Decision-Making Under Pressure

Welcome to Lesson 2 of 4 in Leadership Foundations. It takes about 15 minutes.

Leaders rarely get to decide with all the facts and plenty of time. Someone needs an answer now. This lesson gives you a short way to decide when the information is incomplete and the clock is running, and shows why a made decision usually beats waiting for a perfect one.

Scripture comes from the King James Version. This is a course for learning and practice, and it cannot promise particular results.

Since last time

Last time you chose a small action: noticing who copies your example, waiting five minutes when your trigger comes, or keeping one daily discipline for seven days.

Look back at the week. What did you try, and what did you notice? If you did not manage it, say so honestly and carry it into this week.

In this lesson you will

• Use five steps to decide under pressure: pause, facts, options, values, decide.
• Explain how asking for wisdom and keeping focus, as Scripture describes them, help us decide well.
• Make one real decision this week using the steps, and note what you learned.

Before you start

How true is each of these for you today, from 1 (not true) to 5 (very true)?

• Under pressure, I can stay calm enough to think.
• I make decisions instead of putting them off.
• I know what I will not do, whatever the pressure.

1. Ask before you answer

Under pressure most of us grab the nearest answer. For us who are in Christ, the first step is to ask.

James 1:5 (KJV) 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

God giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not: he does not scold us for asking. Asking for wisdom is not a way to avoid thinking; it is how we begin to think well. Dr. Paul Enenche teaches that wisdom is the route to becoming a person of influence: people trust leaders whose decisions prove wise, more than leaders who are merely quick.

Then ask for time. "I will give you an answer tomorrow at nine" is almost always possible. Real emergencies are rarer than they feel. Check where the urgency comes from: the situation, or one person's impatience?

Think about it: Which decision in front of you have you not yet stopped to pray or think about, even briefly?

Try this week: The next time someone presses you for an instant answer, ask for a specific later time and use it to think.

2. Five steps when time is short

You will rarely have every fact. Waiting for perfect information is itself a decision, often the worst one: the chance passes and others decide for you. A good decision made on time usually beats a perfect one made too late.

Five steps that fit in ten minutes:

1. Pause. Do not decide in the first rush of feeling.
2. Facts. What do I actually know? What am I guessing?
3. Options. At least three, including "do nothing yet".
4. Values. Which options can I take with a clear conscience?
5. Decide. Choose, name the first step, and set a time to review it.

Imagine a young team leader asked to choose which of two suppliers to keep after a price rise. She has half a day. She lists what she knows, three options and one question for a colleague who has done it before. By the afternoon she decides, and books a review in a month.

Think about it: Which decision have you been waiting on for more information you are unlikely to get?

Try this week: Take one decision you have been putting off and go through the five steps for it this week.

3. Know your work, and your lines

Some pressure is not about the decision at all. It pulls us away from what matters. Nehemiah, rebuilding a city wall, was invited again and again to stop and meet his enemies.

Nehemiah 6:3 (KJV) 3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. He knew what his work was, so the distraction was easy to name. Many choices under pressure are really one question: does this serve my main work, or pull me away from it?

Some lines are best decided long before anyone pushes: what you will never do for money or approval, and what you will say when asked. Have the words ready. You will still feel the pressure, but you will not have to reopen the question each time.

Think about it: What request or urgency is pulling you away from your main work right now?

Try this week: Write down one line you will not cross at work, and the exact words you would use to refuse.

Activities

Reflection

• Think of a decision you got wrong under pressure. Which of the five steps would have helped most?

Key takeaways

• Ask before you answer: for wisdom, and for time.
• A good decision on time usually beats a perfect one too late.
• Pause, facts, options, values, decide, and set a review.
• Know your main work and your lines before anyone pushes.

Your next step

You have finished Lesson 2. You are on the path of growth: you have a way to decide under pressure and one real decision to practise on.

These lessons help you lead yourself. To keep growing, KMA offers two next steps:

Mentorship. Grow with a KMA mentor who helps you lead in real situations and follows up with you on what you tried. See KMA's mentorship packages. See the mentorship packages

Or: the Leadership Track (monthly Learning membership). Prefer to learn on your own first? The Leadership Track turns leading yourself into leading others: pitching without a budget, solving real problems and building your network. See the Leadership Track