The Leadership Experience: Leading on the Edge study placed 350 business leaders, aged between 26- and 55-years-old, through simulated board level stressful situations. Their heart rate was monitored and this was combined with psychological data to analyse their performance under pressure.
Ashridge Centre for Research director and co-researcher Lee Waller told HR magazine the research found that regular exposure to stress helps train the brain to make good decisions under pressure.
"We've found that if people deliberately put themselves in these situations, the structure of the brain changes, making them more able to make good decisions" she said. "We call it muscle memory, the same way that a tennis player or a golfer will practice their technique every day."
Waller said that only situations where people feel they have tools to deal with stress are useful for learning and development.
"If people feel they are able to deal with the situation, there are physiological and neurological changes that take place that mean they are able to make better decisions," she said.
"If people are overwhelmed and don't feel they have the tools they will enter 'fight or flight mode', their cognitive functions shut down and they will stop making rational decisions."
