A nagging gut feeling almost got brushed aside under deadline pressure. Learning to treat that hesitation as an early-warning light, rather than a personal failing, changed how my team and I make decisions.
The shadow of uncertainty
I was staring at the brief on my screen, and my mind was tumbling with uncertainty. When I wrote it, straight after a client jam session, I’d felt confident and assured about the direction. But a couple of points just hadn’t sat right with me. I couldn’t say why; on paper they made sense.
Then a meeting with our dev and architect team confirmed that gut feeling and flagged the same areas of concern. Now the rest of the team were messaging me for direction and clarity, and I didn’t have all the answers yet. Before I could spiral into negative thinking, doubting my own worth over a few technical tweaks, I gave myself a moment to pause. Why was the doubt there? What was it telling me? And how could I use it as a pivot point to explore new, possibly exciting avenues we hadn’t yet considered?
The warning light: hesitation as a diagnostic
I’d ignored the sage old “trust your gut” mantra, the one I always tell the team to follow, and normally follow myself. We’d rushed this project through under pressure to get the docs out, so I brushed the feeling off with the excuse that “it made sense” and there was no obvious cause for the unease.
That was the mistake. That feeling is an early-warning light: it tells you something isn’t quite right and needs checking. The response isn’t to panic or to push through; it’s to pause, assess, examine, and gather more information.
Testing the dam wall: how questioning strengthens your systems
Switching to do-not-disturb mode for an hour gave me the space to sit with the “why,” which usually opens up into the “what” and the “how.” Finding the cracks in a system before they break the whole chain is critical to a project’s success.
I dug into the points our dev and architect had raised, did some research, and went on a bit of a fact-finding tour. I’ve learned you can’t just take the first option; you have to open the gates and examine the problem from every angle. Even a seemingly unrelated path can turn up treasure in the strangest place. After some deep research and honest reflection, I’d identified a few different routes we could take, and some potential fixes.
Opening the floor: from personal hesitation to shared dialogue
With my findings in hand, I called the team together for a quick connect. The wonderful thing about a team is that you’re never alone. I gave them a short debrief on the meeting, the flagged concerns, and the possible outcomes I’d found.
I knew we wouldn’t solve everything in a 30-minute call, but I wanted their minds on it too, a chance to start processing and imagining different outcomes. Every group has its range of personality types, which is exactly why these quick debriefs work: they give the instant-idea people room to share, while keeping the arena open enough that those who need longer to think can contribute later in the follow-up session or by text. Everyone communicates differently and has their own strengths. I find every idea valuable, even the ones we don’t use – a suggestion set aside today may be the answer to a different challenge tomorrow.
The compass of curiosity: leading with an open mind
In a leadership position, you do need to give direction; you can’t be the one floundering the whole time. But I’ve found that staying open and a little vulnerable with my team has helped us collaborate and explore exciting ideas together. It gives them the space to be curious and to bring adventurous new ways of thinking to the table. Coming to them with a few paths we could pursue points to the outcome we’re after without locking in the route, so we can explore and find the way together.
Turn doubt into a diagnostic: a 5-step practice
- Name the feeling, don’t bury it. When something “doesn’t sit right,” treat it as data, not weakness.
- Protect a strategic pause. Block an hour on do-not-disturb to sit with the “why” before you react.
- Trace the crack. Investigate the specific concern from every angle, including the ones that seem unrelated.
- Bring options, not orders. Come to your team with two or three possible routes – direction without locking the path.
- Run a short debrief, then leave the door open. A 30-minute connect suits fast thinkers; follow-ups and text suit reflective ones. Capture every idea, even for a future project.
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