11 REASONS WHY CRITICAL THINKING IS AN IMPORTANT SKILL FOR NEW MANAGERS

Everyone needs problem-solving skills in everyday life.

It requires a group of skills, in addition to cognitive, including social and other skills, to help us to define the causes of the problem and to find efficient solutions.

We use critical and creative thinking to solve problems.

There are routine problems and non-routine problems.

Routine problems can be solved using methods familiar to you by replicating previously learned methods in a step-by-step fashion.

Non-routine problems are problems for ‘which there is not a predictable, well-rehearsed approach or pathway explicitly suggested by the task, task instructions, or a worked-out example.

Critical thinking is a scope of various complex skills related to a higher level of thinking and is widely used to solve any kind of non-routine problem.

It is SELF DIRECTED thinking that produces new and innovative ideas and solves problems.

It assumes reflecting critically on learning experiences and processes and making effective decisions by avoiding common pitfalls, for example seeing only one side of an issue, discounting new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning from passion rather than logic, and failing to support statements with evidence.

This post aims to help you know What critical thinking is, its relation to problem-solving and why it is an important skill to master for all managers and leaders.

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING ?

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally and understand the connection between ideas.

It is an independent form of thinking which encourages reasoning and reflection so that you can focus on deciding what to believe or what action to take.

It was propounded by Pluto and Socrates -Greek thinkers and is still relevant in modern times.

People who are good at critical thinking seek to know whether the ideas, information, and arguments represent the whole picture or just a part of it and are open to finding out if they are a part of the whole picture or not.

In the present day times, critical thinking is used in workplaces to solve problems, make important decisions, and recognize gossip in the workplace or social environment.

It is a useful skill to recognize fake information in such times when social media and information spreads virally.

Do you want to become a Brilliant Critical thinker ? Get the 58 Brilliant Critical thinking questions HERE

Critical thinking helps Managers and Leaders to :

Determine the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.
Recognize, build and appraise arguments.
Identify inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.
Identify, approach, and solve problems consistently and systematic way instead of using intuition or instinct.
Think independently and reflect on your assumptions, beliefs, and values.
Helps you to think about things in certain ways so that you can arrive at the best possible solutions in the circumstances available to you.
Instead of passively accepting the information, it helps you in reasoning it, questioning ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value.
Understand the benefits and pitfalls of making decisions, both individually and in teams.

Recognize the decision-making shortcuts and errors that plague poor decisions.
Evaluate information using critical thinking skills.
The types of information to gather and key questions to ask in problem-solving.
Evaluate potential solutions against criteria to understand the consequences and trade-offs of each choice.
How to identify the tasks and resources necessary to implement solutions.
Learn how to implement decisions so that they are perceived as fair.

WHY CRITICAL THINKING IS IMPORTANT ?

Critical thinking was ranked as the 2nd top skill after Complex Problem Solving, as the future of jobs by the World Economic Forum in 2020.

In the present day world, where we are dealing with constant unprecedented changes, the parameters of success are changing every day.

What is considered a success today might not be seen as success tomorrow. We have to make decisions very carefully because all decisions we make affect our life.

Critical thinking is a key skill that helps in evaluating things properly amid such uncertainties and unprecedented changes.

It helps you make well-informed and carefully thought-out conscious decisions that affect the quality of life.

Hence the importance of critical thinking cannot be denied.

Critical thinking is important for the following reasons :

1 It is Universally Used.

It is a general thinking ability that is used by people in every walk of life -work, social life, at home, etc. It has always been relevant since times immemorial and contributes to success in career as well as other aspects of life in taking important decisions and solving problems.

2 Important and Relevant in the workplace.

In the rapidly changing world environment, business changes, and workplace environments are taking place at a rapid pace.

With scientific developments, all businesses and services are using technology to communicate, gather information, and innovate. In such fast-growing economies, it is important to use critical thinking to solve problems quickly and make quick decisions to progress faster.

3 Helps you to think Logically.

Critical thinking helps you to think logically and systematically so that you can present your ideas clearly and logically and make it easy for others to comprehend complex things by presenting them by breaking them down into clear simple ways for them to comprehend easily.

It is good for making presentations at the workplace, business presentation, delegating tasks to the team or showcasing ideas to higher management, or conducting meetings with the team or clients.

It enhances your ability to express yourself and your ideas fully well and influence others better.

4 Independent thinking.

In today’s world where we are constantly surrounded by so much information and noise, it is imperative to keep your mind centered and take well-informed and rational decisions.

It helps to remove bias and think independently which is essential for the smooth functioning of workplaces and society.

Critical thinking helps you to know your strengths and limitations and check the facts thoroughly.

You get in deeper touch with yourself, can understand what you think, why you think the way you think, you have a better understanding of self and you overcome any kind of negative thoughts and feel much happier.

This enhances the quality of your life and improves self-confidence.

You trust yourself more and take your own independent decisions and opinions.

5. Develops Foresight.

Foresight is the ability to see what potential success or harm may arise out of taking a decision. It helps you to pause and see the impact of your decisions on people and other activities around you.

This helps you to completely analyze the problem from every different perspective, before making a decision, and the decisions made are well informed and well thought out.

Eg-you decide between switching your service center to another place, while you may get new customers there, there may be a danger of losing old customers, or if it is far off, it may be difficult for employees to travel so far and provide service there. So these are the hidden things that you will be able to see while making decisions.

6 Develops Reflection Hindsight.

It helps in self-reflection and takes an objective view of our opinions and decisions so that we can lead a more meaningful life. It helps you to evaluate the way you think and do and change your thinking and actions by adapting and adjusting them and adopting new ones.

7 Curiosity.

It encourages curiosity. It enhances your ability to seek the truth by asking more questions so that you can understand a situation or concept better and not take in anything at face value.

8 Creativity.

In today’s times, creativity and innovation are very much required to thrive amidst so many competitors. It helps you to make a better impact .

Critical thinking helps us think creatively and be innovative to survive the changes in business and workplaces. It boosts your creativity by helping you think of new ideas and solutions and keeps you mentally fit and agile.

9 Problem solving and decision-making.

Critical thinking enhances your problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Problems and adversities are a common part of our daily lives. Problem-solving requires patience, making well-informed decisions, and strategic planning to solve problems effectively.

Critical thinking helps you to take into account all the aspects of the problem and think through them carefully before making any decisions.

10 Good Relationships.

Critical thinking enables you to understand and respect others’ perspectives and opinions in the workplace and have an open mind towards others’ views and opinions.

This builds trust, respect, and cordial relationship at the workplace and helps the team function like a well-oiled machine.

It ensures Greater synergy, collaborations, and more success for all with fewer conflicts.‘

11 . Valued by Employers.

Employers value managers and leaders who have good critical thinking skills because they think logically are good at decision making, have an open mind, and can be relied upon in times of adversity.

Managers and leaders who are critical thinkers ask questions, offer creative ideas, and are always ready to offer innovation against the competition.

They understand the connections between ideas and can construct arguments based on facts, as well as find mistakes in reasoning.

It is because of this ability that they can help in knowing the facts, take well-informed decisions, save time effort, and money, solve critical problems in the organization as well as clients’ problems quickly, and have happy customers for business which are the lifeline of the business.

Read the Post –” 6 Easy Steps To Be A Great Critical Thinker .”

CONCLUSION

The objective or purpose of critical thinking is to arrive at the best possible solution in any given situation.

It requires you to gather and evaluate information from all sources possible and helps you assess your strength and weakness as clearly as possible.

It helps you to develop and use your ability of foresight and reflection.

It takes into account the impact and results of the decisions implemented and assesses the possible outcomes of the decisions and avoids or lessens the impact of negative outcomes.

It helps you in implementing change where possible.

No matter what Managerial or Leadership position or role in a company may be, critical thinking will always give you the power to stand out and make a difference.

By practising well-thought-out thinking, both your thoughts and decisions can make a positive change in your life, on both a professional and personal level. You can hugely improve your life by working on your critical thinking skills as often as you can.

So mastering critical thinking skills is highly essential to lead through constant changes and take well-informed decisions in the workplace and career for all Managers and Leaders.

Babita Sharma

Leadership Coach

www.leadwithpassion.co.in

P.S-Please share the post and help someone today!

Everyone needs problem-solving skills in everyday life.

It requires a group of skills, in addition to cognitive, including social and other skills, to help us to define the causes of the problem and to find efficient solutions.

We use critical and creative thinking to solve problems.

There are routine problems and non-routine problems.

Routine problems can be solved using methods familiar to you by replicating previously learned methods in a step-by-step fashion.

Non-routine problems are problems for ‘which there is not a predictable, well-rehearsed approach or pathway explicitly suggested by the task, task instructions, or a worked-out example.

Critical thinking is a scope of various complex skills related to a higher level of thinking and is widely used to solve any kind of non-routine problem.

It is SELF DIRECTED thinking that produces new and innovative ideas and solves problems.

This post aims to help you know What critical thinking is, its relation to problem-solving and why it is an important skill to master for all managers and leaders.

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING ?

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally and understand the connection between ideas.

It is an independent form of thinking which encourages reasoning and reflection so that you can focus on deciding what to believe or what action to take.

It was propounded by Pluto and Socrates -Greek thinkers and is still relevant in modern times.

People who are good at critical thinking seek to know whether the ideas, information, and arguments represent the whole picture or just a part of it and are open to finding out if they are a part of the whole picture or not.

In the present day times, critical thinking is used in workplaces to solve problems, make important decisions, and recognize gossip in the workplace or social environment.

It is a useful skill to recognize fake information in such times when social media and information spreads virally.

Do you want to become a Brilliant Critical thinker ? Get the 58 Brilliant Critical thinking questions HERE

Critical thinking helps Managers and Leaders to :

Determine the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.

Recognize, build and appraise arguments.

Identify inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.

Identify, approach, and solve problems consistently and systematic way instead of using intuition or instinct.

Think independently and reflect on your assumptions, beliefs, and values.

Helps you to think about things in certain ways so that you can arrive at the best possible solutions in the circumstances available to you.

Instead of passively accepting the information, it helps you in reasoning it, questioning ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value.

Understand the benefits and pitfalls of making decisions, both individually and in teams.

Recognize the decision-making shortcuts and errors that plague poor decisions.

Evaluate information using critical thinking skills.

The types of information to gather and key questions to ask in problem-solving.

Evaluate potential solutions against criteria to understand the consequences and trade-offs of each choice.

How to identify the tasks and resources necessary to implement solutions.

Learn how to implement decisions so that they are perceived as fair.

WHY CRITICAL THINKING IS IMPORTANT ?

Critical thinking was ranked as the 2nd top skill after Complex Problem Solving, as the future of jobs by the World Economic Forum in 2020.

In the present day world, where we are dealing with constant unprecedented changes, the parameters of success are changing every day.

What is considered a success today might not be seen as success tomorrow. We have to make decisions very carefully because all decisions we make affect our life.

Critical thinking is a key skill that helps in evaluating things properly amid such uncertainties and unprecedented changes.

It helps you make well-informed and carefully thought-out conscious decisions that affect the quality of life.

Hence the importance of critical thinking cannot be denied.

Critical thinking is important for the following reasons :

1 It is Universally Used.

It is a general thinking ability that is used by people in every walk of life -work, social life, at home, etc. It has always been relevant since times immemorial and contributes to success in career as well as other aspects of life in taking important decisions and solving problems.

2 Important and Relevant in the workplace.

In the rapidly changing world environment, business changes, and workplace environments are taking place at a rapid pace.

With scientific developments, all businesses and services are using technology to communicate, gather information, and innovate. In such fast-growing economies, it is important to use critical thinking to solve problems quickly and make quick decisions to progress faster.

3 Helps you to think Logically.

Critical thinking helps you to think logically and systematically so that you can present your ideas clearly and logically and make it easy for others to comprehend complex things by presenting them by breaking them down into clear simple ways for them to comprehend easily.

It is good for making presentations at the workplace, business presentation, delegating tasks to the team or showcasing ideas to higher management, or conducting meetings with the team or clients.

It enhances your ability to express yourself and your ideas fully well and influence others better.

4 Independent thinking.

In today’s world where we are constantly surrounded by so much information and noise, it is imperative to keep your mind centered and take well-informed and rational decisions.

It helps to remove bias and think independently which is essential for the smooth functioning of workplaces and society.

Critical thinking helps you to know your strengths and limitations and check the facts thoroughly.

You get in deeper touch with yourself, can understand what you think, why you think the way you think, you have a better understanding of self and you overcome any kind of negative thoughts and feel much happier.

This enhances the quality of your life and improves self-confidence.

You trust yourself more and take your own independent decisions and opinions.

5. Develops Foresight.

Foresight is the ability to see what potential success or harm may arise out of taking a decision. It helps you to pause and see the impact of your decisions on people and other activities around you.

This helps you to completely analyze the problem from every different perspective, before making a decision, and the decisions made are well informed and well thought out.

6 Develops Reflection Hindsight.

It helps in self-reflection and takes an objective view of our opinions and decisions so that we can lead a more meaningful life. It helps you to evaluate the way you think and do and change your thinking and actions by adapting and adjusting them and adopting new ones.

7 Curiosity.

It encourages curiosity. It enhances your ability to seek the truth by asking more questions so that you can understand a situation or concept better and not take in anything at face value.

8 Creativity.

In today’s times, creativity and innovation are very much required to thrive amidst so many competitors. It helps you to make a better impact .

Critical thinking helps us think creatively and be innovative to survive the changes in business and workplaces. It boosts your creativity by helping you think of new ideas and solutions and keeps you mentally fit and agile.

9 Problem solving and decision-making.

Critical thinking enhances your problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Problems and adversities are a common part of our daily lives. Problem-solving requires patience, making well-informed decisions, and strategic planning to solve problems effectively.

Critical thinking helps you to take into account all the aspects of the problem and think through them carefully before making any decisions.

10 Good Relationships.

Critical thinking enables you to understand and respect others’ perspectives and opinions in the workplace and have an open mind towards others’ views and opinions.

This builds trust, respect, and cordial relationship at the workplace and helps the team function like a well-oiled machine.

It ensures Greater synergy, collaborations, and more success for all with fewer conflicts.‘

11 . Valued by Employers.

Employers value managers and leaders who have good critical thinking skills because they think logically are good at decision making, have an open mind, and can be relied upon in times of adversity.

Managers and leaders who are critical thinkers ask questions, offer creative ideas, and are always ready to offer innovation against the competition.

They understand the connections between ideas and can construct arguments based on facts, as well as find mistakes in reasoning.

It is because of this ability that they can help in knowing the facts, take well-informed decisions, save time effort, and money, solve critical problems in the organization as well as clients’ problems quickly, and have happy customers for business which are the lifeline of the business.

Read the Post –” 6 Easy Steps To Be A Great Critical Thinker .”