The meeting is wrapping up. Everyone’s looking at me for clear action items. That’s what leaders do, right?
Except I’m not clear. I don’t actually know the right next steps.
So, I hear myself say it: “Let me think about it and get back to you.”
Everyone nods. The meeting ends. We all move on.
And then… nothing happens.
Weeks later, someone asks about it. “Oh right, I need to get back to that.”
But I still haven’t because I never actually committed to anything.
The Problem with Vague Language
“Let me think about it” sounds responsible.
It’s not. It’s a placeholder that creates nothing actionable.
We all do this:
“I’ll get back to you next week.”
“Let me look into that.”
“I’ll have something for you soon.”
These phrases close the conversation loop. But there’s no deliverable, no timeline, no clear outcome. Just a mental note that gets buried under daily work.
Compare that to: “I’ll send you a clear plan by 2pm Thursday.” That creates clarity, urgency, and accountability in one stroke.
So why do we default to vague?
Why We Reach for the Escape Hatch
I think we use vague language because we’re not ready to commit.
Maybe we’ve got competing priorities and don’t know which deserves our time.
Maybe we genuinely don’t know what needs to happen next.
Maybe we realize this is our action item but aren’t comfortable committing and even less comfortable admitting we can’t.
So, we reach for the escape hatch: “I’ll think about it.”
It sounds better than “I have three other things that are more urgent” or “I don’t actually know what to do here” or “I’m not sure I can deliver what you’re asking for.”
But that escape hatch is the trap.
When we don’t voice our inability to commit, we pretend we have.
And nothing moves.
What This Actually Costs
And that lack of movement costs us.
Here’s a simple example of my not-so proud past:
We needed to find more ways to grow.
We all agreed we would focus on a specific industry for our software: higher education. Good strategic decision. Everyone nodded in agreement.
We decided to “create a GTM motion” for higher ed. That was the commitment that came out of the meeting.
But we didn’t assign who would own it. We didn’t define what “GTM motion” even meant. We didn’t set a timeline. We just knew we wanted “more sales” in higher ed.
Guess what happened?
The initiative kept resurfacing in meetings as “we should really do that.”
Sales tried to take some initiative, but without a clear directive from leadership and support from marketing or product, their efforts went nowhere. And it wasn’t even a real focus, it was an “add-on,” which meant dilution of effort across everything else.
The initial cost: lack of growth.
The Second Derivative Cost
Unfortunately, the “cost” of vagueness doesn’t stop with the failed initiative.
It grows like a cancer.
If the above example was a one-time situation, I could probably live with it.
The real issue was the vagueness perpetuated.
If we were lucky, the result would be frustration. Frustration would’ve meant we still cared.
Rather, the vagueness cancer morphed into apathy; resignation that yet another idea didn’t get implemented. Just another meeting that didn’t produce real action.
And when that pattern repeats enough times, something shifts in how we show up.
We stop investing real effort because we’ve learned most initiatives go nowhere.
We protect our time and energy because experience has taught us that commitments aren’t real.
Trust erodes. Not all at once, but gradually and quietly.
We stop believing our teammates will follow through.
We stop believing the team can actually execute.
We stop believing leadership means what it says.
And none of this shows up in a postmortem or retrospective.
When we never had anything concrete enough to measure in the first place, a postmortem isn’t convened.
We just keep having the same meeting, wondering why nothing changes.
And vagueness becomes the norm.
What To Do About It
First, acknowledge that vagueness exists.
We should always start with ourselves. What vague language are we using?
When we catch ourselves saying “I’ll get back to you” or “Let me think about it,” force the specificity: What exactly will we deliver? By when? Demand clarity.
Second, watch for it and demand the same.
When someone tells us, “I’ll have something for you soon,” ask: “What specifically will you send me, and by when?”
Here’s the harder part: when we catch ourselves reaching for vague language, pause and ask ourselves why. Are we not ready to commit? If so, why not? Competing priorities? Unclear on what’s needed? Uncomfortable with what’s being asked?
Say that instead. “I can’t commit to this right now because I have three other priorities. Can we talk about which one should move?” is infinitely more useful than “I’ll get to it.”
And make this explicit with the team. Tell them we’re working on using more specific language and ask them to call out when they hear vague commitments—from you or from anyone else.
By getting more specificity, at a minimum, we can better hold ourselves and others accountable. And, once we increase our accountability, we should see more results.
And that cost of vagueness can be a distant, albeit foggy, memory.
Key Takeaway
Vague language prevents commitment. “I’ll think about it” isn’t a commitment to deliver anything. “I’ll send you my analysis by Wednesday at 2pm” is.
Specificity creates accountability. Without it, we’re just having conversations that go nowhere while teams quietly learn that commitments don’t matter.
Before You Go
Your team is watching. Every vague commitment you make (or accept from others) teaches them that commitments don’t really matter.
Your next meeting is probably tomorrow. Don’t let another “I’ll get back to you” slip by without specificity. The cost compounds faster than you think.
If you want help building real commitment and clarity into how your team operates, we’d love to chat.
