When organizations fail or underperform, analysis into the problems tends to be about strategy, marketing, finance, and so on. Although these may be valid at one level, they are in reality only superficial reasons. Invariably, the root cause goes deeper into the actual decision-making process or leadership thinking behind the executive decisions.

This section deals with common psychological barriers that contribute to leadership and decision-making failure. Knowing about these problems and how to address them will help prevent these potential hazards tripping you up during normal decision-making or in the improvement or change management process. When they occur, they have a huge impact on organizational effectiveness. If unchecked these types of dysfunctional thinking patterns can have catastrophic consequences.

Essentially these psychological barriers generate emotionally charged thinking that gets in the way of either leadership activity or decision-making. This section covers six common types of emotional arousal including stressed emotions, stressed thinking, confirmation bias, fear of uncertainty, what I call the dopamine factor, and wishful thinking or natural optimism.

By the way, being familiar with these psychological factors is the first step to improving your own performance as well as that of your team or organization.