Decision-making: a complex skill at the heart of the managerial role

March 16, 2026

In senior management roles, decision-making is an essential part of daily work. However, these decisions are rarely made under ideal conditions. Incomplete information, time constraints, organizational dynamics, and external pressures make managerial decision-making a demanding task, where the quality of judgment depends as much on the context as on individual abilities.

Nobel laureate in economics Herbert Simon demonstrated that individuals rarely make decisions under conditions of perfect rationality. In complex organizations, they act under what he called “bounded rationality”: available information is incomplete, time is limited, and consequences are often difficult to anticipate. Under these conditions, decision-making does not involve identifying the optimal solution, but rather determining an option that is robust enough to enable action.

For senior executives, this situation is less of an exception and more of the norm. Decisions rarely hinge on purely technical issues. They generally involve multiple factors—economic, human, or organizational—that must be weighed simultaneously.

The relational aspect of decision-making

As hierarchical responsibilities increase, decision-making also takes place within a specific relational context. Research in social psychology shows that access to positions of power or influence tends to create a form of relational distance. Information, of course, continues to circulate, but exchanges often become more cautious, sometimes more filtered. People are more careful about what they say, what they reveal, or what they choose to keep to themselves. In other words, as one moves up the hierarchy or gains influence, interactions can become more strategic.

In this context, decision-makers must exercise their judgment in an environment where the quality of information also depends on human dynamics. Understanding a situation is no longer just a matter of analyzing data, but also of interpreting organizational and relational cues that are often more subtle.

Cognitive shortcuts in decision-making

Cognitive psychology also sheds additional light on the matter. The work of Kahneman and Tversky has shown that, when faced with uncertainty, people frequently use mental heuristics—cognitive shortcuts that simplify complex situations. These mechanisms facilitate decision-making, but they can also introduce certain biases in judgment, such as anchoring on initial information or the tendency to favor scenarios that confirm a prior intuition.

Recognizing the existence of these mechanisms is not intended to eliminate them—they are part of the normal workings of the mind—but to create the conditions that allow us to become aware of them when the situation calls for it.

Making decisions under pressure

Under these circumstances, managerial decision-making shares similarities with high-pressure performance as studied in sports psychology. For elite athletes, performance does not depend solely on technical mastery. It also depends on the ability to manage the uncertainty of the moment, regulate one’s emotions, and maintain clear focus despite the pressure.

Elite sports also highlight another reality: mistakes are an integral part of performance. Athletes alternate between periods of action and recovery, during which they analyze their movements, observe their own performance, and adjust their strategy.

Senior management roles involve similar demands. They require acting in complex situations, but also the ability to step back from time to time to reflect on one’s reasoning, reactions, and the dynamics at play in a given situation.

The emotional assessment of situations

Emotions also play an important role in this process. When faced with a complex situation, emotional reactions stem not only from the event itself, but also from how it is assessed: its importance in achieving the desired goals, the possible consequences of its success or failure, the perception of one’s own ability to cope with it, or the perceived scope for action.

Taking a step back allows you to revisit this assessment and approach the decision with greater clarity.

A decision is never the result of isolated reasoning

In a rapidly changing economic, technological, and regulatory environment, the ability to think things through before acting is becoming a core management skill. It relies, of course, on expertise and experience, but also on more subtle skills, such as emotional regulation and the ability to tolerate uncertainty when not all variables can be controlled.

In complex environments, a decision is never the result of isolated reasoning. It is shaped by an organizational context characterized by available resources, operational constraints, relational dynamics, and sometimes conflicting stakeholder strategies. The quality of judgment therefore depends as much on the ability to analyze the situation as on how that context is interpreted before taking action.

Mathias Baitan

General Manager

ISFB