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How Strong are Your Critical Thinking Skills?

The Thinker

I believe that critical thinking is an important skill for any leader. Critical thinking supports both decision making and self-leadership.  

I’ve done some research and assembled this quick read designed to help you begin to develop your critical thinking skills.  For now, I’ll keep it simple to define and learn where you might need it.

What is Critical Thinking?

This Philosophy definition from Paul-Elder might seem either redundant or over simplified.  Until you apply critical thinking

“Thinking about thinking in order to improve thinking. “

The Foundation for Critical Thinking has applied their concepts and with this link you can learn about the model and philosophy of Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder.  Their site has a wealth of resources for a deep dive for even more critical thought.   

The Thinker

Critical Thinking Simplified

This is a two minute read with a three minute video. It’s designed to deliver fast food for critical thought.  Below you’ll find:

  •  3 Simple Habits (with a link to the related HBR article)
  • A compelling video to help you think more critically about yourself as a leader.

If your critical, intellectual curiosity is somehow unfulfilled, I added some extra credit material from the the deep thinkers at The Foundation for Critical Thinking. But feel free to skip the grey box content at the end.  

3 Simple Habits for Critical Thinking

  1. Question assumptions

  2. Reason through logic

  3. Diversify thought

3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking
by Helen Lee Bouygues

3 Habits

Critical Thinking Applied to Self-Leadership

In this 3 minute video, author William Deresiewicz shares that critical thinking requires courage.  It takes courage to question yourself and your beliefs.  As humans, our need to be right is a powerful drive.  When you have the courage to be critical about who you are and where you’re going, you’ll likely discover you’ve been wrong about some assumptions.  That kind of thinking flies in the face of our need to be right.  Hence the need to muster courage. 

For Extra Critical Credit

In a seminal study on critical thinking and education in 1941, Edward Glaser defines critical thinking as follows “The ability to think critically, as conceived in this volume, involves three things:

  1. An attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one’s experiences,
  2. Knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, and
  3. Some skill in applying those methods.

Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends. It also generally requires ability to recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems, to gather and marshal pertinent information, to recognize unstated assumptions and values, to comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discrimination, to interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments, to recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions, to draw warranted conclusions and generalizations, to put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives, to reconstruct one’s patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience, and to render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life.

 – The Foundation for Critical Thinking

Developing Critical Thinking

Intellectual Traits

  • Humility
  • Autonomy
  • Integrity
  • Courage
  • Preservice
  • Confidence in Reason
  • Empathy
  • Fairmindedness

Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model