JKL Associates – Business & Talent Builders Blog!

February 16, 2012 – ISSN# 1545-2646

Critical Thinking

I was having a conversation the other day and began to wonder why critical thinking is such a rare skill we see in the workplace.

You may have your own opinion but to some degree, we, the people who have been in the workplace over 25 years, have contributed to  this situation ourselves.

I was very fortunate to have started my career working for leaders that rather than direct and answer questions, provided mentoring to develop the thinking skills to evaluate the assumptions behind the thoughts rather than just accept the thought as valid.

Unfortunately over the past few years the pace of business has continually moved quicker and been compounded with additional economic pressures. Leaders in business have fallen into the mode of operation of directing and answering rather than developing critical business skills to foster leadership.

This is especially true in the small and medium size business where the owner is more actively involved in their business today than they had planned on at the encroaching retirement years.

We also see this with younger resources just entering the workplace.  Their formative years in college provided theory and study habits and some general thinking skills but did not develop those critical thinking skills to inquisitively question the direction with well thought out concerns.

Between the absence of well developed critical thinking at the entry level and the leadership being pressured for rapid response to daily fires, the end result is an implosion of leadership skills to support entrepreneurial growth in the marketplace.

I realize there are exceptions to this broad discussion on critical thinking.  The reality is that in business, most small and medium sized owners have access to the 68% of the general population.  The top 16% are not the portion of the population we are giving consideration to.

To enable business to thrive going forward and provide for succession or continuation of the business, future leadership must be given the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills before they concede to a role of only contributor rather than leader.

This week, take some additional time to ask questions rather than answering questions or giving direction.  Begin building some critical thinking skills in your team.

So are you ready to start building your future with resources that have a fuller arrangement of critical leadership skills? Give JKL Associates a call for a no obligation conversation on what we can bring to your business in 2012.

Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945

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JKL Associates
18530 Mack Ave #242
Grosse Pointe Farms
MI 48236

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