Clarity Usually Arrives Before the Decision

Most leaders believe clarity comes after a decision.

Choose a direction. Commit. Move.

That sequence feels logical.

In practice, clarity often arrives earlier, quietly, before any choice is made.

It shows up as a tension you cannot ignore. A sense that the current frame no longer holds. A recognition that something wants to shift, even if the shape of that shift is not yet visible.

This moment is easily missed.

Especially when:

• performance is strong

• momentum continues

• options remain available

• external signals look positive

Clarity does not always announce itself as certainty.

More often, it arrives as discomfort with what once felt settled.

That discomfort is not confusion. It is discernment forming.

Many leaders rush past this stage. They translate unease into urgency. They convert early clarity into premature action.

The result is movement without alignment.

The most effective leaders do something different.

They stay with the signal long enough for judgement to mature. They allow clarity to deepen before committing it to action. They treat the pause as part of performance, not an interruption to it.

Clarity is not the outcome of a decision. It is the condition that makes greater decisions possible.

That condition deserves space.

Kind Regards Alan Branagh