When a decision does not come, most executives reach for more pressure. More analysis, expectation, and forcing themselves to think their way to certainty. Organizational psychologist Dr. Kisha S. Jones says that pressure is why the clarity never arrives. “Clarity rarely comes from pressure. It comes from alignment,” she says. The overthinking leader is usually not short on information or intelligence. They are trying to decide against themselves, weighing a call by external standards, by what will look right or avoid criticism, rather than by their own values and priorities.
Jones, a management professor and executive coach who works with accomplished leaders, has found that the shift to decisiveness is not about thinking harder. It is about deciding in line with who you actually are. This is what is meant when she says that a leader must stop performing leadership and start leading as themselves.
The Overthinking Is a Sign You Are Deciding From Pressure
Overthinking is easy to mistake for diligence. It looks careful and sounds responsible, like wanting to be sure before committing. Jones reframes it as evidence that a leader is deciding from external pressure rather than internal alignment. The tell is how the decision feels. A choice made under pressure stays heavy no matter how long it is analyzed, because more analysis cannot resolve a conflict between what a leader thinks they should do and what they actually believe.
“When your decisions reflect your real values and priorities, deciding gets lighter,” Jones says. The weight of a decision that will not lift is often not a sign that more thinking is needed. It is a sign the decision is being measured against the wrong standard.
Performing Leadership Is What Makes It Exhausting
Much of what drains executives is not the decisions themselves but the performance surrounding them. Jones observes that many leaders have been conditioned to override their own instincts and keep performing a version of leadership, no matter the internal cost. That performance is unsustainable. “The more you ignore your own read, the harder it becomes to lead with conviction,” Jones says.
Conviction is drawn from a leader’s own judgment, so a leader who habitually overrides that judgment is draining the very source of their authority. Leading as yourself is not a matter of authenticity for its own sake; it is what keeps leadership grounded and sustainable. A decision that aligns with a leader’s real values does not require the constant energy that maintaining a performance demands.
Action Aligned With Values Is What Builds Confidence
Leaders often wait to feel certain before they act, Jones notes, when confidence works the other way around. “Confidence is usually built after the step, not before it,” she says. Decisive leaders move with wisdom while the fear is still present rather than waiting for it to disappear.
What matters is that the step is aligned rather than merely fast. Each time a leader makes a call that reflects their values and follows through, they build evidence that their own judgment can be trusted. The path out of overthinking is not more discipline applied to thinking. It is reconnecting with the judgment and values a leader has been trained to override, letting decisions flow from alignment instead of pressure, and acting before the certainty arrives, because alignment is what makes the certainty possible.
Decisive leadership, in Jones’s account, is not a sharper way of thinking. It is what happens when a leader stops deciding against themselves. To learn more about moving from overthinking to decisive leadership, connect with Dr. Kisha S. Jones on LinkedIn.
