Deciphering the Team - building Mosaic

‘We’re Looking for Lifelong Learners’

Leaders who navigate the ever-evolving workplace through critical thinking have an edge on their competition.

by james ndone, phd

Artificial intelligence. Big data. Nanotechnology. How often have we heard leaders pontificate on the future of work using these terms to the detriment of other fundamental skills, such as critical thinking?

In his book Thinking for a Change, author John C. Maxwell asserts that “one of the reasons people don’t achieve their dreams is that they desire to change their results without changing their thinking.”

These words reverberate with what Albert Einstein meant when he said, “Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.”

Due to the numerous facets involved in critical thinking, defining the term is a tall order.

“The problem with defining critical thinking is that it incorporates so many things immediately relevant to our daily lives: decisionmaking, problem-solving, innovating, team management and leadership,” says Steve Pearlman, founder of the Critical Thinking Institute (CTI) and a critical thinking expert.

Put differently, critical thinking involves recognizing logical relationships between ideas, embracing multiple perspectives and displaying a healthy sense of skepticism to achieve organizational goals. It is a critical outer-core leadership competency.

The skill encompasses strategic thinking by embracing change, inspiring others, creating a vision, rallying the organization’s troops around the vision and understanding how different organs work together for your organization’s common goals.

Failure to think critically could have detrimental effects on an organization. How can leaders develop a critical thinker’s mindset and become problem solvers? What does it take for a leader to learn critical thinking as a fundamental leadership skill?

“Unfortunately, because most team leaders aren’t training in leading teams through critical thinking strategies, they don’t get as much from their teams as they could,” notes Pearlman, who is also the author of America’s Critical Thinking Crisis: The Failure and Promise of Education

“Usually, a team leader who begins a meeting by introducing an idea and asking the team for feedback has already diminished the team’s capacity to solve the challenge at hand.”

Leaders who pursue this line suffer from confirmation bias, or the brain’s desire to validate ideas it already holds—and for the team, introducing one thought in their brains diminishes the potential for better ideas to emerge.

“Thus, the lack of explicit training in team leadership through critical thinking undermines the function of teams for the organization,” adds Pearlman.

Although there are some traces of innateness in critical thinking, leaders can get better at it through appropriate training.

“Consider running as an analogy. Running is also innate to human beings, but to excel at running, one needs coaching and practice. Similarly, to excel at critical thinking requires specific training in critical thinking as a skill,” says Pearlman, who also hosts the Headagogy podcast for educators. “In fact, researchers found that when it comes to making the best decisions, critical thinking skills are more important than intelligence, which demonstrates that the two are not the same.”

For leaders to hone their critical thinking skills, exposure to resources that can stimulate their thinking is imperative. Also, focusing on the big picture, fusing employees’ input in the picture and drawing a road map of where the team is going are other skills that leaders who practice critical thinking tend to exude.

“As a leader, you need to practice strategic thinking by breaking the big picture into small, bite-size parts and focusing on one milestone at a time,” Pearlman says.

“A good place to start is by valuing the process of the product. Too many leaders judge the team’s effectiveness by the success of the outcomes they produce, but outcomes are only the endpoints of processes, and so teams should be judged more by the richness of their processes.”

Those who lead their teams through critical thinking must value critical thinking as a leadership skill. This requires training and acknowledging the importance of the skill. The ramifications of not practicing critical thinking are dire.

“Any organizational failures are consequences of the organization’s inability to think critically enough to foresee, prevent, or at least solve for those failures,” Pearlman says.

Critical thinking is perhaps the most lauded yet least trained and certainly least understood of all skills in business. And yet, it remains an important skill. Try to identify anything more critical to a business’s success than how well its people think individually as well as collectively. It’s extremely hard to do, which is why critical thinking should receive explicit attention proportionate to its importance.

But it never does.

As a leader, it is essential to instill critical thinking in your decision-making wiring. Critical thinking can have a trickle-down effect, as one leader can inspire other leaders to start thinking differently. Leaders must stop treating critical thinking as a luxury and start obsessing over the skill. That way, they can rise above the fray, overcome biases that sabotage decision-making and lead their organizations effectively.

It’s what Pearlman requests of leaders: “Learn the art of critical thinking, and you will lead your team to the promised land.”

About Tarrant SBDC

Tarrant Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides management and technical assistance to local small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs throughout Tarrant County. The consulting services provided are at no cost and training services are at a nominal fee.

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