"At least two facts that arise are that it is important to (1) be able to manage your stress response, and (2) manage your decision-making strategies. Both of these factors can be learned and improved."
He says decision-making skills are inherent to some occupations such as air-traffic controllers, pilots, emergency service workers, doctors, project managers, financial traders and senior managers.
"If your ability to make decisions under pressure is poor you can improve your ability with education, training and practice to cope with a high-pressured job."
However, he points to psychological resilience as the most important factor in succeeding in a high-pressure role.
"This is the ability to brush off hardship and failures, and get back on your feet to try again and again until you succeed. Resilience is a combination of natural ability, experience and training your mind to be resilient."
Senior lecturer at the School of Psychology, Massey University, Dr Dianne Gardner, suggests reading Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink.
"The key point to make is that to make 'snap' or gut-feeling decisions under pressure and to do it well means having real experience and expertise in the field - along with feedback on how earlier decisions and actions turned out so it is possible to learn from them.
"With experience and knowledge comes a lot of absorbed understandings which can be called on very quickly and can be effective. Without that ... decision-makers can be very fast and very confident - and very wrong."
She says people can employ slow, effortful, weigh-the-alternatives decision-making and in unfamiliar situations that may be the best way to go. However, that approach is limited in that it takes a long time, uses only partial information about possibilities, and may involve more information than the brain can process at any one time.
Moy says people can improve their decision-making under pressure by looking at stress-management.
"Studies have found that stress affects decision-making ability depending on the source of stress.
"Under stress due to time-pressure, stress generally worsens decision-making due to forcing a person to use sub-optimal strategies and to become overly conservative and sensitive to negative information.
"If the stress is due to increased performance expectation, stress can actually improve decision-making to a certain point, after which too much stress worsens decision-making.
"When you are put under pressure to make a decision, first take stock of your stress level and actively manage it throughout the decision-making process, otherwise your focus may become too narrowed and lead to a poor decision."
The other thing Moy recommends is examining decision-making processes and developing different strategies.
He suggests people create and practise emergency decision-making procedures for issues they may encounter.
Much as pilots practise emergency landings and instrument-less navigation, people can predict scenarios in their workplaces they might have to deal with, he says.
An organisation that helps people to think on their feet is Toastmasters. Mike Diggins, directories assistant of Toastmasters New Zealand, says the ability to make good decisions is at the core of leadership and earned authority.
"We've all come across the martinets who are there because their job title says they are there. You laugh at them behind their backs and do what you like. Now imagine doing that with, say, an All Blacks captain; you just wouldn't take the same approach because they have learned to make those decisions under pressure and they have earned the right to be there.
"The key to getting to the point at which you make good decisions is to actively seek mentors, people you trust to give you a straight answer, people you are willing to learn from.
"Think of the Fellowship of the Ring leaving Rivendell: Frodo asks, 'Left or right, Gandalf?' knowing he will get the right answer. 'I will take the ring to Mordor - though I do not know the way.' If that's not thinking on your feet, I don't know what is."
For more information, contact Jonathan Moy at careers-advice.co.nz or visit Toastmasters at toastmasters.org.nz
