In a recent LinkedIn post, Leanne Bridges delves into the challenging scenario where a hiring manager’s desired candidate sparks a nagging doubt in a senior leader, despite the candidate appearing strong on paper. Bridges highlights the internal conflict leaders face when their intuition clashes with their manager’s enthusiasm, especially after fostering autonomy in their team.
Bridges outlines the dilemma: speaking up risks being perceived as micromanagement, while remaining silent could lead to a costly mis-hire. She notes the temptation to defer to the hiring manager’s greater interaction with the candidate, questioning one’s own judgment.
“But you’ve got a nagging doubt you can’t pin down, and you’re torn.”
The Data Hidden in ‘Gut Feeling’
A core argument from Leanne Bridges is that this ‘nagging doubt’ is rarely unfounded. Instead, it often represents subconscious data collection from experienced individuals. As Bridges explains, years of interviewing allow leaders to pick up on subtle cues that might be missed by others.
Identifying Subtle Red Flags
According to Bridges, these cues can manifest in various ways:
- The candidate’s tone of voice.
- How they discuss their previous employer.
- Inconsistencies or vagueness on their CV.
- Answers that sound rehearsed rather than genuine.
The difficulty, Bridges points out, lies in articulating these specific observations. The reluctance to voice a concern without concrete evidence often leads to the intuition being dismissed.
“You don’t want to be difficult. It’s just that you can’t quite put your finger on the problem, and you don’t want to be the one saying ‘I just don’t think they’re right’ with nothing solid behind it.”
Bridging the Gap Between Instinct and Articulation
Leanne Bridges emphasizes that the real challenge isn’t having the gut feeling, but translating it into a defensible, specific critique. She argues that current business structures often lack a standardized approach to evaluating candidates beyond surface-level qualifications and interview performance. This leaves hiring decisions reliant on subjective ‘gut feel,’ which is difficult to justify objectively.
“The thing that would actually settle it is being able to take ‘something’s off’ and turn it into the specific things you saw. So it becomes a real discussion, instead of one gut feeling against another.”
Bridges suggests that this process of converting instinct into specific, actionable feedback is a learnable skill. Many business leaders, she observes, have simply not been trained or shown how to effectively analyze and articulate these subtle hiring concerns. By developing this ability, leaders can move beyond subjective hunches to make more informed decisions, potentially preventing significant financial and operational mis-hires.
“But your gut isn’t being vague. It clocked something specific. You just haven’t pulled it into words yet. Do that, and it stops being an instinct you can’t defend.”
Ultimately, Leanne Bridges’s insights on LinkedIn underscore the importance of trusting and developing one’s intuition in the hiring process, provided it can be substantiated with specific observations, thereby safeguarding against costly mistakes.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Leanne Bridges on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on June 25, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →