Indecision in Leadership: Why You Freeze and How to Move Again

How Indecision Shows Up in Your Week as a Leader

In one leadership team I worked in, indecision was everywhere.

On one project, we kept hitting the same problems week after week.

We escalated them, but no decision was forthcoming.  When I challenged it in a 1:1, the response was, 'Let me think about it.' In review meetings, changes we'd agreed on were reopened.

The leader would then push any real commitment to the next meeting.

Partway through the project, I was promoted, and we finally had a frank conversation.  

The leader was more than capable, but full of doubt. They worried about being wrong and kept waiting for more certainty.

Indecision had become the safest place to stay.

Beneath these patterns are some predictable reasons why capable leaders still hesitate.

Why Smart Leaders Still Hesitate

When I suggested to a fellow leader that indecision was creeping into their leadership, the response was shock.

Their mind had rationalised the hesitation. They thought they were doing the right thing.

The last thing they considered was that indecision was shaping their leadership.

That same rationalisation shows up in familiar ways. If you recognise any of these, you’ve seen how easy it is to talk yourself into standing still.

Fear of Being Wrong

• You keep looking for one more data point that will make the decision 'safe'.
• You replay possible mistakes in your head more than potential gains.
• You delay so long that not deciding feels less risky than choosing.

Avoiding Conflict and Discomfort

• You shun the obvious decision because of the short-term pain it will cause.
• You focus on seeking agreement to keep stakeholders on board rather than deciding.
• You get caught up in how the decision feels, more than in what it will do for the people involved.

Lost in Uncertainty and Information

• You spend hours trying to second-guess how the future will play out.
• You have so much information to hand you can't decide which parts are the most relevant.
• You keep returning to the same line: “I need more data” as a reason not to decide.

When Your Culture Rewards Hesitation

• You spend more time preparing to present your options rather than acting on them.
• You seek information to support the current situation instead of exploring alternative paths.
• You refine your slide deck to showcase your position, knowing that’s what your boss will value, and delay making the call.

When you see these patterns in yourself, it’s tempting to judge them. It’s more useful to treat them as signals.

The next step is learning how to move through indecision without pretending the fear, conflict, or uncertainty isn’t there.

How to Move When You’d Rather Stay on the Fence

When you find yourself rationalising indecision, it's a signal to move.

Indecision keeps you stuck replaying what might go wrong instead of taking a small step.

To break that habit, you need something simple you can lean on in the moment.

Using Questions to Break Indecision

Questions force you to pause and think.

When you ask them deliberately, they become a point of action instead of more delay.

• "What outcome am I actually aiming for here?"
• "What information am I waiting for – and what would I do differently if I had it?"
• "Is this a reversible decision or not?"
• "What am I afraid will happen if I decide now?"
• "What is the next concrete step I can take?"
• "How could I test this choice on a small scale before committing?"

Each question brings more clarity about the decision itself. They remind you what you're deciding and why.

They also shrink big, intimidating decisions into smaller steps you can actually take.

Become confident using these questions yourself. The bigger challenge is building a team environment where indecision doesn’t quietly become the norm.

Reducing Indecision in Your Team

The same habit of indecision appears in teams, and it's often driven by the same reasons, too.

As you’ve seen, you can help your team move from indecision to decisiveness.

As a leader, these simple habits come from you:

• Start meetings by naming “the decision we’re here to make.”
• Make the decision ownership explicit.
• Limit revisiting decisions without new information.
• Normalise asking “what’s making us hesitate?” out loud.

Just as you can ask yourself questions to bring clarity to the decision, you can do the same with your team.

Removing confusion also creates safety: people understand the decision, their role, and what matters.

Indecision thrives in vagueness, and it shrinks in clear, honest environments. Ultimately, that comes back to how you choose to relate to indecision yourself.

The Decision You’re Stuck On Now

There is always at least one decision in your leadership that you’re stuck on. You probably felt it in the back of your mind as you read this.

Remember: indecision is a pattern of not deciding when a choice is needed.

The shift is from that pattern to one small, intentional move.

To give this some momentum, ask yourself:

• “Which decision have you delayed three times already?”
• “What are you waiting for that you’re unlikely to get?”
• “What is the smallest step you’re willing to decide on today?”

If you want to explore what happens when decisions are left unmade over time, you can read my separate piece on that.

Here, the invitation is simpler: notice where indecision is creeping into your leadership, and choose to move.