🪵 Don't rush to fix it

There are subtle shifts in energy, behavior, and tone that show up before leadership challenges fully form.

Noticing them is the first step. What you do after that can be tricky.

What do you do in that moment when a leader brings you something unclear, emotional, or unfinished?

Most HR and talent leaders (and people) feel an immediate pull to help.

We clarify.
We interpret.
We offer solutions.
We try to reduce uncertainty as quickly as possible.

And it makes sense. Supporting people is the job.

But lately, I’ve been noticing something in my own leadership conversations:

Many of us aren’t actually responding to the problem itself.
We’re responding to discomfort.
Sometimes it’s our discomfort.

When something feels ambiguous. When there’s a shift in tone or tension in a conversation. When there’s a leader who seems ‘off’ We move quickly to create clarity. We try to make meaning fast.

Sometimes we move faster than the moment needs.

✨ Why this matters

Most leadership strain doesn’t come from a lack of solutions.

It comes from a lack of space.

When conversations speed up, people lose room to think out loud.
When interpretation comes too quickly, autonomy shrinks.
When silence disappears, reflection disappears with it.

HR leaders sit in these moments every day.

A manager says:
“I think my team is frustrated with me.”

And the instinct is to help immediately: offer perspective, explain dynamics, suggest next steps.

But often, what leaders need first isn’t direction. What they need is time to process what they’re actually experiencing.

Something subtle happens when we slow the pace instead of solving the problem:

People think more clearly.
Emotions regulate naturally.
Ownership returns to the person experiencing the challenge.

You don’t have to carry everything.

Support doesn’t always mean moving faster. Sometimes it means giving yourself and others the chance to really breathe.

🔥 Something to share

Here’s a simple practice you can introduce to managers—or try yourself—this week.

The Slow Response Practice:

In moments of tension, ambiguity, or emotional weight…

1. Pause for five seconds before responding.

2. Ask one clarifying question before offering interpretation. (For example: “What feels most unclear about this right now?”)

3. Allow one moment of silence without filling it.

It can feel uncomfortable at first. Many of us rush to resolve silence because uncertainty feels like something we need to fix.

But slowing down changes the conversation.

You don’t need to become calmer. You often just need to become slower.

Over time, this teaches leaders and teams that uncertainty isn’t danger, and that conversations don’t need immediate resolution to be productive.

🔦 What we’re hearing

Across organizations, HR leaders are sharing things like:

“I feel pressure to have answers right away.”
“If I don’t help solve it, I feel like I’m not supporting them.”
“Our managers move quickly to conclusions when something feels off.”

What many leaders are actually experiencing isn’t a capability gap. It’s a pacing problem.

When uncertainty shows up, we compress time. We can move quickly to interpret, make decisions, or control narratives before people have space to fully understand what’s happening.

Speeding things up like that often makes leadership feel heavier than it needs to be.

Just. Slow. Down.

Final thought: Leadership development is often framed as learning what to say or do.

But some of the most meaningful change happens when leaders learn how to slow the relational moments down.

When HR leaders model patience with ambiguity. When you pause and ask questions instead of jumping to conclusions. When you allow space and give yourself a chance to breathe, that’s when conversations can start to change for you. It creates ripples across the entire organization.

Steadiness isn’t created by faster answers. It’s created by giving people enough space to find clarity themselves.

Warmly,
Steve

Sent from Campfire—a hub for developing leaders at scale.