As an association leader, you strive to make thoughtful, rational, and data-driven decisions. Except that the more deeply you move into management and leadership situations, the more complex decisions become. You know these decisions: the ones where there's no clear right or wrong, disruptive change means that the past isn't prologue, members' expectations are unclear, or the decision is mired in sticky board dynamics.

These decisions feel uncertain, risky, and sometimes even emotional. In short, complex decisions have many moving parts and competing variables. Complexity is the nature of leadership decision making. And, when faced with particularly complex decisions, data alone is often not enough. What then?

Research with 77 respected leaders reveals a common strategy. Complex situations require more intuitive decision making. These executives gather information and sense their intuition. At the decision point, cognition and intuition are balanced through an internal calculus appropriate for the situation. That balance point is what I call "infotuition,"the intersection of business pragmatics and gut feel. Infotuition is rooted in today's neuroscience, but it's also nothing new. As the philosopher Baruch Spinoza said, "Intellect brings the observer to the point where intuition must occur."

Successful association leaders are those who skillfully apply the appropriate infotuitive balance point. But, there are stumbling blocks along the way. With too much cognition, we fall into overthinking. The prefrontal cortex is the center of rational thought. While powerful, it is slow and consumes considerable energy. Plus, it holds limited information, like the RAM in a computer. When we try to process a highly complex decision through cognition alone, we get stuck, hesitate, procrastinate, and rely on crutches like over-analyzing facts and figures.

Tip too far in the other direction and we experience the hazards of knee-jerk decisions. Knee-jerk decisions result when the brain perceives a threat (conscious or not), like a situation that conflicts with our value system. The amygdala—the brain's repository for the fight-or-flight response—kicks in and generates fast, easy reactions that can, without conscious awareness, short circuit rational thought. We make a snap decision, fly off the handle, and, eventually, apologies may be necessary.

Successful association leaders are those who skillfully apply the appropriate infotuitive balance point.

Consider how an association leader might address this in a boardroom. Board meetings can be rife with overthinking: There's a decision to be made, but there's one board member who wants more data, more analysis, more time, even for something that's been studied to its core. An executive director or board chair can step in here and say, "I'm happy to get more data, but I think there's something more to this. Something's making us uncomfortable. Let's put our finger on it." If you can get somebody to articulate what the concern is, it often alleviates that stress.

On the other end, knee-jerk reactions can be equally debilitating. An attentive leader can tell when a hot-button issue is causing tension: Somebody's running his fingers through his hair or squirming in her chair. That's the time to be attentive to concerns, and encourage them to be voiced. What's likely happened is that a situation has come up that's in conflict with that person's value system. Which is fine to discuss, so long as they're encouraged to speak out in a way that they won't later regret.

But, whether the problem is knee-jerk reactions or overthinking, it's the leader's responsibility to know which way the room is leaning and help bring it back into balance.

Developing infotuition involves self-awareness of both what we think and how we feel. Both come from the brain, just different parts of it. The corpus callosum is the connector in the brain. It integrates fact and feeling, cognition and intuition, left and right sides of the brain. Successful leaders learn to listen to both. They gather all the information within the available time frame. They pay attention when a nagging feeling tugs at them saying, "Something just doesn't feel right about this." Then they step away to take a break and let the corpus callosum go to work. That's when the "aha" moment happens—that creative combination of all factors inside the brain. The good news is that we can learn to recognize the signs of overthinking, the indicators of an approaching knee-jerk reaction and how to enable more aha moments.

Spinoza was right. With what is known today about the brain, it is illogical not to use all the power in the brain for faster, smarter, and more insightful decisions. Infotuition is an essential leadership and life skill. You've got it. Are you using it?