like 800 miles away. What that might be like for them.
Maybe you would just write a little note and leave it on their desk, right, for their first day. But she didn’t do that because she was living her own life. But the truth is it’s because she hadn’t thought about onboarding and what that would be. And I don’t want you to be in that same situation because I don’t want your team members to be in this situation that I was in because I’ll tell you that excited feeling that I came in, you know, into the building with, into the parking space and up that elevator with, I never got it back.
I never got it back. Sitting there all day feeling like, gosh, nobody even cares. I upward my whole life. What have I done? All that second guessing, all that second guessing started my baseline so, so low that it kind of was like it really deflated the whole thing completely. And they say that people decide if they’re a long-term fit in a company within the first six months, I think I’ve read. I decided it within the first six hours that day.
That experience showed me. This manager doesn’t really care. They’re not really thoughtful. They’re, they’re not really looking out for me and my experience, and again, I don’t falter for that. She was a busy person. She had a lot going on. This role is something that she had been waiting for for a long time because she had, had, had been having to cover the job. But it doesn’t account for the fact that that employee on the other side, they’re a person just wanna feel like someone cared that I showed up.
So that’s what I’m talking about with onboarding. We, whatever our process looks like, whatever tools that we have, whatever, if we do a lunch or a coffee or whatever, whatever we’re doing, we’ve gotta do something. Okay? Because if we don’t, you are gonna lose that enthusiasm. You’re gonna like heighten those imposter feelings and you’re also not gonna get the output you want. ’cause if you think about those two examples I shared in the beginning, someone that comes in and they don’t really do a lot, and everyone’s like, well, why’d you hire them?
Or they come in like, ah, I’m gonna fix everything here. And everyone’s like, whoa, slow down. That’s also a first impression. Like you have so much control over making sure that your new hire has a successful first impression with the team, right? That’s on you. Because they don’t really know, so they’re just trying to guess. And maybe they’re gonna use what they did in their previous job. If it’s a situation where you need them to either go fast or go slow, why don’t you just tell ’em that right.
So onboarding’s one of those things. It’s, you know, there’s some best practices. I talk a lot about those in my book, the New Manager Playbook. So check it out. But once we do it, this is something that becomes, you know, we, we repeat it, we refine it, we ask our new hires like, Hey, how’d it go? What would you change for the next time? And it becomes just kind of an embedded part of your team. It’s not something that takes weeks and weeks to develop.
It’s not something that even takes a lot of hours to develop. It’s just thinking about it. Then when you do that, you ensure that this new hire, right, we talked about it last week, that we have worked so hard to, to bring in that we made sure so thoughtfully that we found the right person that’s gonna be a fit and it’s gonna be able to hear to last that they will last because they were set up for success outta the gate.
All right. If you need support with an onboarding process, this is something that I absolutely work with teams on. Leave me an email. No, send me an email at [email protected] to to learn more. Again, also in the new manager Playbook, I have a lot of information on how to do this right? Alright, so this is something we do not wanna avoid. It is part of getting hiring, right? It is. It is a simple thing that one done well.
Really, you know, it keeps you on that excitement trajectory. And it’s like there’s no one to blame if we mess it up that our, like, if we don’t do it than ourselves. Because doing anything is better than doing nothing. All right? If you need support, you know who to call and you’ve got this. See you next time.
Questions this episode answers
Why do new hires either sit around doing nothing or come in too strong in the first week?
Both situations happen for the same reason: no one told them what was expected. If you need someone to roll up their sleeves and dive in, say that. If you need them to slow down and absorb first, say that too. A new hire is walking in on day one with a clean slate, and they will default to guessing, either using habits from their last job or holding back out of fear of looking incompetent. The missing piece is a clear onboarding plan that sets expectations before they ever sit down.
How does a bad first day affect a new hire's long-term performance?
It sets a baseline that is very hard to recover from. People decide whether they are a long-term fit at a company within the first six months, but a rough first day can do that damage in hours. When a new hire sits around with nothing to do, no direction, and no sign that anyone cares they showed up, the excitement they walked in with drops from a 10 to a 2 almost immediately. That second-guessing and deflation becomes their starting point, and it colors every experience that follows.
What is the biggest mistake leaders make when onboarding a new hire?
The biggest mistake is not thinking about it at all. Most leaders bring someone on because they are already stretched thin and desperate for help, so the moment the new hire walks in, the impulse is to hand things off and move on. But not having a plan is just as damaging as a bad hiring decision. The new hire has no idea what you expect, how to communicate with you, or even what they are supposed to be learning. Doing something, anything intentional, is always better than doing nothing.
How do I make sure my new hire doesn't feel lost or ignored on their first day?
Put yourself in their shoes. They may have left a job they liked, relocated, or uprooted their life to join your team. They are coming in with imposter feelings and a desperate desire to prove they were the right hire. A simple welcome note, a clear outline of what the first week looks like, and one person designated to help them find the basics goes a long way. You do not need a weeks-long program. You just need to show them that someone thought about their arrival before they walked through the door.
Do I need to build a completely new onboarding process for every hire?
No, and that is not the goal. The goal is to have a repeatable process you can refine over time. After each new hire's first few weeks, ask them what worked and what they would change. That feedback helps you improve it for the next person without starting from scratch each time. Once the process is built, it becomes an embedded part of how your team operates, and it does not take weeks or dozens of hours to put together. It mostly takes intentional thinking before day one.