thinking critically about critical thinking a fundamental guide for strategic leaders

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Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking

Stephen Gerras, PhD

Technological advances alone do not constitute change. The most dramatic advances in military operations over history have been borne of ideas—ideas about warfighting, organization and doctrine. The Army’s most critical asset will not be technology; it will be critical thinking . 1

— AUSA TORCHBEARER NATIONAL SECURITY REPORT , MARCH 2005

In the post-Cold War security environment, many senior leaders in the Army and throughout the Department of Defense have asserted a need to develop better critical thinking skills. 2 The requirement for better critical thinkers stems from a realization that the complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity of the current environment mandates a need ...

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How Leaders Should Think Critically

• John Baldoni

If you want to succeed in 21st Century business you need to become a critical thinker. Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Management figured this out a decade ago and as dean, has been working to transform his school’s business curriculum with greater emphasis on critical thinking skills. As Lane Wallace explained in the […]

If you want to succeed in 21st Century business you need to become a critical thinker. Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Management figured this out a decade ago and as dean, has been working to transform his school’s business curriculum with greater emphasis on critical thinking skills. As Lane Wallace explained in the New York Times , what Martin and many others are seeking to do is approach learning and problem solving from a multicultural platform that borrows from academia, business, the arts and even history.

• John Baldoni is an internationally recognized executive coach and leadership educator. His most recent book is MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership .

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Mastering Critical Thinking: A Guide for Leaders

Summary: Critical thinking is a fundamental skill for effective leadership. Top leaders think clearly and rationally, analyze and evaluate information, and make sound judgments and decisions. Here is what to know, what matters.

Dear Dr. Sylvia,

I am a great leader. I’m not bragging. I know what I know.

For example, I am great at the thirty-thousand view of what needs to be done.

However, I am a total failure at the lower level, where the weeds (daily work systems) need to be cleared. I also suck where the trees (employees or products) must be pruned.

Similarly, I want to teach my executive team how to be critical thinkers and come to me with their solutions. Then, I, as the CEO, can be extremely helpful with long-term plans.

Critical thinking is falling way behind for most of us.

What can I do to help the various teams I support grow to be the best possibl e?

At the thirty-foot level, I can help them see we are building cathedrals rather than just being stone setters.

Cathedral Builder

Dear Cathedral Builder,

I am sure you are referring to the well-known “Cathedral Story.” It goes like this: a man who passed a bricklayer and asked what he was doing.

The worker responded. “Oh, I am here every day, just putting one brick atop another. It’s a tedious and meaningless job. I can’t wait to go home.”

Then, the same man went around the corner, talked with another worker, and asked, “What are you doing?”

Above all, the response was quite different. “Oh, I’m here putting one brick on top of another to help as we build a beautiful cathedral. I know I am part of a meaningful venture. And I love how most of us work together to create what matters. I only have a small yet important part in the process.”

Critical thinking means seeing both root causes along with future vision.

Leaders skilled in critical thinking are better equipped to solve problems. They also make informed decisions and communicate their ideas effectively.

In addition, great leaders cut through the noise and distractions. Once they identify the root causes of problems, they develop creative solutions that can transform their organizations.

Consider the example of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Bezos has been widely credited with transforming the retail industry through his innovative ideas and business strategies.

Subsequently, one of the keys to his success has been his ability to think critically. For example, when Bezos first started Amazon, he recognized that the traditional retail model was not working. He saw an opportunity to leverage the power of the internet to create a new type of retail experience. The hypothesis was that his way would be more convenient and accessible to customers.

Jeff Bezos used critical thinking to launch Amazon.

This required him to think creatively and develop a business model based on customer-centricity, innovation, and long-term growth.

Similarly, Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motor s, has been praised for her leadership skills, particularly her critical thinking ability.

In addition, when Barra took over as CEO of GM in 2014, the company faced several challenges. A major one included a significant safety crisis related to faulty ignition switches.

Mary Barra at GM recognized that the company needed to change its culture and problem-solving approach.

In short, she emphasized the importance of transparency, accountability, and collaboration. In addition, she encouraged employees at all levels to speak up and share their ideas. This helped GM to address the safety crisis, restore trust with its customers, and improve its overall performance.

Let’s explore the fundamental principles of critical thinking. This means we will provide practical strategies for leaders to apply these principles daily.

For example, we will discuss the common thinking errors and biases that impede effective decision-making. This includes the importance of effective communication.

Next, We will provide examples and case studies of leaders who have successfully applied critical thinking to achieve their goals.

By mastering critical thinking, you can become a more effective leader and positively impact your organization and community.

Critical thinking objectively analyzes and evaluates information to make informed decisions and solve problems.

All in all, it is a fundamental skill for effective leadership. This means it is essential for making sound judgments in complex and rapidly changing environments. Here we explore the basic concepts of critical thinking and the importance of developing this skill for leadership success.

• Definition of Critical Thinking: Critical thinking is analyzing and evaluating information objectively, without bias or prejudice. It involves using logic and reason to identify the strengths and weaknesses of arguments, knowledge, and evidence. By thinking critically, leaders can make informed decisions, solve problems, and communicate their ideas more effectively.
• Importance of Critical Thinking in Leadership: Effective leaders must make decisions quickly and confidently. This includes the ability to evaluate information carefully. Next, to ensure that their decisions are based on sound evidence. Critical thinking is essential for influential leaders to identify problems’ root causes and evaluate potential solutions.
• Key Components of Critical Thinking: There are several key components of critical thinking, including:

Without critical thinking, mistakes can be costly.

• Evaluating evidence : This involves examining the credibility and reliability of evidence. Then to determine its usefulness in supporting a particular argument or position.
• Identifying biases and assumptions : involves recognizing personal biases and assumptions that may influence one’s thinking and considering alternative perspectives.
• Generating and evaluating alternatives: This involves developing multiple solutions or options. The next step is to assess them based on their feasibility, effectiveness, and potential consequences.
• Critical thinking objectively analyzes and evaluates information: This is how to make informed decisions o and solve problems.

Each specific area of business has its way of looking at what is critical to success.

• Example 1: Effective Decision-Making in Healthcare: In healthcare, critical thinking is essential for making decisions that can significantly impact patient outcomes. For example, a physician treating a complex medical condition must analyze and evaluate the available information. Next, identify potential treatment options and assess their effectiveness and risks. By using critical thinking skills, the physician can make informed decisions that lead to better outcomes for the patient.
• Example 2: Strategic Planning in Business: Critical thinking is essential for strategic planning and decision-making. For example, a CEO planning to expand the company’s operations into new markets must analyze and evaluate potential risks and benefits. After that, identify potential obstacles and challenges and develop a plan that maximizes the chances of success. Using critical thinking skills, the CEO can make informed decisions leading to long-term growth and profitability.

Without critical thinking, we can end up with lost revenue and expensive legal concerns.

3. Example 3: Evaluating Scientific Research: Critical thinking is essential for evaluating the credibility and reliability of research findings. For example, a scientist conducting research on a new drug must analyze and evaluate the available data. That way, identify potential biases or flaws in the study design and evaluate the potential risks and benefits. By using critical thinking skills, the scientist can make informed decisions about the safety and effectiveness of the drug.

4. Example 4: Effective Problem-Solving in Engineering: Critical thinking is essential for effective problem-solving in engineering. For example, an engineer tasked with designing a new product must first analyze and evaluate the available information. Then go on to identify the potential design flaws or issues. And finally, develop a solution that meets the customer’s needs while adhering to safety and quality standards. Using critical thinking skills, the engineer can develop innovative solutions that improve the product and enhance customer satisfaction.

5. Example 5: Effective Communication in Public Policy: Critical thinking is essential for effective communication and decision-making in public policy. For example, a policy analyst evaluating a proposed policy starts by analyzing the potential impacts of the policy after identifying potential unintended consequences and communicating the results to the public.

All leadership teams do better if they are schooled in critical thinking. That is the major way to keep the potholes and pitfalls limited.

In summary, business, the essential motor of society, has an opportunity to be the most creative force on the planet using critical thinking as a base.

In conclusion, to everyone, and especially you, dear Cathedral builder, let’s do deep thinking so that we all have the opportunity to engage in dignified and satisfying work.

Here’s to your success,

Sylvia Lafair

PS. Much of what I learned about critical thinking is based on the work of my mentor, Willis Harma n, who taught at Stanford University and was President of The Institute of Noetic Sciences in California. You would enjoy looking at some of his books for the thirty thousand views of modern business.

PSS. Much of what I learned from Dr. Harman is now available in our Total Leadership Connections online program. Contact us for more information and to join now.

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Review any list of sought-after skills for leaders today, and you’re certain to find a range of advanced thinking skills, including critical thinking and strategic thinking, among them.

Given the current state of business and work, this makes sense. Jobs are becoming increasingly complex and functions more interconnected, meaning decisions or solutions in one area can have broad impact in others. Good decision making and the ability to craft solutions to complex problems are what move an organization forward. As a result, organizations routinely look for these skills when making hiring decisions. Terms like analyze, innovate, reason, ideate, evaluate, decision making, and problem solving are common on job postings and among core competencies. The higher someone moves in the organization, the more critical such skills become.

It’s no wonder, then, that our clients are consistently looking to build these skills among their leadership teams. Most often, they summarize these needs as either critical thinking or strategic thinking . The ability of leaders to do both can greatly affect business outcomes. When decisions are based upon erroneous, partially false, or incomplete information and when leaders fail to think clearly about the full implications of their actions, the consequences can be dire for employees, customers, stakeholders, organizations, and even communities. The need to develop these skills, then, is a given.

“Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.” —Neil deGrasse Tyson

One thing we’ve discovered is that our clients often use these terms interchangeably, or they refer to one when they may mean the other. In fact, in researching the content for our Critical Thinking and Strategic Thinking courses, I found that happens a lot, depending on the source. Indeed, there is overlap, but the distinction is important for us to make sure we’re addressing the intended learning needs.

According to Richard W. Paul, founder of the Foundation for Critical Thinking, “Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.” In other words, it’s an active, continuous process of gathering, synthesizing, and analyzing data to inform decisions and solutions. The “thinking about your thinking” part, as Paul puts it, is about identifying biases and testing assumptions that can muck up the works. Critical thinking focuses on identifying root causes of problems, considering alternative perspectives, weighing possibilities, and coming to a conclusion or choice. Leaders use critical thinking to navigate all manner of routine and high-stakes challenges and opportunities.

Critical thinking, then, can be considered a tool that enables strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is future-oriented and typically applied in the context of planning how best to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Critical thinking practices of gathering and analyzing data to inform choices and conclusions apply, but typically in the consideration of a long-term prospect. Thus, strategic thinking’s purview considers not just the next move but also the one after that, and the one after that, and so on. Pros versus cons, strengths versus weaknesses, risks versus opportunities, and what-ifs and contingencies are usually part of the process. Leaders use strategic thinking when plotting the “how” of an initiative or goal.

Of course, both of these are essential to a leader’s success. Talking clients through our approach to each of these skills, how they’re related, and how we’ve distinguished them from a learning perspective helps us ensure we’re offering solutions that are the right fit for their needs. In other words, we inform and support the critical thinking process that helps them think strategically about how to invest their learning resources to achieve optimal results—how meta!

Developing and honing the ability to think critically and strategically takes time. Leaders committed to “knowing how to think” and “thinking about [their] thinking while [they’re] thinking” (as the two of top thinkers I quoted earlier implied) will make a big impact on their personal and organization success.

Terri Schell

Practice leader, learning & development.

Terri has spent more than 15 years in various learning roles, including facilitation, instructional design and development, and management. Learning content creation is her jam. She is passionate about building relevant, engaging, and practical learning solutions that make leaders and workplaces better.  Terri recently led the development team for a new e-learning course that supports work-life alignment .

If you enjoyed this blog, please check back regularly for additional insightful and informative posts. If you prefer to be notified when a new post is live, please sign up below to receive Dion Leadership email alerts.

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Leaders want strategic and critical thinking more than anything. Most of their workers don’t have it

“A severe lack of critical business skills is preventing growth at America’s largest companies.” 

That’s a major—potentially alarming—takeaway from a survey of over 1,000 corporate professionals, conducted by online learning platform Springboard for their new report, The State of the Workforce Skills Gap , released this morning.

Across industries, the majority of leaders surveyed for the report said “strategic/critical thinking” is the most sorely needed soft skill at companies today. (Problem-solving and decision-making came in second, while communication, both written and verbal, nabbed third.) 

“With the global business environment in a state of flux for the foreseeable future, companies that can strategically evolve will have an edge,” Springboard researchers explained in the report. “Leaders see this opportunity, and recognize that critical thinking and problem-solving skills are essential to operate with this mindset.”

The problem? Many workers aren’t quite there yet . In fact, 54% of junior employees told Springboard they’re trying to further cultivate their leadership and management skills; a similar share want to improve their communication chops. Nearly 40% of leaders say the gap between the skills they need at their organization and the skills they have is only getting deeper . 

Unsurprisingly, the rapid acceleration of AI —and the even more rapid integration of AI into business—has put a premium on the kinds of soft, interpersonal skills that no robot can quite automate yet. 

The report was admittedly self-serving for Springboard, whose mission—per CEO Gautam Tambay—is to bridge the world’s skills gap. “The more we understand the gap, the better we’re able to execute against it,” Tambay tells Fortune. What struck him most in speaking with leaders is how focused they are “not just on what I’d call technical or perishable skills like AI or machine learning, but on what I’d call durable or non-perishable skills.” Very often, those are soft skills .

A growing challenge

The skills gap has been a growing challenge, calling for ample training and reskilling. Per a World Economic Forum report from 2023 , nearly half (44%) of an individual worker’s skills need to be updated. “The long-term trend is pretty undeniable that the demand for skills outpaces the supply of skills,” Dan Shapero, chief operating officer of LinkedIn , told Fortune last year. The problems remain the same: that WEF report found that the number-one most sought-after skill was creative thinking, followed by analytical thinking and technological literacy. 

Skills like critical thinking, which employers expressed a clear need for, aren’t new. They’ve been top of mind forever , Tambay says, “but despite that, leaders really see a massive gap in this area.” 

But don’t blame AI. The farther automation advances , the more uniquely human traits and attributes will be valued.  “I’ve always believed—and the report validates—that AI is not going to take your job,” Tambay says. Rather, “someone who knows how to use AI better than you is going to take your job.” 

Indeed, Tambay says much of today’s hand-wringing over out-of-control machine advancement is overblown. “It’s not the first time a massive wave of tech has come through and scared everyone,” he says. “Yes, it will change everything and people who can use it more effectively will be more successful. That’s what happened with the Industrial Revolution, too.”

But as always, companies need human beings to think strategically and make decisions. “AI will assist with that, but we still need humans to provide a layer of judgment on top.”

Even the most tech-forward leaders agree with that. Apple CEO Tim Cook has long lauded soft skills , which go hand in hand with creative and strategic thinking. In 2022, he said he seeks out the ability to collaborate, creativity, and curiosity in new hires above all else. “Those are the things that we look for in people, and it’s been a very good formula for us,” he said . “We look for people that think differently, that can look at a problem and not be caught up in the dogma of how that problem has always been viewed.”

Luckily, soft skills like communication, strategy, and judgment can be taught, he says, but they’re often harder to get down pat than technical skills. They need many more hours of boots-on-the-ground practice. “Understanding other human beings and their motivations, intentions, and what drives them—that’s absolutely learnable,” he says. Plus, they’re durable.

“Every business starts with understanding human emotion,” Tambay goes on. “Until businesses are no longer serving human needs, humans will have to be good at soft skills. Especially because today’s average 25-year-old is going to have a job in 20 years that doesn’t even exist yet because the shelf life of skills has gone down so much. You need a durable skill set that will help you to succeed for your whole career.”

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GB3400: Critical Thinking for Strategic Leadership - NPS Online

Critical thinking for strategic leadership.

Course #GB3400

Est . imated Completion Time: 3 months

POC: NPS Online Support

This course is about thinking critically and its importance for national security. It will help students better understand how to use critical thinking as a tool for strategic leadership. The course will show why critical and strategic thinking is important, and how it can be used to understand competitive situations and trends in the strategic environment; and help better formulate and analyze ideas about complex problems (in both business and defense-oriented organizations), and the examination of cases of leaders, leadership and critical and strategic thinkers in the past and present. The topic and the approach meets a timely need identified most recently in the Education for Sea-power Study which calls for (much) greater attention to educating for strategic and critical thinking and strategic leadership.  Open to both resident and DL students.

Application Deadlines

Fall Quarter applications due

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Book Reviews

Joint doctrine, joint force quarterly 81 (2nd quarter, april 2016), rediscovering the art of strategic thinking: developing 21st-century strategic leaders.

By Daniel H. McCauley Joint Force Quarterly 81

A t a time when global instability and uncertainty are undeniable, the demand for astute American global strategic leadership is greater than ever. Unfortunately, tactical superficiality and parochial policies of convenience are undermining joint strategic leader development and the ability to operate effectively around the world. 1 Tactical supremacy and the lack of a peer competitor have contributed to strategic thinking becoming a lost art. This critical shortfall has been recognized for a number of years. General Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), and Tony Koltz stated in their 2009 book Leading the Charge that leaders today have no vision and consequently have “lost the ability to look and plan ahead.” 2 Trapped within rigid bureaucracies, today’s joint strategic leaders immerse themselves in current operations, reacting to, rather than shaping, future events.

President Obama convenes meeting on Zika virus in Situation Room, January 2016 (The White House/Pete Souza)

This strategic leadership shortfall is not unique to the military establishment. A 2014 leadership study conducted by the Palladium Group surveyed more than 1,200 companies in 74 countries. In this study, although more than 96 percent of the “respondents identified strategic leadership as an organizational ‘must-have’ and a key to future success,” over 50 percent of the respondents “stated that the quality of their organization’s strategic leadership was unsatisfactory.” 3 Fully two-thirds of the respondents serving in an organizational capacity as board member, chief executive officer, or managing director “did not believe that their current leadership development approach was providing the necessary skills to successfully execute their strategy.” 4

Obviously, there is a recognized strategic leadership gap across multiple disciplines, but how to remedy that shortfall has eluded both trainers and educators. The only certainty is that strategic leader development remains entrenched within the same development processes that are falling well short of the desired outcome. In an attempt to change this legacy thinking, General Martin Dempsey, USA, during his last 2 years as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, issued white papers on mission command, the profession of arms, and joint education, as well as a memorandum on desired leader attributes. Each of these documents highlighted this shortfall in strategic leadership in some form. 5 The then-Chairman’s direction, however, failed to change the approach to leader development in any meaningful way. Instead of designing a strategic leadership program to meet the demands of the 21 st century, the military community continues to embrace the outdated practices of the past.

To rediscover the art of strategic thinking and planning, joint strategic leader development must disconnect itself from the paradigm of the past in which outcomes are known, risk is certain and manageable, and linear thinking is the norm. In its place, a developmental paradigm that embraces the discomforts of ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity must be adopted. Modifying the training adage that the joint force must train the way it will fight, joint strategic leader development must reflect the realities of the global environment within which strategic decisionmaking occurs. Specifically, the joint force must develop strategic thinking competencies that will prepare strategic leaders for the ambiguities, uncertainties, and complexities of the 21 st -century global security environment.

Strategic Leadership

Why are the Chairman and so many others focused on leadership? There are a number of reasons. First, local and regional trends, which were once somewhat isolated and constant, are interacting with global trends to accelerate rates of change. This increased acceleration leaves little decisionmaking time for cumbersome bureaucracies; rather, the environment demands timely strategic decisions at the field level. Second, the accelerated rates of change in local, regional, and global environments have increased uncertainty at all levels, paralyzing decisionmakers looking for risk-free strategies or plans. Third, as the world appears to grow smaller due to advanced communications and transportation systems, complexity actually increases because of the expanded numbers of stakeholders in today’s interconnected global systems. Fourth, global interdependencies—economic, social, religious, and military, among others—demand that local or regional issues be viewed in a depth and breadth not previously undertaken. 6 Joint strategic leaders are reluctant to embrace security issues in their broader context even when the interrelated global security environment requires a long-term approach to do so. Finally, in a review of the lessons learned over the past 13 years of war, various organizations and studies assessed strategic thinking and strategic leadership as lacking during national strategic decisionmaking. 7

These five reasons demand that joint officers develop a level of understanding not previously required from a national security perspective or demanded of them individually. This newly required depth and breadth of understanding entail the development of a perspective that encompasses longer periods of time—not only the present and near future, but also the distant past as well as the distant future. By drawing on an understanding of the past, joint strategic leaders can build a realistic vision that pulls joint organizations through the challenges of the present while positioning the Nation for future success. Without a vision of the future, the joint force is at a distinct disadvantage, as it will be caught unaware of developing trends, policies, and potential adversaries.

Strategic leader responsibilities generally encompass multiple organizations and echelons diverse in missions and responsibilities. 8 The interdependencies and interactions of the global environment have created a skills mismatch for joint strategic leaders over the past few decades. The current challenge is how to address the multitude of global challenges, given the limited range of individual and staff expertise and experiences. Considering figure 1, one can get a sense of the skill requirements necessary in the industrial age. Generally, the degree of certainty of any given issue and the degree of agreement among experts for a solution (as indicated by the x and y axes) were fairly high. As such, knowledge—usually in the form of domain-specific experts—was foundational in developing an understanding of the issue. In most cases, both the tasks and the environment were familiar; thus, the need for different thinking methodologies (meta-knowledge) and cultural understanding (humanistic knowledge) was relatively small in comparison to foundational knowledge. If a problem was encountered, an expert was called in to “solve” it. 9

Figure 2 illustrates the transposition of skills needed in the information age. Again, generally speaking, the strategic operating environment has expanded to include regions for which the United States has little or no expertise, with tasks becoming increasingly unfamiliar. As the degrees of certainty and expert agreement have decreased, the need for domain-specific foundational knowledge has significantly diminished. In the information age, meta- and humanistic knowledge come to the fore as the need to address the dynamics of integrated domains and multiple cultural perspectives increases. Specific foundational knowledge is decreased proportionally because collaborative approaches can potentially develop multiple solutions needed to address the complexities of integrated security domains.

Joint Leadership

Given the skills required of strategic leaders in the information age, it is necessary to undertake a short review of Service and joint leadership development and doctrine to identify the current strategic leadership shortfall. As expected, the Services do an excellent job describing leadership at multiple command levels. For example, Army Doctrine Publication 6-22, Army Leadership , 10 and the Air Force’s Core Doctrine, Vol. II, Leadership , 11 provide definitions, purpose, competencies, and attributes required by leaders for conducting warfighting. Service leadership clearly formed the bedrock of American tactical and operational successes for many decades.

In his white paper titled America’s Military: A Profession of Arms , General Dempsey further amplified this symbiosis between battlefield success and leadership, stating that the foundation of the military profession is leadership. 12 Unfortunately, unlike the focus the Services place on leadership, the joint community falls short. In lieu of leadership, joint doctrine relies on operational concepts, functions, and processes. For example, Joint Publication (JP) 1, Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States , does a very good job describing command and control within joint organizations. 13 However, it fails to describe the leadership differences that emerge as leadership and decisionmaking transitions from the joint task force (JTF) or component level to the combatant command, Joint Staff, and interagency levels. JP 1 does provide a short description of the profession of arms, listing character traits, competencies, and values, but these are relegated to an appendix not quite two-and-a-half pages in length. 14

Recognizing this shortfall in joint doctrine and leader development, General Dempsey provided new guidance for the joint community based on a review of the past 13 years of war. In 2013, he laid out six desired attributes for leaders in a memorandum for Service chiefs, combatant commanders, the National Guard bureau chief, and the directors of the Joint Staff. These attributes assist the joint force in developing “agile and adaptive leaders with the requisite values, strategic vision, and critical thinking skills to keep pace with the changing strategic environment.” 15 Coupled with the character, values, and competencies listed in JP 1, a leadership framework begins to emerge. 16

Examining this framework, two issues become readily evident. First, the definition of joint leadership is missing. Second, the competencies as described in joint doctrine focus primarily on the tactical and low operational levels of war and fail to address strategic leadership in any form. Unfortunately, each of these missing pieces reinforces a tactical perspective of leadership at all echelons. Joint doctrine appears to assume that Service leadership development is adequate for strategic leadership despite recent evidence to the contrary.

As General Dempsey and others have noted, the required leadership skills can vary broadly depending on the level of operations. For example, most joint officers are familiar with their Services’ roles and missions, having spent the majority of their careers in the tactical environment. This familiarity generally includes the types of organizations (for example, JTFs and components) and processes (for example, troop-leading procedures and the air-tasking cycle). At this level, complexity is limited because most interaction is at the individual or small group level, with decisionmaking measured in seconds, minutes, hours, or a few days.

Nepalese army ranger works with U.S. Army Soldier during Situational Training Exercise portion of U.S. Army Alaska Warrior Leader Course on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, August 2015 (U.S. Air Force/Justin Connaher)

The operational level of leadership expands complexity to include multiple organizations and the proliferation of the number and types of processes and products used. Reflecting this increased complexity, combatant commands operate at a different speed of decisionmaking to incorporate increased stakeholder views and desires. Combatant command regional and functional strategies and plans are complicated further by the needs of the individuals and organizations at the tactical level. The strategic level of leadership expands complexity to include the defense enterprise decisionmakers, such as the Secretary of Defense and Chairman. At this level, specific processes reduce in number, but the numbers of stakeholders, including allies and partners, increase across a broader range of domains, such as the economic and domestic domains. Decisionmaking can lengthen to months, years, or even decades. Finally, at the national strategic level, decisionmakers such as the President must deal with global complexity that involves decisions spanning the time range of each of the lower levels—seconds, days, months, and years.

Wherever one resides in an organization—whether at the tactical, operational, or strategic level, or some level in between—different leadership paradigms exist. To meet strategic leadership demands, the joint community must develop strategic thinking competencies. Strategic thinking is a cognitive process used to design and sustain an organization’s competitive advantage. 17 It is a holistic method that leverages hindsight, insight, and foresight, and precedes strategy or plan development. Strategic thinking relies on an intuitive, visual, and creative process that explores the global security environment to synthesize emerging patterns, issues, connections, and opportunities. 18 Developing strategic thinking skills or competencies fills the strategic leadership shortfall while incorporating the desired leadership attributes identified by General Dempsey. Joint leader development thus becomes the vehicle that transitions the outdated military educational paradigm of the industrial age into one that serves the realities of the current information age environment.

Strategic Thinking Competencies

To reacquire the lost art of strategic thinking, seven competencies have emerged as vital for strategic leaders:

• critical thinking
• creative thinking
• contextual thinking
• conceptual thinking
• cultural thinking
• collaborative thinking
• communicative thinking. 19

Cultivating these strategic thinking competencies can provide current and future strategic leaders with the skills necessary to develop and execute strategies and plans successfully.

The first competency, critical thinking, provides joint strategic leaders with a depth and breadth of understanding that leverage hindsight, insight, and foresight. Insight represents the ability to analyze a thing and break it apart to see how its individual components are related and work together. By breaking a thing down into its component parts, elements and relationships not usually visible or understood are exposed. To gain an appreciation of a system’s current state, the past, including the environmental dynamics responsible for system creation, must be understood. The continued interplay of these dynamics provides additional system insights and aids in the development of foresight. Trend extrapolation provides strategic leaders with a temporal bridge between the past and present to the future. This extrapolation of both environmental change and constants aids joint strategic leaders in developing an understanding of what may lie ahead and in anticipating future events and subsequent plan development. 20 Understanding the possible, plausible, and probable futures of a system aids strategic leaders in shaping the current conditions into those that are more preferable.

When applying critical thinking to the global security environment, the sheer volume of information and potential actors is overwhelming. Two key tools of critical thinking that facilitate joint strategic leader understanding and enhance their organizational principles are systems thinking and visual thinking. Systems thinking is an approach that promotes understanding of events and behavior through the identification and understanding of underlying structures. 21 Viewed as systems, these structures are an organized set of elements interconnected in a way that achieves the stated purpose. Systems, therefore, have three components: elements, relationships, and purpose. System elements can be either tangible or intangible, although tangible elements are naturally more readily identifiable. System relationships or interconnections hold the elements together and represent the physical flow governing a system’s processes. A system’s purpose is not easily discerned because the formal stated function is often different from its actual purpose. So the best way to deduce the system’s purpose is to observe it for a while. 22

Visual thinking engages the unconscious mind 23 and is vital in problem-solving and modeling systems, especially ill-structured problems. 24 Visual thinking allows for the processing of enormous amounts of information across multiple dimensions, 25 adds clarity to communication, more fully engages group members, and enhances memory. 26 Visual thinking assists joint strategic leaders by increasing their ability to recognize patterns and similarities and to see formal and informal relationships.

An example of critical thinking that leverages systems and visual thinking is the international security challenge the United States faces with Iran. Critical thinking requires the strategic leader to undertake a historical analysis of the two countries to develop an understanding of the current grievances between them. A systems map, leveraging visual thinking, helps to illustrate the current U.S. national security system and how Iran is undermining it (see figure 3). National security interests and the intensity of those interests, along with key leverage elements, could be identified using a systems map. In addition, possible strategies or approaches to limiting Iranian influence are more easily identified, together with the associated first-, second-, and third-order effects. Systems and visual thinking enhance joint strategic leader critical thinking by portraying system complexity and interrelationships in ways that simple narratives or discussion cannot.

Solving globally complex security problems is the raison d’ état of joint strategic leaders; unfortunately, finding enduring solutions is frustratingly elusive. Why is that? Typically, the same assumptions that created the problem continue to frame any potential approaches to solving it. As assumptions are the personal or organizational perceptual bedrock used to develop and sustain views of reality, the second strategic thinking competency, creative thinking, is needed to overcome this flawed perception. Creative thinking forces joint strategic leaders to challenge underlying assumptions, look for system patterns, view relationships and actors in new ways, take more risks, and leverage opportunities. Creative thinking uses the critical thinking tools of systems thinking and visual thinking to expose preexisting paradigms and develop new paradigms for developing and integrating new perspectives. Joint strategic leaders who can represent problems in as many ways as possible will ultimately achieve higher rates of success.

Systems and visual thinking tools enable joint strategic leaders to develop different perspectives of an opposing system. For example, creating a depiction of the Iranian socopolitical system might provide the strategic leader with new insights into why current policies or operations are not creating the desired results. Systems and visualization tools are particularly effective for gaining insights into complex, adaptive systems (see figure 4). Creative thinking leverages primarily critical and collaborative thinking.

The third strategic thinking competency is contextual thinking. Contextual thinking leverages the skilled judgment of the joint strategic leader by analyzing an environmental fact or situation as an individual part of a complex continuum rather than the outcome of a specific cause or influence. Contextual thinking assists strategic leaders in the development of a better understanding of the nature of social interactions and the effects on cognitive processing. In complex problems, when context is missing, meaning is lost. In the global strategic security environment, the multiple solutions, methods, criteria, and perspectives surrounding the ill-structuredness of the security issue must be conveyed, not eliminated. Joint strategic leaders must then learn to sift through layers of context to identify those that are most relevant and important when solving problems. 27

For example, in a typical military context, there is often a failure to differentiate between the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war when discussing an issue. As we know, stakeholders and problems change depending on perspective. There are a number of questions that can be used to help frame context. What is the history of the issue? What was the strategic political and social context? Who were the actors? What was the central issue? What were the surrounding issues? Contextual thinking frames a point of common understanding for all stakeholders and participants. It leverages critical, creative, and conceptual thinking.

The fourth strategic thinking competency, conceptual thinking, is used by joint strategic leaders to understand a situation or problem by integrating issues and factors into a conceptual framework. Concepts, and the resulting maps, are the basis for human understanding and reasoning. Therefore, concepts are a form of knowledge structure that facilitates understanding. 28 Purposeful models help strategic leaders structure the exploration of a problem situation and are the most common means of initiating a comparison stage of problem-solving or understanding. 29

When dealing with complex problems, conceptual thinking helps joint strategic leaders illustrate interrelationships, facilitating much-needed discourse. Complex systems must be conceptually simplified to make them understandable. 30 Conceptual thinking requires joint strategic leaders to be open to new ways of viewing the world, with a willingness to explore issues through alternative disciplines. Conceptual thinkers can effectively translate abstract thoughts to unfamiliar audiences. Conceptual thinking leverages critical, creative, contextual, and communicative thinking competencies.

General Dunford gives remarks on leadership at Wall Street Journal Chief Executive Officer Council annual meeting, November 2015 (DOD/Dominique A. Pineiro)

The fifth strategic thinking competency is collaborative thinking, which creates synergy, improves performance, and motivates people to learn, develop, share, and adapt to changes. Collaborative thinking assists joint strategic leaders in developing synergy from stakeholders by openly sharing knowledge and experience, while acknowledging and affirming the same in others. Mutual sharing, respect, diversity, and equal participation that occur through high-order social learning, thinking, and communicating characterize collaborative groups. 31 Collaborative communication is the foundation of effective engagement, peak performance, and innovative outcomes; more importantly, it helps to develop and achieve common goals across national and institutional boundaries.

In today’s global security environment, the joint force cannot claim expertise across the globe. Rather, joint strategic leaders must integrate stakeholders’ deep understanding of their environments to find a heightened level of perception and new ways to think about issues. Collaborative thinking directly enhances critical and creative thinking and is influenced by cultural and communicative thinking competencies.

Cultural thinking, the sixth strategic thinking competency, is used to understand the interconnected world, incongruence of national borders, and synthesis of perspectives across a broad spectrum of cultures. Cultural thinking enables joint strategic leaders to understand a wider range of views and the beliefs, norms, values, and rituals associated with the global security environment. Enabled by information technology, the post–Cold War security environment collapsed into an intrinsically connected economic, cultural, and security global village. This interconnected world requires joint strategic leaders to understand that today’s security environment is not only multipolar but also exhibits characteristics of cross-pollinated perspectives, ideologies, goals, and capabilities.

Within this global village, the costs of individual action have been intensified, with potentially substantial implications for the international security community. This new security reality has created a different ideological context that calls for international security responsibilities that go beyond individuals and nation-states. 32 Joint strategic leaders regularly face tough ethical challenges because of various cultural factors. The greater the complexity of the environment within which the joint force is operating, the greater potential there is for ethical problems or misunderstandings to exist. As joint strategic leaders become ethically attuned, they must learn to view the world through a variety of lenses, developing a personal sense of right and wrong, and to interpret the influences that affect individual and group behavior. 33 Cultural thinking leverages critical, collaborative, and communicative thinking.

The last strategic thinking competency is communicative thinking. Communicative thinking is used by joint strategic leaders to understand the various means and modes of communicating, as well as the challenges associated with communicating complex issues among individuals, organizations, societies, cultures, and nations. A strategic leader must be able to build a desired, shared vision for the organization and communicate that vision internally and externally to various audiences. Joint strategic leaders must conceptualize complex issues and processes, simplify them, and inspire people around them. In today’s multicultural world, strategic leaders must be able to communicate across cultures as easily as they can communicate internally.

Joint strategic leaders must understand the cultural nuances of communication and be capable of communicating using multiple modes and methods, including blogs, tweets, written and oral reports, videos, storyboards, PowerPoint presentations, and formal and informal sessions. They must also be aware that communication occurs continuously and that it can occur nonverbally and through inactivity. Joint strategic leaders must understand that communication is a filtered, continuous, and active process and cannot be undone. 34 Communicative thinking leverages critical, collaborative, and cultural thinking competencies.

Recommendations and Conclusion

In the slower moving world of the industrial age, joint strategic leaders could plod their way through familiar tasks and concepts, developing solutions to a level of certainty most experts could agree on. In the fast-moving interconnected global security environment of today, however, strategic leaders do not have the luxury of time, task familiarity, or certainty. As a result, strategic leader competencies are needed more than ever. The difference between strategic leadership and “regular” leadership is that a strategic leader’s responsibilities are far broader and deeper in scope. These responsibilities typically cross not only functions and domains, but also often encompass multiple organizations that have diverse roles and responsibilities.

As officers transition from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level, new skills and competencies are needed, and that is where strategic leadership comes into play. With unmatched tactical and operational skills, U.S. joint doctrine should not be changed to deemphasize this critical operational leadership focus. Rather, doctrine must be expanded to include strategic leadership to address the competencies needed for strategy and policy development. Given this understanding of the leadership environment, and lacking a current joint definition of strategic leadership , the following definition is proposed:

The interactive process of leveraging unique stakeholder capabilities in the pursuit of common and enduring national, partner, and alliance security needs by identifying and communicating the goals and objectives of cooperative and willing stakeholders, and influencing their attainment.

As Zinni and Koltz state in their book, the joint force needs officers who possess the requisite strategic thinking competencies demanded by both the current and the future global security environments. 35 Current joint doctrine focuses on the low operational and tactical levels of war, and is insufficient for the development of joint strategic leaders.

Joint officer development must change the paradigm of the past 50 years or so to acknowledge the new skills required as the world continues the transition from the industrial age to the information age. As the Chairman and others have identified, strategic leadership is a necessity for operating in the 21 st -century security environment. This framework provides an approach to fill the leadership development shortfall in joint officer development, education, and doctrine. JFQ

1 Jason Katz, “America’s Lack of Leadership Is Feeding Global Instability,” Congress Blog , September 18, 2014, available at < http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/217930-americas-lack-of-leadership-is-feeding-global-instability >.

2 Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz, Leading the Charge: Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 28.

3 James Creelman et al., 2014 Global State of Strategy and Leadership Survey Report (New York: Palladium Group, Inc., 2014), 8, 18.

4 Ibid., 9.

5 Martin E. Dempsey, America’s Military—A Profession of Arms , White Paper (Washington, DC: The Joint Staff, 2012); Mission Command , White Paper (Washington, DC: The Joint Staff, 2012); Joint Education , White Paper (Washington, DC: The Joint Staff, 2012); Desired Leader Attributes for Joint Force 2020 , Memorandum (Washington, DC: The Joint Staff, 2013).

6 Richard L. Hughes, Katherine M. Beatty, and David Dinwiddie, Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success , 2 nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014), 11.

7 Linda Robinson et al., Improving Strategic Competence: Lessons from Thirteen Years of War (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2014), xi–xii.

8 Richard L. Hughes and Katherine L. Beatty, Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success , 1 st ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005), 11.

9 Sarah W. Fraser and Trisha Greenhalgh, “Complexity Science: Coping with Complexity: Educating for Capability,” The British Medical Journal 323 (2001), 799.

10 Army Doctrine Publication 6-22, Army Leadership (Fort Eustis, VA: Training and Doctrine Command, 2012).

11 Air Force Core Doctrine, Vol. II, Leadership (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: USAF Doctrine Center, 2012).

12 Dempsey, America’s Military , 1–6.

13 Joint Publication (JP) 1, Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States (Washington, DC: The Joint Staff, March 25, 2013), V-1–V-20.

14 Ibid., B-1–B-3.

15 Dempsey, Desired Leader Attributes , 1–2.

16 JP 1-0, B-1–B-3.

17 T. Irene Sanders, Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Change (New York: The Free Press, 1998), 162.

18 Hughes and Beatty, 43–51 .

19 Daniel H. McCauley, “An Institution for the Profession of Arms and Thought,” Campaigning , Fall 2014, 7.

20 Edward Cornish, Futuring: The Exploration of the Future (Bethesda, MD: World Future Society, 2004), 1–8.

21 Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 6, 186.

22 Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (White River Junction, VT: Sustainability Institute, 2008), 11–17.

23 Michel Marie Deza and Elena Deza, Encyclopedia of Distances (New York: Springer, 2009).

24 David H. Jonassen, Learning to Solve Problems: An Instructional Design Guide (New York: Routledge, 2011), 1–3.

25 Tony Buzan, The Mindmap Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain’s Untapped Potential (London: Penguin Group, 1993).

26 Tom Wujec, “3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning,” TED Talk , February 2009, available at <www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_on_3_ways_the_brain_creates_meaning?language=en>.

27 Jonassen, 209.

28 Ibid., 210.
29 Peter Checkland, “Soft Systems Methodology: A Thirty Year Retrospective,” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 17, supplement 1 (November 2000), S11–S58.

30 Jonassen, 29–31.

31 Timothy Stagich, Collaborative Leadership and Global Transformation: Developing Collaborative Leaders and High Synergy Organizations (Miami Beach: Global Leadership Resource, 2001), 1–18.

32 Elizabeth Filippouli, “Cultural Understanding and Global Thinking in Business,” Huffington Post , March 6, 2014.

33 Robert Rosen et al., Global Literacies: Lessons on Business Leadership and National Cultures (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 32–53.

34 Hughes, Beatty, and Dinwiddie, 145–191.

35 Zinni and Koltz, 24–25.

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When Intuition Isn't Good Enough

A colleague recently lamented upon his observation of leaders who tended to make decisions based more on their ‘guts and intuition’ than on facts and critical thought. He immediately reminded me of Dr. Stephen J. Gerras’ work, Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking: A Fundamental Guide for Strategic Leaders , which encouraged the need for leaders to develop better critical thinking skills. [1]

Dr. Gerras observed that many senior leaders feel they know the best way and have a tendency to use an ‘automatic’ mode of cognitive thought vs. a more ‘controlled’ mode that involves energy and deliberation when reaching conclusions. He also found that leaders are subject to many biases which cause them to rely on incorrect assumptions and ignore facts that should lead them to arrive at different solutions. A more deliberate approach he suggests, can increase critical thinking skills.

Dr. Gerras outlined a model of cognitive thought to help ensure that critical thinking happens when needed. The first necessity is for leaders to CLARIFY THE CONCERN and ensure that they’re addressing the right issue, or the root cause.

Leaders need to also consider the POINT OF VIEW. This entails a great deal of self-awareness and empathy to avoid thinking ‘my way’ is the ‘best way.’ Ever worked for a boss who just knew it all? Gerras describes these egocentric tendencies as, “…the most significant barrier to critical thinking” and a common trap into which senior leaders often fall. Leaders must also consider if they are making ASSUMPTIONS based on beliefs vs. the facts before them. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we all make assumptions about the way we think things ought to be.

Leaders must also be cautious when making INFERENCES or concluding something based on interpretation of the facts in front of them. If you walked in the door and your dog was sitting next to a shredded pillow with sunken ears and tail, you may infer that she did it when in fact, it was the cat! When EVALUATING THE INFORMATION, leaders must be conscious of these biases and problem-solving techniques, resisting the urge to rely on “rules of thumb.” Key amongst many biases is the confirmation trap when leaders reject evidence around them and go with their own judgment.

Finally, Dr. Gerras urges leaders to consider the IMPLICATIONS of their decisions… “What if I’m wrong?” “What if the evidence isn’t as factual as it’s being presented to me?” “What if I haven’t thought of everything?” If leaders focus on these approaches (and not necessarily in a linear way), then the results of their most critical decisions should reflect a deeper level of critical thought and a greater likelihood of resulting in desired outcomes.

So what else can leaders do to avoid the common pitfalls of gut-reaction decision-making for the most significant leadership decisions? The recommendations are many, but amongst them must be:

• Self-Awareness—The first step in avoiding our propensity to act without thinking is becoming more self-aware and looking for these bias-laden traps.
• Encouraging Feedback—If leaders are truly seeking and considering the candid feedback of others on the team in their decision-making, then they’ve cleared the first hurdle in avoiding the confirmation trap. Gerras insists that treating one another as colleagues regardless of rank, title or duty is the first step in achieving the trust necessary to deliver this valuable feedback.
• Looking For It—Leaders aren’t the only ones who can improve. By looking for opportunities to coach others, leaders can help everyone on the team develop greater critical thinking skills to make better decisions.

References:

[1] Gerras, Dr. S.J. (2008, August). Thinking critically about critical thinking: A fundamental guide for strategic leaders. Retrieved from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army-usawc/crit_thkg_gerras.pdf

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Thinking Strategically

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Health system leaders continue to be driven by changes in consumer behavior, demographics, reimbursement models, organizational initiatives, market consolidation, competition, and regulatory guidelines. In response, leaders in academic health systems need to marshal the very best of their raw processing power and discernment (i.e., intelligence) to recognize the immediate and future effects of their actions. Furthermore, leaders must manage “polarity thinking” in cases where complex issues are not problems that have definitive solutions, but rather contain interdependent, often opposing elements that must each be optimized at a point in time toward a strategic end. And as clinician leaders are increasingly called upon to become health system thought leaders , one of the most critical skill sets to be effective in this environment is thinking strategically. Thinking strategically is a skill business leaders use to effectively and proactively respond to the increased rate of environmental change.

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Evans, C.J. (2020). Thinking Strategically. In: Viera, A.J., Kramer, R. (eds) Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45425-8_24

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Developing Creative and Critical Thinkers

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6 Critical Thinking Skills That Create Great Leaders

5 steps to becoming a good critical thinker, a list of critical thinking skills, the impact of changed critical thinking.

“Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.” Those words from Albert Einstein ring true in so many areas of life. In the business world, a lack of thinking often leads to disappointment and disaster. As important as it is to think in the first place, it’s also crucial for leaders to change  how  they think. In Thinking for a Change , John Maxwell states, “One of the reasons people don’t achieve their dreams is that they desire to change their results without changing their thinking. ” To do so, people need to adopt critical thinking skills.

When someone uses critical thinking skills, they begin to transform into the best version of themselves. Doing so is no small feat, though. Your level of critical thought is tied to your beliefs and your expectations.   Because the critical thinking process requires growth and introspection, there are few critical thinkers out there.

However, if you’re reading this article, you’re likely interested in developing the mindset of a critical thinker—someone who is capable of solving the world’s greatest problems. 

Take the next five minutes to learn how to become an effective critical thinker who can successfully tackle any challenge. 

Determining how to think critically can be a challenge, but  John Maxwell  provides a helpful guide to transforming how you think. By adopting this process, you’ll be able to solve problems and embrace an  entrepreneurial spirit  that will change you and your business. Here are the five steps to gaining critical thinking skills as Maxwell describes.

1.  Expose yourself to good input.  Read as much as you can from reputable sources and other good thinkers. When you come across a great idea, record and save it. Use the idea in the future as a way to stimulate more thinking.

2.  Expose yourself to good thinkers.  Don’t just sit at your desk and read a book or article from a critical thinker. Seek out other people (in person) who will challenge your thinking as well. These should be people who are also trying to grow and learn. One way to do this is by joining a mastermind group full of high-performers and entrepreneurs like yourself. 

3.  Choose to think good thoughts.  Be intentional about your thinking process. Focus on the positive. If you dwell on the negative, it should come as no surprise when adverse outcomes happen.

4.  Act on your good thoughts.  It’s not enough to simply think good thoughts. Act on them as well. More importantly, act on them quickly. Ideas end up having a short shelf life, so you must work on them before they hit their expiration date.

5.  Allow your emotions to create another good thought.  Use the momentum of good thinking as a tool to fuel more good ideas. Allowing your emotions to feed that process continually creates a self-feeding system you can capitalize on.

So, what are critical thinking skills?  Maxwell provides a helpful list in  Thinking for a Change . After all, critical thinking is the ability to think rationally and put together logical connections. These skills can help in all aspects of your life as they cultivate  innovative leadership . To become a skillful critical thinker, master the following critical thinking skills from Maxwell’s book.

1. Big Picture Thinking

Someone who looks beyond the immediate moment and considers the ramifications of their actions is a person who engages in big picture thinking. They understand that others think and see the world differently.

To practice big picture thinking, actively listen to others and set aside any agendas. All of this is in service to greater goals. As Maxwell puts it, “The person who forgets the ultimate, is a slave to the immediate.”

To practice big picture thinking:

• Have a vision for the future.
• Think like a leader.
• Account for all the variables you may encounter.
• Note what obstacles you may find.
• Draw a road map of where your team is going.
• Connect the past with the future to show a meaningful journey.

2. Realistic Thinking

Though leaders may have far-reaching dreams, they must also be realistic in their thinking. That includes developing a deep appreciation for the truth, which can be challenging for some. 

Winston Churchill famously said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has happened.” To be a realistic thinker, you need to become comfortable with facing the truth, even if it’s difficult.

To become a realistic thinker:

• Show appreciation for the truth.
• Do your homework, including making sure you collect concrete facts.
• Consider the pros and cons of each solution.
• Imagine the worst case scenario just to be ready for it.
• Align your thinking with the truth to promote the right solution.

3. Strategic Thinking

Every solution and goal requires having a plan. Without a plan, you can’t expect to make much progress in achieving your top objectives. 

Planning means developing strategic thinking. While some challenges may feel insurmountable, strategic thinking helps to break the journey down into more manageable “bite-size” parts. When you do this, you can focus on each step more effectively. 

Which parts can you tackle yourself, and which can involve  delegation  to others? Strategic thinking shows that it’s not just what you hope to accomplish that matters, it’s  how  you do it.

4. Focused Thinking

As much as you might like, you can’t devote all of your thinking to every topic under the sun. While you might feel tempted to engage in exhaustive thinking, you must be more selective. 

In other words, practice focused thinking. 

Understand that it’s impossible to know everything and everyone. If you focus your energies, you can concentrate on the most important things you want to learn.

To get more focused:

• Remove all distractions.
• Set aside time dedicated to focused thinking.
• Establish specific goals.
• Monitor your progress toward your goals.
• Keep items of focus in sight when you work.
• Identify your strengths and areas of expertise.

5. Unselfish Thinking

John Maxwell describes unselfish thinking the best when he wrote, “There is no life as empty as the self-centered life. There is no life as centered as the self-empty life.”

Unselfish thinking means not thinking of yourself all the time. Think of others and what their needs are first, and identify how you can provide value to their lives.

To practice unselfish thinking, you must examine your motives carefully. Is what you’re doing for your benefit or the benefit of others? If you’re not careful, you could slowly, but surely, slide back into selfish motives.

6. Bottom-Line Thinking

When referencing bottom-line thinking, John Maxwell doesn’t mean thinking of the bottom line in financial terms. Instead, it means setting standards that you have to meet if you want to succeed. 

Bottom-line thinking involves thinking about what has to occur to reach the most important goal in various areas of your life. Once you set aside any emotions and wants, you can determine what accomplishments really matter to you. 

Take a moment to think of what your bottom line is in the following areas:

• Life Purpose

As you develop your critical thinking skills and become a critical thinker, you’ll understand the power of change. Any significant change has to come from within, and that all starts with how you think.

As a leader, you can not only change the way you think, but you can inspire others to think differently as well. From there, the impact of critical thinking spreads to touch all parts of your life, leading to beneficial results.

For those wanting to change the world, it begins with what’s in your head.

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