Make Better Decisions under Pressure with Neuroscience

Two ways to bring this body of knowledge and its science-based practice to your audience or team:

• 60–90 minute keynote for conferences and all-hands meetings
• 2- to 3-hour workshop for leadership training

Smart Leaders, Bad Calls

We like to think we reason our way to decisions. Often, we decide first and explain ourselves afterward. The explaining part is very convincing, especially to us.

Leaders don’t make bad decisions because they aren’t smart enough. Their brains are doing what they evolved to do: react to threats, follow the crowd, and favor speed over accuracy. Stress makes all three worse.

Learning Objectives

The honest promise isn’t a perfect decision every time. It’s a reliable way to catch a reactive call before it gets costly, slow down when it matters most, and make decisions people will support.

• How the brain really makes decisions — Emotion isn’t the enemy of good decisions; it’s part of every one. The trouble starts when fast reactions take over at the wrong moment. Leaders learn why ambiguity and time pressure make that more likely.
• How stress degrades decision quality — Under stress, control shifts from the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s slow and careful planner, to faster, habit-driven circuits. Leaders learn the predictable errors that follow.
• Why knowing your biases doesn’t fix them — The gap between knowing about a bias and avoiding it, and what works instead.
• How to slow the racing brain — Science-backed ways to shift from a quick reaction to a deliberate decision, especially under pressure.
• Perspective-taking as a decision tool — How to anticipate whether people will embrace or resist a decision before it’s announced, and use that to improve both the decision and how it’s delivered.
• How to judge a decision before you know the outcome — Outcomes deceive: a lucky result doesn’t make a decision sound, and an unlucky one doesn’t make it wrong. Leaders learn to check the safety signals built into a decision, which give an early read on buy-in or resistance.

The keynote covers the core of all six. The workshop adds time to practice each one.

Choose Your Delivery Option

• Keynote — a 60–90 minute presentation. Ideal for conferences, leadership summits, all-hands meetings, mixed audiences of any size. It covers the core science and practical techniques, with audience engagement throughout.
• 2- to 3-hour workshop — ideal for leadership training, peer groups, retreats, academy programs, and conferences. Everything in the keynote, plus small-group exercises, group discussion, and applied practice.

Every session is customized to your audience’s industry, challenges, and experience level. Not sure which fits? Tell Terry your date, your audience, and how much time you have, and he’ll recommend one.

Who It’s For

This workshop is built for leaders at every level who make decisions that affect other people:

• Senior executives, VPs, and directors
• Managers and supervisors
• HR professionals and people leaders
• Business owners and entrepreneurs
• Government leaders and elected officials

How Is This Session Different?

• It starts with biology, not a bias checklist. Most decision-making training hands leaders a list of cognitive biases. The problem: knowing about a bias doesn’t make it go away. You can memorize every bias in the book and still fall into every one of them under pressure. Dr. Wu starts with how the brain balances fast reactions against careful thinking, and what happens when stress tips that balance.
• It’s built for decisions under pressure. Most decision training assumes a calm brain at a quiet desk. Leaders rarely get one. Dr. Wu shows what stress does to the brain’s decision-making, and how leaders can notice when they’ve slipped into reactive mode and slow down before the call is made.
• It offers relief from second-guessing. Hard decisions have a hidden cost leaders rarely name: replaying a call for days, waiting to see how it lands. Leaders learn to judge a decision by its quality, not its outcome, so they can stand behind it even when the result is uncertain.

Track Record

Dr. Wu has delivered this session to:

• U.S. Department of the Interior: part of its leadership training every year since 2023
• Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP)
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA)
• Performance Excellence Network (PEN)

Terry brought leaders in our network highly unique, evidence-based insights to improve how they communicate and lead through this pandemic. Our members greatly appreciated that Terry’s approaches are science-driven, tested and validated, and universal: they can be applied in virtually any size or type of organization. Terry’s presentation on the Neuroscience of Leadership generated all kinds of positive comments. A few attendees shared this positive feedback with me directly. In our follow-up survey, 95% of the audience rated his presentation as satisfied and 90% HIGHLY satisfied. His presentation’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) was 79, which was off the charts. I’d highly recommend inviting Terry to speak at your event! ~ Brian Lassiter, Minneapolis, Minnesota, President, Performance Excellence Network

• Call: (952) 270-2694 ~ Get Your Answers Now
• Email: Terry@WhyTheBrainFollows.com ~ Receive a response within 24 hours