The First Steps to Better Decision Making

Adults make tens of thousands of decisions a day – up to 50,000 according to some research. Many of these decisions are unconscious ones, like where to place your car keys when returning home or how hot you set the shower temperature.

Too many decisions, however, in both the workplace and in our professional lives, are made under emotional duress. When this happens, the rational control center of our brain is no longer in charge, having been replaced by the emotional control center.

What causes this to happen? Mostly stress and anxiety, though other emotions such as anger, giddiness, frustration, pride, disappointment, and elation can also be the cause of what Daniel Goleman labeled emotional hijacking.

This is true in both our personal and professional lives. I am sure you have experienced situations in your personal life where you said to yourself, “I was so angry I couldn’t think straight.” That’s an example of an emotional hijacking in play.

From a workplace perspective, stress, anxiety, pressure, deadlines, tiredness, and relationships with co-workers can all lead to various levels of emotional hijacking. Another major cause, here in the first half of 2020, is the pandemic-influenced shelter-in-place rules creating a significant amount of prolonged stress for a significant portion of the world’s population.

Neuroscientists are fully aware of the adverse effects of prolonged stress on the brain’s self-regulation control center. Unfortunately, more of us are going to learn about this as we hear about, or personally experience, the increases in alcohol abuse, binge eating, and domestic abuse that are a sizeable side effect of these pandemic policies.

Become a First Responder Decision Maker

When it comes to making better decisions, and creating better outcomes, I encourage you to become a First Responder, rather than a First Reactor, to situations, people, and events.

Here’s what I mean by that. Decades ago, I learned to scuba dive and was certified as a Rescue Diver. The first thing taught in the Rescue Diver certification program is to “respond, not react.” There is no point in reacting and immediately jumping into the water when we hear a cry for help.

Instead, we get trained to assess the situation first to see what dangers might be lurking (sharks, strong currents, floating fishing nets, etc.). Then, once we know we won’t be putting ourselves, or others, in danger – and once we have ensured we have all of the appropriate gear with us – do we jump into the water and head toward the struggling person. All this takes only a handful of seconds, but it prevents additional problems from cropping up. EMTs and others are trained to do the same, which is why they are called First Responders.

This is what we all need to do in today’s world. Pause, assess the situation, and then respond, rather than react. There is too much pressure, particularly in the workplace, for fast decisions. Leaders at all levels of organizations are often compelled to make snap decisions in First Reactor mode, rather than better, more optimal decisions in First Responder mode.

So the first step to better decision making — and better outcomes — is to make the conscious and purposeful decision not to get emotionally hijacked by your overloaded brain, in order to move into a rational thinking mode.

Ill-Equipped Leaders

Leaders in the workplace are poorly equipped to understand how stress impacts their decision making, much less the impact of stress on the decisions of their direct reports and colleagues. This is not the kind of topic discussed in leadership training programs, or around the company conference table.

Unfortunately, the situation will become worse when people return to their offices and workplaces full of anxiety, increased pressure to make up for lost time, higher stress levels, and uncertainty around how to make decisions in a volatile and unfamiliar post-pandemic world. 

This is why I developed our one-day workshop on Better Decision Making: Shifting from Mind Full to Mindful Leadership. This program is an excellent post-pandemic re-bonding opportunity for leaders and management teams. It will teach them new techniques and tactics for handling stress in the workplace and preventing stress from negatively impacting their decision-making processes. Contact me today to discuss how to bring these critical best practices into your organization, or into your personal leadership skillset.

Thanks for reading and thinking about these critical workplace issues.