面臨重大決策時 如何應對決策壓力

For anyone who thinks of themselves as a leader — or an effective manager of their career — accepting a degree of fear when faced with high-stakes decisions may be necessary.

對任何視自己爲領導者，或者認爲自己能夠有效管理職業生涯的人而言，在面臨重大決策時接受一定程度的恐懼可能是必要的。

Therese Huston, author of a new book about decision-making, urges those who suffer when indecision takes over that they should try to enjoy it.

特蕾澤•休斯頓(Therese Huston)著有一本有關決策的新書，她力勸那些被猶豫不決困擾的人嘗試享受那種感覺。

Tell yourself this isn’t anxiety, this is excitement, she says.

告訴你自己這不是焦慮，這是興奮，她說。

Research shows that facing these workplace dilemmas with relish is better than trying to be calm.

研究表明，用一種享受的心態面對此類職場困境比試圖保持冷靜更好。

Forcing yourself to think about a high-pressure situation as an exciting challenge enables you to screen out the negative judgments of others and focus.

強迫自己把一種高壓的情況想成一種令人興奮的挑戰，讓你能夠屏蔽他人的負面評判，保持專注。

If you’re not seeing threats everywhere, then you’ll make better decisions, says Ms Huston, a cognitive psychologist who advises companies on how to improve their decision-making.

如果你不覺得威脅無處不在，你會作出更好的決策，休斯頓說。身爲認知心理學家，她爲企業提供有關如何改善決策的建議。

In How Women Decide, which contains advice for everyone, she draws on research from Alison Wood Brooks of Harvard Business School, who found that trying to calm down can be counterproductive.

在包含給每個人的建議的《女人如何作出決定》(How Women Decide)一書中，她援引了哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)的艾莉森•伍德•布魯克斯(Alison Wood Brooks)所作的研究。

Studying performance anxiety, Ms Wood Brooks discovered that reappraising stress as excitement can boost results.

後者的研究發現，試圖冷靜下來可能適得其反。伍德•布魯克斯在研究表現焦慮的過程中發現，將壓力重新評估爲興奮能夠提高結果。

And the stress brought on by a dilemma needs to be tackled, for the sake of making good and balanced decisions.

爲了作出好的、平衡的決策，需要對付困境帶來的壓力。

An anxious state, Ms Wood Brooks says, is marked by a feeling of loss of control that can skew judgment.

伍德•布魯克斯表示，焦慮狀態的特徵是失控感，這種感覺會影響判斷。

Natalia Karelaia, associate professor of decision sciences at Insead, has examined whether mindfulness could improve professional and career choices, because, as she puts it, errors are partly due to the daunting difficulty of decision-making.

歐洲工商管理學院(Insead)決策科學副教授納塔利婭•卡雷拉亞(Natalia Karelaia)對意識能否改善專業和職業選擇進行了研究，如她所說，因爲錯誤的部分原因就是令人氣餒的決策困難。

Developing greater awareness of thoughts and emotions as we face a hard choice can, she suggests in a recent paper, help eliminate biases and impulsive reactions, improve judgment and reduce regrets.

她在最近的一篇論文中提出，在我們面臨艱難的選擇時提高對自身思想和情感的意識，有助於消除偏見和衝動反應，改善判斷，減少遺憾。

Ms Huston recommends actively seeking evidence that challenges your preferred path of action, to make sure you anticipate problems in advance.

《女人如何作出決定》的作者休斯頓建議，主動尋找與你自身偏好的行動路徑相左的證據，以確保你提前預見問題。

And always explore other options when facing a choice, rather than obsessing about a yes versus no — a binary choice with risks attached piles on the pressure, and often fails to get to the heart of the dilemma, says Ms Huston.

她說，在面臨選擇時，務必探索其他選項，而不是糾結於是或者不——附帶風險的二元選擇會加大壓力，而且往往無法觸及困境的核心。

Pause and introduce another alternative.

暫時停下來，引入另一個替代選擇。

So to ‘Should I take this job or not?’, you might add, ‘or stay where I am but ask for a new role?’

因此，對於我應該接受這份工作，還是不接受？，你應該加上，或者留下來，但是請求換一個新的職位？

Studies of companies show, Ms Huston writes, that decisions based on a simple two-way choice turned out to be more problematic half of the time.

休斯頓寫道，對企業的研究表明，在一半情況下，基於二選一的簡單決策更成問題。

Considering more than two options resulted in a more positive verdict on the decision a year or so later.

如果考慮兩種以上的選項，在1年左右以後，人們對決策的評判將更爲積極。

Ms Huston advises practising the art of generating more than one option in everyday choices when you are calm and relaxed.

休斯頓建議人們在冷靜和放鬆的時候，在日常生活選擇中練習構思多種選項的技巧。

Make it a habit, she suggests, because when you are stressed, you usually want to move quickly from ‘What am I going to do?’ to ‘At least I’m doing something’.

讓這成爲一種習慣，她建議，因爲當你承受壓力時，你通常想要迅速從‘我該做些什麼’轉換成‘至少我在做些什麼’。