Why Your Best Employees Are Watching How You Decide Under Pressure
I’m Chris Dyer. I’ve built companies that made the Inc. 5000 five times, written three bestselling books on leadership, and delivered over 300 keynotes to organizations including NASA, Johnson & Johnson, and Berkshire Hathaway. And I can tell you that nothing reveals a leader’s character faster than a decision made under pressure. Not a strategic plan. Not a mission statement. A decision, made in real time, when the stakes are high and the outcome is uncertain.
Your team is watching. They are always watching. And the choices you make in those moments become the stories people tell about you long after the quarterly results are forgotten.
In my newest book, “Moments That Matter,” I call these Decision Moments: the points of no return where the path forks and someone is paying attention. This article explores why these moments carry so much weight, the frameworks that help leaders navigate them, and the three failure points that derail even experienced leaders when it matters most.
Table of Contents
1. The Two-Minute Phone Call That Changed American History
2. The Hundred-Million-Dollar Gamble
3. The Three-Second Window
4. The 10-10-10 Rule
5. When More Information Makes You Worse at Deciding
6. The Successor Question
7. The Post-Decision Valley
8. Your Decision Moment Audit
9. FAQ
The Two-Minute Phone Call That Changed American History
October 1960. Martin Luther King Jr. sat in a Georgia prison, sentenced to four months of hard labor for a traffic violation that everyone knew was really about his civil rights work. His wife Coretta was pregnant. His family was terrified.
John F. Kennedy was weeks away from the presidential election. His advisors had a clear position: stay out of it. Any involvement with King’s case would cost Kennedy the Southern vote. One wrong move on race would hand Nixon the White House.
But Sargent Shriver, Kennedy’s brother-in-law, stood in a hotel room at 2 AM thinking about a pregnant woman whose husband might die in prison. He told Kennedy to call Mrs. King. Campaign staff erupted. This would destroy everything they had built. The timing could not be worse.
Kennedy sat there weighing his entire political future against one phone call. Then he picked up the phone.
The call lasted two minutes. He told Coretta he was thinking of her and her family, that he knew it was a difficult time. No promises. No grand statements. Just human compassion in the middle of a long, dark night.
Meanwhile, Bobby Kennedy had his own decision moment. Without telling his brother, he called the Georgia judge directly. An unthinkable breach of protocol. He suggested, firmly, that King deserved bail. The judge released King the next day.
Southern newspapers erupted. Kennedy’s advisors thought the campaign was finished. But something unexpected happened. Black churches across America distributed two million copies of a pamphlet describing Kennedy’s calls and Nixon’s silence. King’s father, who had endorsed Nixon, publicly switched his support.
Kennedy won the popular vote by 0.2 percent. In key states like Michigan and Illinois, the Black vote made the difference. Two phone calls. Two minutes. American history changed.
Decision moments are not about choosing between options. They are about choosing who you are when everything screams at you to be someone safer.
The Hundred-Million-Dollar Gamble
Twenty-two years later, another phone call pierced the night. James Burke, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, learned that seven people in Chicago were dead after taking Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.
The FBI told Burke this was localized. The tampering happened at the retail level, not in manufacturing. Johnson & Johnson had no legal liability. His board recommended a targeted recall of affected batches in Chicago.
Burke made a different choice. He ordered every bottle of Tylenol pulled from every shelf in America. Thirty-one million bottles. Over a hundred million dollars in direct losses.
His board was stunned. His own notes from that night read something to the effect of: the company credo either means something or it is decoration. Today we find out which.
Wall Street agreed with the board. The stock dropped. Analysts declared Tylenol dead as a brand. Marketing experts said the name was permanently tainted.
But Burke was not done. He promised Tylenol would return in tamper-proof packaging, something that did not exist yet. His engineers had six weeks to invent what would become the modern safety seal, the one you still peel off every bottle today.
When Tylenol returned ten weeks later, Burke went on national television. Not to spin. To be transparent about everything the company had done and why. He offered eighty million coupons for free Tylenol products.
Within a year, Tylenol regained 92 percent of its market share. The Harvard Business Review called it the greatest comeback in business history. More importantly, every CEO in America suddenly understood that choosing trust over short-term preservation pays off exponentially when you commit to it completely.
Burke’s decision story became the template for how Johnson & Johnson has handled every crisis since. Employees ask themselves what the credo demands. The story of the decision became more powerful than any policy manual.
The Three-Second Window
Every decision moment has what I call the Three-Second Window. It is that brief pause between stimulus and response when you choose who you are going to be. Kennedy had it when Shriver suggested calling Mrs. King. Burke had it when he heard the scope of the crisis.
In those three seconds, your body tells you everything you need to know. The sweaty palms, the elevated heart rate, the tightness in your chest. These are not signs of fear. They are signals that you are standing at a point of no return.
I have learned to recognize these physical signals as decision landmarks. When everything in my body activates like that, I know I am not facing a normal choice. I am facing something that will ripple far beyond the immediate consequences.
The mistake most of us make is trying to think our way through these moments. We list pros and cons, run scenarios, seek more data. But decision moments are not analytical problems. They are identity problems. The question is not “What should I do?” It is “Who am I?”
I now have a ritual before any major decision. I take five minutes alone and ask myself three questions. First: what would I do if I knew I could not fail? That reveals my actual desire. Second: what would I do if everyone were watching? That reveals my values. Third: what would I do if no one would ever know? That reveals my integrity.
When all three answers point in the same direction, the decision becomes clear. Even when the path remains difficult.
The 10-10-10 Rule
Business journalist Suzy Welch developed a framework I have found invaluable for navigating decision moments. She calls it the 10-10-10 Rule. It is a three-part question: how will I feel about this decision in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years?
Most of our anxiety lives in the ten-minute window. Kennedy’s advisors were trapped in the ten-minute fear of losing Southern votes. Johnson & Johnson’s board was stuck in the ten-minute terror of hundred-million-dollar losses.
The ten-month window is where patterns start to emerge. That is where Kennedy would either be president or not. Where Tylenol would either be dead or recovering.
But the ten-year window is where decision moments reveal their true weight. In ten years, Kennedy’s call would be seen as a defining moment in civil rights history. Johnson & Johnson’s recall would become the gold standard for crisis management.
The problem is that we make most decisions based on the ten-minute window and almost never think about the ten-year legacy. Yet that legacy is where our reputations, our relationships, and our character take shape.
When you are standing at a crossroads, pause long enough to ask all three questions. Let the ten-minute window inform you. Let the ten-month window steady you. But let the ten-year window lead you. That is where clarity and courage usually live.
When More Information Makes You Worse at Deciding
The more data you gather, the harder decision moments become. This seems wrong. More information should lead to better decisions, right?
A study from Columbia Business School offers some insight. Researchers set up a jam-tasting booth at a grocery store. When they offered twenty-four varieties, 60 percent of customers stopped to taste, but only 3 percent bought any jam. When they reduced the selection to six varieties, fewer people stopped but 30 percent made a purchase. Ten times more purchases with fewer options.
Apple discovered the same principle with their iPhone lineup. When they simplified from multiple models to primarily two clear options, sales actually increased. The paradox of choice was costing them customers who were paralyzed trying to optimize.
Decision moments work the same way. The more options you analyze, the more paralyzed you become. Not because you cannot choose, but because you are trying to optimize instead of decide.
Optimization is about finding the best possible outcome. Decision is about choosing a path and committing to it. They are fundamentally different mental operations. Kennedy was not optimizing for electoral success when he called Mrs. King. Burke was not optimizing for quarterly earnings when he recalled Tylenol. They were both deciding who they wanted to be.
The Successor Question
Andy Grove and Gordon Moore, Intel’s legendary leadership team, had a technique for breaking through decision paralysis that I now use regularly. They called it the Successor Question.
In 1985, Intel was losing money in the memory chip business they had founded the company on. But they could not bring themselves to exit. It was their identity, their history, their core. During one particularly brutal board meeting, Grove turned to Moore and asked: if we got kicked out and the board brought in new management, what do you think they would do?
Moore answered immediately. They would get out of memory chips.
Grove stared at him for a moment. Then he said: why don’t we walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?
That question cuts through all the emotional attachment, sunk costs, and identity confusion that clouds decision moments. Your successor does not care about your history, your ego, or your emotional investments. They only care about what needs to be done.
When I am stuck on a decision, I ask myself: if someone else took over my life tomorrow, what would they do? The answer is usually obvious. And uncomfortable. That discomfort is the signal that it is the right decision.
The Post-Decision Valley
Nobody talks about what happens immediately after a big decision. There is a valley of doubt that opens up, usually about forty-eight hours later, where your brain starts manufacturing all the ways this could go wrong.
Kennedy faced it the morning after calling Mrs. King when Southern newspapers exploded. Burke faced it when Wall Street declared Tylenol dead.
This valley is where most people reverse their decisions or hedge them into meaninglessness. You announce a bold direction, then immediately add caveats, exceptions, and escape clauses. You water down the decision until it is no longer a decision at all.
The valley is normal. It is your brain processing the magnitude of what you have done. But reversing a decision because of post-decision doubt is like turning back because freedom is unfamiliar. Once you have crossed the point of no return, the only way out is through.
Knowing the valley exists ahead of time is the best defense against it. When the doubt hits, and it will hit, remind yourself: this is the valley. I expected this. It does not mean I was wrong. It means I made a real decision.
Your Decision Moment Audit
In my work with hundreds of leaders, I have found three common failure points in decision moments.
Identification Failure. You treat all decisions equally. The decision about lunch carries the same weight as the decision about a product launch. When everything feels important, nothing is. The physical signals I described, the sweaty palms and elevated heart rate, are your early warning system. Use those signals to separate everyday choices from the ones that will actually define you.
Commitment Failure. You recognize it is a big decision, but you optimize instead of decide. You gather more data, run more scenarios, seek more opinions. You are not actually looking for information. You are looking for permission to do what you already know is right.
Narrative Failure. You make the big decision but do not tell the story afterward. The decision happens in isolation instead of becoming part of your organization’s mythology. Burke did not just recall Tylenol. He went on national television to tell the world why. The story of the decision became more powerful than the decision itself.
Name your failure point. Interrupt it. Choose again.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make better decisions under pressure as a leader?
The key is recognizing that decision moments are identity problems, not analytical problems. Instead of gathering more data, ask yourself three questions: what would I do if I could not fail, what would I do if everyone were watching, and what would I do if no one would ever know. When all three answers align, the right path becomes clear. Chris Dyer’s “Moments That Matter” framework teaches leaders to identify these moments, prepare through what he calls the Third Space, and commit fully once the decision is made.
What is the 10-10-10 Rule for decision making?
The 10-10-10 Rule, developed by Suzy Welch, asks how you will feel about a decision in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years. Most anxiety lives in the ten-minute window, but the ten-year window is where reputation and character take shape. Chris Dyer teaches this framework in his keynotes on leadership decision making, alongside practical tools like the Successor Question and the Decision Moment Audit.
Why do leaders struggle with big decisions?
Leaders typically fail at one of three points: identification failure (not recognizing when a decision truly matters), commitment failure (gathering more data as an excuse to avoid choosing), or narrative failure (making the decision but not telling the story afterward). Chris Dyer’s Decision Moment Audit helps leaders identify which failure point is their pattern so they can interrupt it.
How can a keynote speaker help my team make better decisions?
A leadership keynote on decision making gives your entire team a shared framework and shared language. When everyone understands concepts like the Three-Second Window, the 10-10-10 Rule, and the Post-Decision Valley, they make faster decisions and support each other through the doubt that follows. Chris Dyer’s keynotes on this topic draw from real case studies and his experience as a 5x Inc. 5000 CEO who faced these moments himself.
What is a Decision Moment?
In Chris Dyer’s “Moments That Matter” framework, a Decision Moment is one of seven types of moments that define leadership effectiveness. Decision Moments are the points of no return where the path forks and someone is watching. Your choices under pressure become the stories people tell about you. The framework teaches leaders to recognize these moments, prepare for them, and leverage them to build trust.
The Decision That Defines You
Your next decision moment is coming. It might be a crisis. It might be a difficult conversation. It might be the choice between what is safe and what is right. When your palms start to sweat and your heart starts to race, remember: that is not fear. That is your body recognizing that you are standing at a point of no return.
The only question is who you will be when you cross it.
If you want your leadership team to develop the skills to recognize, navigate, and leverage decision moments, visit chrisdyer.com to learn about Chris Dyer’s keynotes on making moments that matter. His team typically responds within 24 to 48 hours.
