Decision making for leaders: How to make better decisions at work under pressure

Why decision making feels harder than it should

When I tell people that I use coaching and therapy to help business leaders improve their decision making at work, I usually get one of two responses.

“I’m terrible at making decisions,” or,
“I’m an executive/CEO/entrepreneur… I think I’m doing just fine.”

But if we talk a little more closely, most come to realise there is more going on beneath the surface.

We often say we make decisions “from the gut”, and that can be incredibly useful - if your gut instinct is working from accurate, up-to-date information.

The challenge is that what we call intuition is not as simple as it feels.

How gut instinct is formed in decision making

What we experience as a feeling is usually the result of the brain quickly filtering past experiences, beliefs and emotional responses, then presenting a conclusion.

It’s efficient. It keeps us moving.

But it isn’t always reliable.

I’d like to say this process has always worked perfectly for me, but it hasn’t. Like most people, I’ve made decisions that had far-reaching consequences.

Over time, I became more interested in understanding why.

Decision making is something I work on with almost every leader I see, because when it improves, everything else tends to follow both at work and at home.

How past experiences influence leadership decisions

Imagine your brain as a filing system of past experiences.

When you’re faced with a decision, it quickly searches for relevant evidence. But “relevant” doesn’t always mean current or accurate.

I worked with a senior leader who was encouraged to apply for a promotion. On paper, she was an excellent fit.

Yet she felt unable to go for it.

As we explored it further, she remembered a comment from years earlier - a colleague saying, “I hate you, you’re so organised.”

The context had long gone, but the emotional impact remained.

Her brain had stored it as evidence, and was now using it to shape a present-day decision.

Why decision making becomes harder under pressure

The brain filters an enormous amount of information every second, reducing it to a small number of things we consciously notice.

To do that, it relies on shortcuts , old patterns built from past experience.

Under pressure, or when the stakes are higher, those shortcuts become more dominant.

This is where decision making starts to feel unclear, even when logically it shouldn’t.

How to improve decision making as a leader

The goal isn’t to ignore instinct or force purely logical decisions.

It’s to understand what is informing your instinct in the first place.

When you begin to recognise which patterns are still relevant and which are outdated, decisions become clearer, more grounded, and more reflective of your current reality.

A more effective approach to decision making

When leaders take the time to examine both the internal and external drivers behind a decision, something shifts.

They move from reacting based on past patterns to making deliberate, informed choices.

And that has a direct impact on performance, relationships and the direction they take.

If you want to improve your decision making, sometimes it’s less about learning something new, and more about understanding what is already influencing you.