This is a great question. It’s one that probably crosses our mind on a regular basis. There are two factors: Personality and Experience.
As a few of the above answers state, there are different personality characteristics, or what has been labeled as Strengths by The Gallup Organization.
People who tend to be naturally Strategic or Deliberative tend to process the potential scenarios before making a move. Those that appear to ‘wing it’, often are strong with the Activator Strength, and possibly Achiever.
While all of these characteristics often end up with the same result, the processes taken can look very different. When any of these Strengths are overused, they become a weakness.
One of my top Strengths is Activator. Like @Coloma, I tend to want to accomplish a task as soon as it has my attention. In some cases, it works. It can even be very effective. In others, it is really not the right time. Maybe an important step is skipped or it isn’t the right time. People who are Strategic map out all of the right steps, but gee, sometimes the result gets dragged out. I’ve found that by working with someone who has a Strength that counter-balances mine, we end up with an effective and punctual plan/result.
The other factor is that some people can act more quickly purely based upon applying previous experiences. Let’s say that you and a friend travel to a country that neither of you have been to before. The city where you are staying has a metro system. One of you has used a similar system in another city and has no fear of getting on it and using the maps on the train to find the desired destination. The other wants to learn about it on the internet before entering a station. Thus, the confidence level comes into play, even if it may result in a mistake.
It all comes down to communication, doesn’t it? It’s just a matter of letting the other person know when a possible decision is outside of the comfort zone and agreeing on how to handle it. This works in both professional and personal scenarios.
And now I am curious…what brought on this question?