The Person Who Hesitates Might Be Your Best Leader — Not Your Worst Bet
HBR research argues that hesitating to step into leadership is often the more mature response, and that eagerness alone says little about whether someone is ready.
Prompted by “Is Reluctance to Step into Leadership a Sign of Maturity or a Red Flag?”, HBR.
Most companies promote the person who raises their hand fastest and reads anyone who hesitates as lacking the drive to lead. This research makes the opposite case: hesitation is often the more mature response, and eagerness alone tells you almost nothing about whether someone is actually ready.
The authors' example is a startup CEO trying to promote a star developer into a leadership role. The developer isn't resisting out of fear — she's accurately weighing that the job would trade away the deep technical work she loves for people management she's genuinely unsure she wants. The CEO's instinct was to read that as a red flag. The better move was to ask why, specifically, before deciding anything.
What if the person hesitating is you?
For an owner-operator, this cuts both ways. You're often the one deciding who steps up next — and you're also, at some point, the person who hesitated before taking on this whole company in the first place. The same seven questions that help you evaluate someone else's reluctance are worth running on your own, the next time you're the one dragging your feet on a decision you can't quite name why you're avoiding.
Test it out: think of one person on your team who's hesitated when you offered them more responsibility. This week, ask them directly what's actually behind it — not to talk them into it, just to find out whether it's a skills gap, a values mismatch, or something you could actually fix. Don't fill the silence while they answer.
Working out what is behind a hesitation, yours or someone else's, is a lot of what 1:1 Coaching is for.
Looking for a place to discuss issues like this with other local business leaders? Join one of our no-cost Rochester CEO insight sessions and test your ideas with your peers.
Originally posted on LinkedIn ↗