When Thinking Gets in the Way of Acting
During a recent leadership programme, I noticed more hesitation than I normally see.
Capable people were taking longer to commit, revisiting decisions and looking for reassurance before moving forward.
At first, it was tempting to describe that simply as overthinking.
The more useful question was what sat underneath it.
People can hesitate for quite different reasons. Sometimes they are waiting for certainty.
Sometimes they have formed a reasonable view but do not yet trust their own judgement.
In other cases, they are unclear about how much authority they really have.
Those differences matter because the response should be different too.
The search for certainty
A 2024 study followed 247 people making real-life decisions and found that intolerance of
uncertainty was associated with greater indecisiveness and more checking or reassurance behaviours.
A 2025 experimental study then showed that increasing intolerance of uncertainty caused greater
indecisiveness on personally relevant decisions.
For some people, hesitation therefore seems to come from discomfort with uncertainty rather than a genuine lack of information.
A practical question is:
What information could still change your decision?
If there is no clear answer, further analysis may simply delay the point of commitment.
Judgement without confidence
Someone else may already have a reasonable answer and still be reluctant to act on it.
Fleming’s 2024 review of metacognition helps explain why. Confidence in our own decisions is an
inference in its own right and can diverge from actual performance.
In practical terms, a person can reach a sound conclusion while remaining unsure whether to trust it.
I was reminded of this during a recent appraisal conversation with one of my team.
They were frustrated about still needing to check decisions with a more experienced colleague.
Peer review was part of their development, so I suggested changing how they used it.
Rather than going with a question, go with a proposed answer:
"This is what I think we should do, and this is why."
If the judgement is sound, confidence grows. If something has been missed, the conversation helps explain why.
Either outcome develops judgement more effectively than simply receiving the answer.
When checking becomes the default
Consulting others remains useful, particularly when someone is still learning.
The 2024 Appel study also found that greater use of problematic checking and other safety behaviours predicted more indecisiveness later.
Managers can unintentionally reinforce this pattern. If every tentative decision is taken back,
corrected immediately or sent through another approval layer, checking can become the safest way to operate.
Where the consequences are manageable, it can be more useful to let the person make the decision and review their reasoning afterwards.
The environment can create hesitation
Sometimes the hesitation sits around the person.
If decision rights are unclear, previous decisions have been overturned without explanation,
or people are told they are empowered while still needing approval, checking is understandable.
Managers can remove some of that uncertainty by being explicit about boundaries.
People need to know which decisions they own, when consultation is expected and which matters genuinely require approval.
Clear boundaries also provide something important for development: room to practise judgement.
Understanding what is holding the decision up
Hesitation can look similar from the outside while coming from very different places.
One person needs a clearer information threshold. Another needs experience trusting a judgement they have already formed.
Someone else needs clearer authority or fewer layers of reassurance.
That makes the manager’s task more precise.
When someone keeps hesitating, ask what they are actually waiting for.
References
Appel, H., Krasko, J., Luhmann, M., & Gerlach, A. L. (2024).
Intolerance of uncertainty predicts indecisiveness and safety behavior in real-life decision making:
Results from an experience sampling study.
Journal of Research in Personality, 110, 104490.
Appel, H., & Gerlach, A. L. (2025).
Intolerance of uncertainty causally affects indecisiveness.
British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(3), 806–816.
Fleming, S. M. (2024). Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis. Annual Review of Psychology, 75, 241–268.