Making Decision Under Pressure

Business owners who are spooked by today’s challenging trading conditions are in danger of making a bad situation worse if they allow fear to dominate their thinking. Our brains can cause us to become stuck in the “fight, flight or freeze” state, hampering our thinking and often prompting behaviour which is inappropriate or even damaging to a business.

The current economic downturn has prompted company bosses to order smaller batches of stock, experiment with deep discounting and cut costs at precisely the time when very different actions may in fact be needed – and it’s all down to a pre-historic location in our brain called the Amygdala.

These tiny, almond-sized parts of our temporal lobe play a key role in dictating our instinctive emotional reactions. In one moment it can change a relaxed brain to one that is “frozen” with fear, effectively crippling our intellectual capacity and making it impossible to think in a positive, mature and free-flowing way.

Many people will recognise this as the cramping of their brains before they make a presentation, or on receipt of bad news such as a cancelled order. But while in such a state of lockdown, the brain cannot function.

These are four commonly-used steps to train your brain and change its habitual response.

RELABEL
The first step is to relabel a negative or threatening thought or feeling as something else, usually something positive or at least benign. By doing this you can acknowledge that your fear is a function of a prehistoric part of your brain and not that of a highly functioning adult human being.

REATTRIBUTE
You need then to reattribute these false signals to something, and not to what your brain THINKS is the cause. When fear strikes, acknowledge it as a physical process taking place in your brain. There is nothing at that moment that you can do to stop it altogether, but you can attribute it to a malfunctioning or over-sensitive chemical reaction in your brain which prompts the fight, flight or freeze response. It is caused by a reptilian, prehistoric part of the brain which is misinterpreting your current environment.

REFOCUS
This is the crucial step because eventually this will enable you to move on from this state of paralysing fear and into a more positive, calm state of mind. It involves replacing the fear with a more pleasant sensation, usually by doing something else, if only for a few minutes. Playing a favourite song, go for a walk or do some exercise. Say to yourself “I am experiencing irrational fear, I need to do something else” and take control of the situation.

REVALUE
After a period of weeks or months of practising, the fourth step should come more easily, and that is to revalue the negative feelings as worthless - an unnecessary distraction that is detracting from your life and your natural abilities. By revaluing the fears or urges as worthless, they lose impact and stop controlling your behaviour. The result is a happier, more confident individual who is no longer controlled by a prehistoric survival instinct that has very value in a working or business environment.

OTHER STEPS
There are other techniques that include meditation, most specifically Mindfulness, which helps the brain stay in the present and not get distracted or locked down by invisible fears.