How Successful Leaders Can Make Better Decisions When the Stakes Are High

Like every Ryder Cup captain in the modern era, Paul Azinger assumed the role with a wealth of experience in high-pressure situations. But he also understood that his experience had limits.

It was 2008, and the Americans hadn’t won a Ryder Cup in nearly a decade. Fans were getting restless. Players felt the burden of expectations. 

In his quest to lead his team past its losing streak, Azinger faced a slew of difficult decisions. Which golfers should he pick to round out his roster? How should he pair them? What adjustments might he make once the matches got underway?

With the stakes so high and the questions so complex, Azinger found himself in a position familiar to business leaders. He knew that he needed all the information he could get his hands on, in the form of expert insights and hard evidence to make better decisions.

To craft a sound strategy while building confidence and consensus among his players and coaching staff, Azinger realized that he couldn’t just rely on his gut. 

“I wanted to control everything I could possibly control,” he says. “My whole goal was to out-prepare the other guys.”

Assessing Performance—and Personalities

In 2008, shot-tracking data was just starting to gain traction in professional golf. But Azinger gathered all the stats he could. He also studied player personalities, and, employing a system used by the Navy Seals, grouped his team into pods to better build a cohesive unit. 

Although the captain kept his blueprint secret from the press, he involved his players in his battle planning and welcomed their input in all decisions, even going so far as to let them choose the final members of their pods.

The rest is history. The underdog Americans romped to victory, and Azinger laid the groundwork for future American wins at the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, and the recent Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, in late September.

From the Playing Field to the Corner Office

Today, these lessons are more relevant than ever, as quantitative measures, combined with expert insight, have become essential tools for captains of sports and industry alike.

“You see it everywhere,” says Eric Andersen, President of Aon, a leading global professional services firm. “As information got better and more available, and people became more comfortable with it, they realized it could give you a competitive advantage. And they began to use it.”

As a proud worldwide partner of the Ryder Cup, Aon understands the value of these insights and information and the shared experiences of decision makers, whether they work in an office or on the field of play.

In both arenas, leaders often bear the burden of difficult decisions along with the fallout that those moves might bring. 

“Aon exists to provide clients with data-driven insights and advice that reflects our significant expertise,” says Andersen, “so that they can make decisions with clarity and confidence—even under time pressure and trying circumstances.”

Experience Plus Expertise and Insights

It’s not that experience no longer matters. In business, as in sports, human experience and judgment remain critically important. But successful leaders—like Azinger at the 2008 Ryder Cup—realize that decision making is a skill that requires expert advice, analytics, and research to make better decisions and then to build consensus around those decisions.

“When you think of all that’s happened over the last 10 years—in technology, communications, globalization—it’s too complicated for anyone’s gut to figure it all out,” Andersen says. “But when you add in analytics, and you combine that deeper level of information and insight with your own experience and the experiences of your team, you wind up in a better spot.”

The power of this approach has been plainly evident in Aon’s proactive response to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the virus first began to spread, Aon brought together a global team of experts, including epidemiologists and data scientists, to help organizations gauge the impact of the disease on their workforces around the world. 

More recently, Aon has expanded its guiding role by helping companies gather input from employees and gain insights that lead to smart decisions around such complicated matters as vaccine policies, return-to-office plans and workplace layouts.

“Once you start talking about return to the office, you’re also talking about physical and mental health, family situations, whether there are school-aged kids or elderly parents at home,” Andersen says. “That’s one of the positive developments of the pandemic— it has further surfaced the personal side of your colleagues. But to build these plans, you need help. You need as many facts as you can get.”

Building Confidence and Consensus

For C-suite leaders and team captains, successful decision-making has a similar outcome: it helps create a sense of cohesion, unifying people with a common goal, even as they emphasize the health and welfare of individuals. Striking that balance isn’t always easy, and tough decisions made to benefit an organization aren’t always popular with everyone. Some team members might resist them. But that’s where data and analytics come into play again.

Achieving consensus is key to the success of any enterprise. In today’s business world, methodologies born in the realm of elite sports have been embraced by organizations, and the other way around. It’s no wonder that, for all their differences in experience and expertise, Ryder Cup captains and corporate leaders have so much in common, and so much to learn from one another. After all, the challenges they face are very much the same. 

“Whether it’s sports or anything else in life, pressure and anxiety are just the anticipation and the adrenaline around the unknown,” Azinger says. “How do you succeed? You succeed by being the most prepared.”