Ira Wolfe, you talk about leadership, agility and the six essential qualities of a leader. And one is critical thinking. How do you define critical thinking?

We talk about adaptability and part of that is mental flexibility. It's dealing with ambiguity; taking conflicting messages and trying to make sense of that, correlating what parts work and which ones don't.

It's the ability to deal with cognitive dissonance, especially when you deal with politics and things.

The other part of cognitive critical thinking is your ability to reason, certainly, but it's also the ability to do it quickly.

And in my core businesses we do pre-employment and leadership testing and cognitive testing was always a part of that.

So there's a quality part of critical thinking such as, are you curious enough? Do you do your due diligence? Do you ask enough questions? 

Do you reflect on your solutions? So many people just take it for granted; they read the headlines and they move on. So it's curiosity. 

Do people have a belief if it ain't broken, don't fix it or do they consider options? 

And either scale can be a problem. Sometimes things that work should be repeated because they worked’ they’re tried and true. But sometimes you have to at other options, but you can go down rabbit holes with that. 

Sometimes people just love new ideas and if something doesn't work, they hop to another idea and then another idea.

So we look at a balance of open-mindedness and willingness to change.

How much do you rely on facts vs. intuition? 

Are you know risk-tolerant or risk-averse? 

Are you cautious? Are you impulsive? 

So when we talk about critical thinking, we want to think, “Oh, they're smart. They make good decisions. 

How do they make those decisions?

What's their approach? 

Are they curious? 

Are they fact-based or do they rely on instinct or consider other options? 

How do they evaluate the risk in that? And then we also measure, we look at the speed at which they can do that. 

Some people are really good thinkers but they can't do it when somebody's watching under the gun. 

And there are times, especially in a VUCA world, where you have to make snap decisions on the front line. 

===

 About Ira Wolfe

Ira Wolfe is a prolific blogger, podcaster, and author. Ira’s company, Success Performance Solutions, provides employee assessments and recruitment consulting. His TEDx talk, "Make Change Work for You," became the inspiration for his latest book Recruiting in the Age of Googlization: When the Shift Hits Your Plan.Contact Ira Wolfe

Contact:

https://www.irawolfe.com/

https://performancesolutions.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irawolfe/

Nevernormalnews.com

ABOUT HOST, NINA SUNDAY CSP

Contact: [email protected] or [email protected]

Author of ‘Workplace Wisdom for 9 to thrive; the 12 soft skills everyone needs to know for workplace success'

Invite Nina Sunday CSP as a virtual speaker for your conference globally, or in-person in Australia.

Visit https://ninasunday.com

As Founder/Owner of Brainpower Training Pty Ltd you can arrange for a Facilitator to deliver face-to-face team training Australia-wide. Visit https://www.brainpowertraining.com.au

The Manage Self, Lead Others podcast is mainly for experienced and aspiring managers to explore ways to elevate and transform team culture. Nina Sunday speaks with key experts from Australia and across the globe who share their insights in self-leadership and leading others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices