Why We Make Poor Decisions Under Pressure and How to Restore Clarity
- 5 days ago
- 10 min read
Veronica Safoa Owusu is the founder of V-Power Coaching, and an Executive Recalibration Coach & Thinking Partner with over 30 years’ experience supporting leaders, CEOs and directors to expand their thinking field, align with mission, lead with presence and make trustworthy decisions in high-stakes environments.
In August 2012, Knight Capital lost over $460 million in less than an hour due to a trading software failure. Years earlier, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster revealed how communication breakdowns, pressure, and flawed decision-making can converge into irreversible outcomes, raising a deeper question about where decisions are truly formed.
In August 2012, Knight Capital, one of Wall Street’s major trading firms at the time, lost more than $460 million in approximately 45 minutes after a trading software incident and failures in risk controls.
Let that land for a moment. Less than an hour. A system. A deployment. A failure of oversight. A chain of assumptions, and almost half a billion dollars was gone.
How about this. In January 1986, NASA lost the Space Shuttle Challenger and its seven member crew. The Rogers Commission later described the decision to launch as flawed and highlighted serious concerns around communication, O ring risk, temperature, and management decision making.
We can call these technical failures, organisational failures. We can analyze the formalities, the warnings, the culture, the communication breakdowns, and the pressure surrounding the decisions.
Yes, all of that matters, but I want us to go a little deeper. Because behind every decision, there is a thinking field. In that field there are some unfavorable conditions. A field of pressure. A field of assumptions. A field of fear. A field of urgency. A field of identity. A field of culture. A field of presence, or the absence of it. This is where I believe the decision really begins, in that Thinking Field.
Where decisions really begin
Most of us have been trained to think decisions happen in boardrooms, meeting rooms, crisis rooms, courtrooms, or around kitchen tables when life gets real.
Yes, physically, decisions may happen there. But let’s pause. Take a breath with me here. What if the real decision is not born in the room? What if the real decision is born in the condition of the people entering the room? Because a leader can walk into a boardroom with data, experience, strategy, power, and authority.
But if they are walking in with fear, pressure, ego, exhaustion, unspoken resentment, a need to prove themselves, or a culture that does not allow truth to be spoken, then the decision is already being shaped before the meeting even begins.
This is what I call The Gold Dust Thinking Field™. It is the invisible field from which decisions are formed before they are spoken, approved, justified, or acted upon. Once we see that, we cannot unsee it.
A decision is rarely just a decision. It is the visible result of an invisible field. Before the decision. Your mind may want to rush ahead here.
It may say, "But decisions are about facts. Decisions are about analysis. Decisions are about strategy. Decisions are about the best option available."
Of course, facts matter. Analysis matters. Strategy matters. Experience matters. But let’s not pretend that facts enter a neutral field.
They do not. Facts are interpreted through a rendering system in the mind. Signals are given meaning through an individual’s perceptual grid. Data is filtered through multiple lenses, and perception is shaped and rendered into a mind move that plays within the field we are in.
This is why two intelligent leaders can look at the same situation and come to completely different conclusions. One sees risk. Another sees opportunity. One hears challenge. Another hears disrespect. One sees delay. Another sees necessary discernment. One sees a difficult employee. Another sees a system that has failed to create clarity. Same signal. Different field. Different story. Different decision.
Signal and story
This is one of the simplest ways I explain it. There is the signal, and then there is the story we attach to the signal. An employee misses a deadline. That is the signal.
The story might be, "They are lazy. They do not respect me. They are not committed. They are overwhelmed. They were never clear on the expectation. They are afraid to ask for help. This is a performance issue. This is a leadership issue. This is a culture issue."
Do you see it? The signal may be the same. But the story changes depending on the field. The story often determines the decision. So before we ask, What should I do, we may need to ask, "What story am I creating from this signal?"
That question alone can interrupt a reactive decision. It creates space, and that space matters. Because when the gap between signal and story becomes too narrow, we collapse into conclusion. When we collapse into conclusion, we often call it clarity. But sometimes it is not clarity. Sometimes it is just a fast story.
When pressure contracts
Let’s be honest, pressure can make us feel powerful. It can make us feel urgent, focused, important, needed, and serious. There is a part of the ego that likes pressure because pressure can create the illusion of significance. But let’s pause here too.
Does pressure always produce better thinking? Or does it sometimes contract the field? When the thinking field contracts, perception narrows. When perception narrows, options disappear. When options disappear, decisions become binary.
This or that. Stay or leave. Fire or keep. Push or pause. Speak or stay silent. Win or lose. Us or them. When we are inside that contracted field, it can feel very real. The mind will defend it. That is what the mind does. It protects what it has come to believe. It protects the story. It protects the identity attached to the story. It protects the ego from feeling wrong, exposed, uncertain, or unsafe.
But here is the recalibration. We are not our beliefs. The ego may be attached to the belief, but we are the presence that can observe the belief. We are the presence that can notice the fear without becoming the fear. We are the presence that can notice the pressure without becoming the pressure. We are the presence that can notice the story without collapsing into the story. That is where leadership begins to change. Not only in the outer action, but in the inner field from which the action emerges.
A leadership example
Imagine a CEO walking into a senior leadership meeting. On the outside, everything looks professional. The agenda is ready. The numbers are prepared. The strategy is on the table. But internally, there is pressure.
The board is asking questions. Targets are not being met. Confidence feels fragile. The CEO may not say it out loud, but somewhere inside there may be a fear, "What if they start doubting me?"
Now, a senior leader raises a concern about the current strategy. That is the signal. But in a contracted thinking field, the CEO may not hear concern. They may hear resistance. They may hear disloyalty. They may hear attack. They may hear, You are not good enough.
So what happens? Instead of becoming curious, they defend. Instead of opening the conversation, they close it. Instead of asking, What are you seeing that I may not be seeing, they push harder for agreement. The meeting may still end with a decision. The CEO may still appear confident. The strategy may still move forward. But the decision was shaped by fear before it was shaped by clarity.
This is how trust quietly erodes. Not always through shouting. Not always through obvious conflict. Sometimes trust erodes when people realize there is no space for truth in the field.
Beyond the boardroom
This is not only about executives. It is about being human. Someone you love becomes quiet. That is the signal. But the rendered story depends on the field.
If your field is contracted by past rejection, the story may become, "They are pulling away." If your field is contracted by fear, the story may become, "I am not safe." If your field is contracted by pride, the story may become, "I will withdraw first." If your field is contracted by old wounds, the story may become, "This always happens to me."
Before you know it, the silence between two people becomes filled with assumptions neither of them has examined. This is why decisions can be so costly. Sometimes the decision is not made from what is actually happening.
It is made from the story our nervous system, ego, and past experiences have rendered around what is happening. So again, let’s pause. What if the problem is not only the decision? What if the problem is the unexamined field the decision is coming from?
Four thinking field distortions
There are many things that distort the thinking field, but four show up often in leadership and life.
1. Pressure narrows perception
Pressure makes speed feel like strength. It makes stillness feel irresponsible. It makes reflection feel like delay. But a rushed mind is not always a clear mind. Sometimes pressure does not help us decide better. Sometimes it only helps us decide faster. Faster is not always wiser.
2. Fear protects itself
Fear makes the field self protective. Fear of failure. Fear of being exposed. Fear of disappointing people. Fear of losing status. Fear of losing control. Fear of being misunderstood. Fear of losing reputation. When fear is leading, clarity becomes difficult to access. Not because clarity is absent. But because fear is louder.
3. Identity becomes defensive
This one is subtle. Some decisions are hard because they threaten who we believe ourselves to be. A founder may struggle to release a failing idea because the idea has become part of their identity. A leader may struggle to apologies because they believe authority means always appearing certain. A high achiever may struggle to rest because their identity has been built around capacity. A parent may struggle to listen because they believe being questioned means being disrespected.
When identity feels threatened, the field becomes defensive. Defensive field rarely creates trustworthy decisions.
4. Culture blocks truth
Sometimes the field is not only personal. It is cultural. What is rewarded here. What is punished here. Who is allowed to speak. Who has learned to stay silent. What truth has become inconvenient. What question is everyone avoiding.
In many organizations, poor decisions are not made because nobody knew better. They are made because the field did not allow truth to travel. That is a sentence worth sitting with. The thinking field did not allow truth to travel.
Presence is not soft
Now, let’s recalibrate something. Presence is often misunderstood. People hear presence and think it means being calm, spiritual, passive, or slow. But that is not what I mean.
Presence is not passivity. Presence is not weakness. Presence is not avoiding action. Presence is the inner condition that allows you to notice what is happening without being immediately consumed by it. Presence gives you access to the gap between signal and story.
In that gap, you can ask better questions. What is actually happening here. What story am I attaching to it. What pressure is influencing me. What am I afraid of. What am I defending. What assumption am I treating as truth. What has become invisible to me. What would I see if I were not trying to prove, protect, rush, or control. That is not soft. That is leadership maturity. That is decision quality work.
The recalibration process
In my Gold Dust Thinking Field™ work, I often describe the movement like this: Signal → Story → Reset → Re-render → Re-anchor → Respond → Reflect
A signal comes in. A story is formed. You pause. You reset. You examine the story. You re render it from a wider field. You re anchor in presence, mission, values, and truth. Then you respond. Not react. Respond.
Afterwards, you reflect. Because every decision leaves evidence. It shows us the field we were in. It reveals what was clear, what was contracted, what was protected, and what may need to be recalibrated next time. Better questions matter
A contracted field asks, "What should I do?" An expanded field asks, "Who do I need to be in this moment, and what becomes possible from that state?"
A contracted field asks, "How do I get them to agree?" An expanded field asks, "What am I assuming here? What do I not know about them? What needs to be true for them to agree?"
A contracted field asks, "How do I stop this discomfort?" An expanded field asks, "What is this discomfort trying to reveal?"
A contracted field asks, "Should I fire this person or keep them?" An expanded field asks, "What is the real signal here. What story have I attached to this person. What support, clarity, or accountability has been missing. What decision protects dignity, standards, and mission. What could be my role in this?"
Do you feel the difference? The decision may still be difficult. The answer may still require courage. You may still need to say no, let someone go, change direction, or have a hard conversation. But now, the field is cleaner. Less distortion. Less murk. Less fog. Clarity now has space to emerge, and a cleaner field creates more trustworthy decisions.
Examine the field
So the next time you are facing a significant decision, try not to rush straight to, "What should I do?" Start here, "What field am I deciding from?"
Am I deciding from fear or presence. Urgency or clarity. Ego or mission. Pressure or discernment. Protection or truth. A contracted field or an expanded one. Because decisions do not begin at the point of decision. They begin in the thinking field, and when the thinking field expands, the quality of what becomes possible expands with it. So let’s take one more breath. Not to delay the decision. But to return to the field from which a clearer decision can emerge.
Final reflection
What is one decision in your personal life or leadership right now where the thinking field may need to expand before the decision becomes clear.
If you are navigating a high stakes decision or leadership season, you can begin with the Executive Thinking Field Diagnostic, a reflective tool designed to help high stakes decision makers and leaders notice the inner conditions shaping their clarity, presence, and response. Would you like to receive the Executive Thinking Field Diagnostic. Feel free to DM me.
Read more from Veronica Safoa Owusu
Veronica Safoa Owusu, Executive Recalibration Coach & Thinking Partner
Veronica Safoa Owusu is the founder of V-Power Coaching, an Executive Recalibration Coach & Thinking Partner, and President of Educational Communities Worldwide (EduCom). With over 30 years’ experience across education, coaching and leadership development, she helps leaders, CEOs and directors expand their thinking field, restore presence and make trustworthy decisions in high-stakes environments. Through her Gold-Dust Thinking Field™ framework, Veronica supports high-stakes leaders to move from reactive pressure to responsive leadership. Her mission is to create spaces where clarity returns, presence deepens and leaders can make decisions aligned with impact, mission and integrity.
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