Making Decisions Under Pressure: Advice for Senior Leaders
Senior leaders often have to make important decisions under a lot of stress in high-stakes situations. Being able to stay calm and make decisions is a sign of good leadership, whether you’re dealing with a financial crisis, a threat from a competitor, or a major change in the organization.
The Science of Making Decisions When You’re Stressed
When you’re under pressure, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode, which can make it hard to think clearly. Leaders can come up with ways to stay focused and make good choices if they know how stress affects the brain.
Important ways that stress affects decision-making
Stress can make you less aware of your surroundings, which can cause you to miss chances or ignore risks.
Emotional Bias: Strong feelings can make it harder to make good decisions and make you act on impulse.
Cognitive Overload: Too much stress can use up mental resources, making it harder to think clearly.
Ways to Make Good Decisions When You’re Under Pressure
Take a break and think about it:
Take a moment to get more information and think about what to do.
Don’t react right away unless the situation calls for it.
Put clarity first:
Take big problems and break them down into smaller, easier-to-handle parts.
Instead of trying to do everything at once, focus on the most important goals.
Use Your Team:
Get different points of view by involving trusted advisors or team members.
Give some of your tasks to someone else to lighten your load and make things run more smoothly.
Stick to Your Principles and Values:
Use the organization’s core values as a guide for making choices.
Choose things that will help you reach your long-term goals instead of short-term fixes.
Plan for different scenarios:
Do “what if” exercises to practice making decisions under pressure in case of a crisis.
Lessons from Senior Leaders in the Real World
Jeff Bezos (Amazon): Bezos’s “two-way door” method sets apart decisions that can be changed from those that can’t, pushing people to act quickly on the first and think carefully about the second.
Angela Merkel, who used to be the Chancellor of Germany, is an example of measured leadership because she stayed calm and relied on expert advice during crises like the European debt crisis.
Final Thoughts
You can get better at making decisions under pressure by practicing, getting ready, and being aware of yourself. Senior leaders can turn crises into chances for growth and change by staying grounded and using the resources they have.
Johanes Lim, PhD, CPC, CHt (林泰義)
Financial Doctor and Turnaround Specialist for Family Businesses and The BOD Forum Across ASEAN
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