When an important decision must be made in a high-pressure situation, it is natural to worry about making a “bad” or “wrong” decision. Most people prefer to have sufficient time to analyze a situation and consider the alternatives. In a high-pressure situation, however, time is often a luxury they cannot afford. In the workplace, people are often expected to make good decisions in a very short space of time.
Some of the best decisions, however, are made under pressure. Pressure can result in focused attention and the use of unconscious reasoning. It can force a decision-maker to sort the relevant factors from the irrelevant, and can result in clear thinking with unambiguous priorities. There are several practices which can serve decision-makers under pressure well.

What You Need to Know
When put under pressure, I tend to become overwhelmed by the risk of making the “wrong” decision. How can I overcome this? Many people react to a pressure situation by running through all the potential disaster scenarios if a bad decision is made. This will cloud your thinking and adds yet more pressure to your decision-making. Try to overcome this response by focusing on the relevant information and putting the rest aside. Tell yourself you can mull it over later—but for now you must prioritize and focus on the key factors.

Should I rely on my gut instinct when making decisions under pressure?
There are times when instincts can serve you very well. This is especially true if you have a long track record of dealing with similar situations. It is always important to balance instinct by considering any extenuating circumstances, however. Be sure to remain open to any new information before impulsively following your instincts.

What to Do- Build Your Decision-making Competence
While some people are naturally better decision-makers than others, decision-making is a skill that can be learned and improved. There are many tools that help the decision-making process. They range from decision trees, to help identify the pros and cons of different solutions, to a force field analysis in which the pressures for and against change are highlighted and weighted. These techniques are most useful when tempered by experience or moderated by a feeling of what will work and what will not.

The following techniques can help improve decision-making skills, especially when called upon to make decisions under pressure.

Anticipate and Rehearse Scenarios
To avoid serious errors in future, high-pressure decision scenarios, think ahead, anticipating and rehearsing various scenarios before they occur. This is a common technique for emergency services personnel when role-playing crises and other serious situations. Everything is enacted as if it is really happening, so that the parties involved gain experience making good decisions under pressure. Then, when a serious situation occurs in reality, everyone is better equipped to make decisions rapidly and effectively.

Conduct a Risk Analysis
Another valuable activity that can improve decision-making is to undertake a risk analysis of potential threats or issues before the need for any reactive decision arises. This process not only yields the benefit of being better prepared to respond to the analyzed threats, it may also help to identify ways in which some threats can be reduced or eliminated.

Discard Irrelevant Facts
It is easy to become overwhelmed by information in crisis situations. Typically, there are only one or two critical facts upon which the decision rests. Avoid getting distracted by factors that are irrelevant to the current decision—discard information that is clouding your judgement. Answering the question “Is this critical now?” will enable you to identify and reject elements of the situation that do not warrant urgent attention, thus advancing to the core of the problem more rapidly.

Weigh Options
It sometimes helps to apply weightings or scores to the available options, to better identify the most suitable decisions. In a high-pressure situation, this may have to be a mental exercise—though putting it in writing can be helpful. This activity can bring focus to a muddled or chaotic situation and help highlight the best decision.

Talk Through the Decision
To ensure that nothing has been overlooked, check your logic with a trusted or experienced colleague. The exercise of articulating your decision process to someone else often helps to further clarify your rationale and cement your decision.