Question

Explain the importance of critical thinking to a leader and how the leader should incorporate critical thinking to solve problems within an organization.

Answer 1

Critical thinking is the ability by which the individual understand, analyze and come to a conclusion on the basis of their intellect. Critical thinking skills enables the individual to enhance the experience and work completed because there will a better control of own learning.

The importance of critical thinking to a leader are: -

• Critical thinking makes the individual more independent and self-directed.
• It helps in assessing the learning styles, strengths and weaknesses.
• Individual takes ownership.
• Improve the performance.
• Critical thinking helps in effective use of emotional appeal by letting the feelings to influence but not control the reasoning.
• It helps in better understanding the views and ideas of others and come to a common solution or conclusion.

The key dimensions of critical thinking include

• Analyzing the thought - The thought process are analyzed in order to get optimal results. This process include describing the problem precisely so that the end result can be good.
• Assessing the thought - Once the problem is analyzed completely, it is important to assess the data by analyzing the information closely. This means recognizing the implications by separating the views and assumptions from the facts available.
• Positioning to think in a critical way - This means that finding the truth about facts by analyzing it closely, seeking clarity and accuracy of the information.
• Skills required for critical thinking - There are different skills required to think critically. These include knowledge of gathering information, analytical skills, communication skills, intellectual skills, etc. These skills will help in analyzing, evaluating, comparing, identifying errors etc.
• Barriers to critical thinking - There are different barriers that can impact the critical thinking process by asking the person affected from using the knowledge, experience, reasoning, etc. that is required for decision making process. These barriers are egocentric thinking, biased experience, group think, arrogance, time bound, etc.

The leader should incorporate critical thinking to solve problems within an organization by: -

• Raising important questions and problems and describing them appropriately.
• Gathering information and data that can be used effectively to relate to the problems.
• Coming to conclusion based on the facts and figures.
• Thinking widely considering each and every aspects of the problem.
• Using effective communication to interact with others to come to a solution of complex problems.
• Providing solutions with proper reasoning.
• Using analytical and intellectual skills.