Hesitate then speak following good person (7)
I believe the answer is:
stutter
'hesitate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'speak following good person' is the wordplay.
'speak' becomes 'utter' (synonyms).
'following' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'good person' becomes 'st' (saint).
'utter' put after 'st' is 'STUTTER'.
'then' is the link.
(Other definitions for stutter that I've seen before include "Hesitation in speech over first consonants" , "Stammer" , "s...say?" , "Speech defect in repeating first consonants of words" , "Falter" .)