I have never needed help creating momentum.
I have needed to learn when my momentum was becoming someone else’s pressure.
I am not naturally wired to move slowly.
I make decisions quickly. When I see an opportunity, I want to act on it. When I see a problem, I want to solve it. When I believe something matters, I do not casually stroll toward it.
That sense of urgency has served me well in the military, business, recruiting, and leadership.
It has also taught me that one of the hardest things for a high-urgency leader to manage is not the work.
It is our own momentum.
During a recent search, a candidate told me he had other opportunities and needed to make a decision quickly.
He was a strong candidate, and we did not want to lose the opportunity simply because we failed to respond. Based on the timeline he gave me, I moved.
We had another conversation over the weekend. I involved members of our leadership team. Calendars were rearranged, conversations were scheduled, and we worked to give him the information he needed.
From my perspective, we were being responsive.
Then he told me the speed of our process made him a little leery.
We believed we were moving quickly because he told us time mattered. Whether the timeline had changed or we understood it differently, that was no longer the most important part of the conversation.
The most important part was recognizing that I wanted a decision.
My natural instinct was to keep the process moving until I had one. We had invested time. Our leadership team had become involved. We believed he could be a great addition.
Everything in me wanted to maintain the momentum we had created.
That was the moment I needed to control it.
I told him there was no pressure to make a decision on our behalf. We had moved quickly because we believed his other opportunities had created urgency.
I encouraged him to explore those options.
If our opportunity was still part of the bigger picture afterward, he could call me. Regardless of his decision, I wanted him to remain part of my network and know that he would continue to have my ear if another conversation needed to happen.
I still wanted an answer.
I just had to recognize that wanting a decision did not make the decision mine to control.
That is an important distinction in leadership.
Creating momentum is often our responsibility.
Deciding how quickly everyone else must move is not.
Earlier this week, I wrote about giving my father CPR while my mother stood nearby, overwhelmed by what was happening. I needed her to call 911. There was no time to wait, but panic would not have helped either of us.
That situation required immediate movement and one clear direction.
Hiring is different.
Open positions matter. Candidates have other options. Hiring managers need answers. Work continues to accumulate while a seat remains empty.
There is legitimate urgency.
But every urgent situation is not an emergency, and every person involved does not automatically share our pace.
I experienced another version of that lesson while adding a recruiter to my team.
We needed additional capacity, but adding capacity did not immediately create it. Training required time, attention, and patience from everyone who was already waiting for help.
The temptation was to hand over a list of requisitions and start measuring activity.
The better decision was to slow down long enough to create clarity, establish expectations, and build a system that would eventually make the entire team more effective.
In one situation, I had to create movement.
In another, I had to invest time before expecting movement.
With the candidate, I had to recognize when my movement was beginning to feel like pressure.
That is where Purpose, Alignment, Trust, and Hire become more than words in a framework.
Purpose asks why we are moving quickly in the first place.
Alignment confirms that everyone still understands the timeline, expectations, and destination.
Trust gives people permission to say when something has changed or when the pace no longer feels right.
Hire should be the result of those things working together. It should not be the result of pushing until someone finally gives us an answer.
Momentum is not the problem.
Unexamined momentum is.
Sometimes leadership requires us to push through hesitation, remove obstacles, and help people take the next necessary step.
Sometimes leadership requires enough self-awareness to recognize that the obstacle may be our own pace.
The question is not simply whether we can move faster.
The question is whether moving faster is still helping everyone make the right decision.
That is the difference between directing urgency and creating pressure.
Sometimes the strongest move a leader can make is controlling their own momentum long enough to give someone else room to think.
Where might your natural pace be helping your team move forward, and where might it be creating pressure they have not told you about yet?
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