business management critical thinking skills

Our Recommendations

• Best Small Business Loans for 2024
• Businessloans.com Review
• Biz2Credit Review
• SBG Funding Review
• Rapid Finance Review
• 26 Great Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs
• Startup Costs: How Much Cash Will You Need?
• How to Get a Bank Loan for Your Small Business
• Articles of Incorporation: What New Business Owners Should Know
• How to Choose the Best Legal Structure for Your Business

Small Business Resources

• Business Ideas
• Business Plans
• Startup Basics
• Startup Funding
• Franchising
• Success Stories
• Entrepreneurs
• The Best Credit Card Processors of 2024
• Clover Credit Card Processing Review
• Merchant One Review
• Stax Review
• How to Conduct a Market Analysis for Your Business
• Local Marketing Strategies for Success
• Tips for Hiring a Marketing Company
• Benefits of CRM Systems
• 10 Employee Recruitment Strategies for Success
• Sales & Marketing
• Social Media
• Best Business Phone Systems of 2024
• The Best PEOs of 2024
• RingCentral Review
• Nextiva Review
• Ooma Review
• Guide to Developing a Training Program for New Employees
• How Does 401(k) Matching Work for Employers?
• Why You Need to Create a Fantastic Workplace Culture
• 16 Cool Job Perks That Keep Employees Happy
• 7 Project Management Styles
• Women in Business
• Personal Growth
• Best Accounting Software and Invoice Generators of 2024
• Best Payroll Services for 2024
• Best POS Systems for 2024
• Best CRM Software of 2024
• Best Call Centers and Answering Services for Busineses for 2024
• Salesforce vs. HubSpot: Which CRM Is Right for Your Business?
• Rippling vs Gusto: An In-Depth Comparison
• RingCentral vs. Ooma Comparison
• Choosing a Business Phone System: A Buyer’s Guide
• Equipment Leasing: A Guide for Business Owners
• HR Solutions
• Financial Solutions
• Marketing Solutions
• Security Solutions
• Retail Solutions
• SMB Solutions

Online only.

Why Critical Thinking Matters in Your Business

Table of Contents

Many professionals hope to pursue careers they’re passionate about so they can find joy and meaning in their work. Caring deeply about your work is vital for engagement and productivity, but balancing emotions with critical thinking is essential in the workplace. 

When employees engage in critical thinking, they use an independent, reflective thought process to evaluate issues and solve problems based on knowledge and objective evidence. 

Critical thinking skills can guide your organization toward success, but to truly maximize the problem-solving benefits of critical thinking, it’s crucial to teach this skill to your entire team. We’ll explore critical thinking skills and how to teach them in the workplace to help your business improve its decision-making and problem-solving. 

What is critical thinking?

Jen Lawrence, co-author of Engage the Fox: A Business Fable About Thinking Critically and Motivating Your Team , defines critical thinking as “the ability to solve problems effectively by systematically gathering information about an issue, generating further ideas involving a variety of perspectives, evaluating the information using logic, and making sure everyone involved is on board.”

This is a complex definition for a challenging concept. Though critical thinking might seem as straightforward as stepping back and using a formal thinking process instead of reacting instinctively to conflicts or problems, it is actually a much more challenging task.

Critical thinking’s ultimate goal is ensuring you have the best answer to a problem with maximum buy-in from all parties involved – an outcome that will ultimately save your business time, money and stress.

Why is critical thinking essential in the workplace?

A World Economic Forum report revealed that critical thinking is one of the most in-demand career skills employers seek when trying to attract and retain the best employees – and employers believe critical thinking skills will become even more necessary in the coming years. 

Critical thinking in the workplace guarantees objective and efficient problem-solving, ultimately reducing costly errors and ensuring that your organization’s resources are used wisely. Team members employing critical thinking can connect ideas, spot errors and inconsistencies, and make the best decisions most often. 

Employees with critical thinking are also more likely to accomplish the following:

• Analyzing information
• Thinking outside the box
• Coming up with creative solutions to sudden problems
• Devising thought-through, systematic plans
• Requiring less supervision

Critical thinkers are sure about the reasoning behind their decisions, allowing them to communicate with employees clearly. This level of communication enhances employee engagement .

What are critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking is a soft skill that comprises multiple interpersonal and analytical abilities and attributes. Here are some essential critical thinking skills that can support workforce success.

• Observation: Employees with critical thinking can easily sense and identify an existing problem – and even predict potential issues – based on their experience and sharp perception. They’re willing to embrace multiple points of view and look at the big picture. 
• Analytical thinking: Analytical thinkers collect data from multiple sources, reject bias, and ask thoughtful questions. When approaching a problem, they gather and double-check facts, assess independent research, and sift through information to determine what’s accurate and what can help resolve the problem. 
• Open-mindedness: Employees who demonstrate critical thinking are open-minded – not afraid to consider opinions and information that differ from their beliefs and assumptions. They listen to colleagues; they can let go of personal biases and recognize that a problem’s solution can come from unexpected sources. 
• Problem-solving attitude: Critical thinkers possess a positive attitude toward problem-solving and look for optimal solutions to issues they’ve identified and analyzed. They are usually proactive and willing to offer suggestions based on all the information they receive. [Related article: How to Develop a Positive Attitude in the Workplace ]
• Communication: When managers make a decision, they must share it with the rest of the team and other stakeholders. Critical thinkers demonstrate excellent communication skills and can provide supporting arguments and evidence that substantiate the decision to ensure the entire team is on the same page. 

What are the benefits of critical thinking in the workplace?

Many workplaces operate at a frantic tempo that reinforces hasty thinking and rushed business decisions, resulting in costly mistakes and blunders. When employees are trained in critical thinking, they learn to slow the pace and gather crucial information before making decisions. 

Along with reducing costly errors, critical thinking in the workplace brings the following benefits: 

• Critical thinking improves communication. When employees think more clearly and aren’t swayed by emotion, they communicate better. “If you can think more clearly and better articulate your positions, you can better engage in discussions and make a much more meaningful contribution in your job,” said David Welton, managing partner at Grove Critical Thinking.
• Critical thinking boosts emotional intelligence. It might seem counterintuitive to associate analytical rationality with emotional intelligence . However, team members who possess critical thinking skills are less prone to rash, emotion-driven decisions. Instead, they take time to analyze the situation and make the most informed decision while being mindful and respectful of the emotional and ethical implications. 
• Critical thinking encourages creativity. Critical thinkers are open to new ideas and perspectives and accumulate a significant amount of information when facing decisions. Because of this, they’re more likely to come up with creative solutions . They are also curious and don’t shy away from asking open-ended questions. 
• Critical thinking saves time and money. By encouraging critical thinking in the workplace, you minimize the need for supervision, catch potential problems early, promote independence and initiative, and free managers to focus on other duties. All this helps your company save valuable time and resources. 

Critical thinking skills are essential for dealing with difficult customers because they help your team make informed decisions while managing stressful situations.

How do you teach critical thinking in the workplace?

Experts agree that critical thinking is a teachable skill. Both Lawrence and Welton recommend exploring critical thinking training programs and methods to improve your workplace’s critical thinking proficiency. Here’s a breakdown of how to teach critical thinking in the workplace: 

• Identify problem areas. Executives and managers should assess workplace areas most lacking in critical thinking. If mistakes are consistently made, determine whether the issue is a lack of critical thinking or an inherent issue with a team or process. After identifying areas that lack critical thinking, research the type of training best suited to your organization. 
• Start small. Employees newly embracing critical thinking might have trouble tackling large issues immediately. Instead, present them with smaller challenges. “Start practicing critical thinking as a skill with smaller problems as examples, and then work your way up to larger problems,” Lawrence said.
• Act preemptively. Teaching and implementing critical thinking training and methodology takes time and patience. Lawrence emphasized that critical thinking skills are best acquired during a time of calm. It might feel urgent to seek critical thinking during a crisis, but critical thinking is a challenging skill to learn amid panic and stress. Critical thinking training is best done preemptively so that when a crisis hits, employees will be prepared and critical thinking will come naturally.
• Allow sufficient time. From a managerial perspective, giving employees extra time on projects or problems might feel stressful in the middle of deadlines and executive pressures. But if you want those working for you to engage in critical thinking processes, it’s imperative to give them ample time. Allowing employees sufficient time to work through their critical thinking process can save the company time and money in the long run.

How do you identify successful critical thinking?

Successful critical thinking happens during a crisis, not after.

Lawrence provided an example involving restaurants and waitstaff: If a customer has a bad experience at a restaurant, a server using critical thinking skills will be more likely to figure out a solution to save the interaction, such as offering a free appetizer or discount. “This can save the hard-earned customer relationship you spent a lot of marketing dollars to create,” Lawrence said. This concept is applicable across many business and organizational structures. 

You should also be aware of signs of a lack of critical thinking. Lawrence pointed out that companies that change strategy rapidly, moving from one thing to the next, are likely not engaging in critical thinking. This is also the case at companies that seem to have good ideas but have trouble executing them.

As with many issues in business, company leadership determines how the rest of the organization acts. If leaders have excellent ideas but don’t follow critical thinking processes, their team will not buy into those ideas, and the company will suffer. This is why critical thinking skills often accompany positive communication skills.

“Critical thinking doesn’t just help you arrive at the best answer, but at a solution most people embrace,” Lawrence said. Modeling critical thinking at the top will help the skill trickle down to the rest of the organization, no matter your company’s type or size.

To get your employees thinking critically, conduct employee surveys with well-designed questions to help them identify issues and solutions.

Critical thinking is the key to your business success

When critical thinking is actively implemented in an organization, mistakes are minimized, and operations run more seamlessly. 

With training, time and patience, critical thinking can become a second-nature skill for employees at all levels of experience and seniority. The money, time and conflict you’ll save in the long run are worth the extra effort of implementing critical thinking in your workplace.

Rebecka Green contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Building Better Businesses

Insights on business strategy and culture, right to your inbox. Part of the business.com network.

How it works

For Business

Join Mind Tools

Article • 8 min read

Critical Thinking

Developing the right mindset and skills.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

We make hundreds of decisions every day and, whether we realize it or not, we're all critical thinkers.

We use critical thinking each time we weigh up our options, prioritize our responsibilities, or think about the likely effects of our actions. It's a crucial skill that helps us to cut out misinformation and make wise decisions. The trouble is, we're not always very good at it!

In this article, we'll explore the key skills that you need to develop your critical thinking skills, and how to adopt a critical thinking mindset, so that you can make well-informed decisions.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is the discipline of rigorously and skillfully using information, experience, observation, and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions, and beliefs. You'll need to actively question every step of your thinking process to do it well.

Collecting, analyzing and evaluating information is an important skill in life, and a highly valued asset in the workplace. People who score highly in critical thinking assessments are also rated by their managers as having good problem-solving skills, creativity, strong decision-making skills, and good overall performance. [1]

Key Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinkers possess a set of key characteristics which help them to question information and their own thinking. Focus on the following areas to develop your critical thinking skills:

Being willing and able to explore alternative approaches and experimental ideas is crucial. Can you think through "what if" scenarios, create plausible options, and test out your theories? If not, you'll tend to write off ideas and options too soon, so you may miss the best answer to your situation.

To nurture your curiosity, stay up to date with facts and trends. You'll overlook important information if you allow yourself to become "blinkered," so always be open to new information.

But don't stop there! Look for opposing views or evidence to challenge your information, and seek clarification when things are unclear. This will help you to reassess your beliefs and make a well-informed decision later. Read our article, Opening Closed Minds , for more ways to stay receptive.

Logical Thinking

You must be skilled at reasoning and extending logic to come up with plausible options or outcomes.

It's also important to emphasize logic over emotion. Emotion can be motivating but it can also lead you to take hasty and unwise action, so control your emotions and be cautious in your judgments. Know when a conclusion is "fact" and when it is not. "Could-be-true" conclusions are based on assumptions and must be tested further. Read our article, Logical Fallacies , for help with this.

Use creative problem solving to balance cold logic. By thinking outside of the box you can identify new possible outcomes by using pieces of information that you already have.

Self-Awareness

Many of the decisions we make in life are subtly informed by our values and beliefs. These influences are called cognitive biases and it can be difficult to identify them in ourselves because they're often subconscious.

Practicing self-awareness will allow you to reflect on the beliefs you have and the choices you make. You'll then be better equipped to challenge your own thinking and make improved, unbiased decisions.

One particularly useful tool for critical thinking is the Ladder of Inference . It allows you to test and validate your thinking process, rather than jumping to poorly supported conclusions.

Developing a Critical Thinking Mindset

Combine the above skills with the right mindset so that you can make better decisions and adopt more effective courses of action. You can develop your critical thinking mindset by following this process:

Gather Information

First, collect data, opinions and facts on the issue that you need to solve. Draw on what you already know, and turn to new sources of information to help inform your understanding. Consider what gaps there are in your knowledge and seek to fill them. And look for information that challenges your assumptions and beliefs.

Be sure to verify the authority and authenticity of your sources. Not everything you read is true! Use this checklist to ensure that your information is valid:

• Are your information sources trustworthy ? (For example, well-respected authors, trusted colleagues or peers, recognized industry publications, websites, blogs, etc.)
• Is the information you have gathered up to date ?
• Has the information received any direct criticism ?
• Does the information have any errors or inaccuracies ?
• Is there any evidence to support or corroborate the information you have gathered?
• Is the information you have gathered subjective or biased in any way? (For example, is it based on opinion, rather than fact? Is any of the information you have gathered designed to promote a particular service or organization?)

If any information appears to be irrelevant or invalid, don't include it in your decision making. But don't omit information just because you disagree with it, or your final decision will be flawed and bias.

Now observe the information you have gathered, and interpret it. What are the key findings and main takeaways? What does the evidence point to? Start to build one or two possible arguments based on what you have found.

You'll need to look for the details within the mass of information, so use your powers of observation to identify any patterns or similarities. You can then analyze and extend these trends to make sensible predictions about the future.

To help you to sift through the multiple ideas and theories, it can be useful to group and order items according to their characteristics. From here, you can compare and contrast the different items. And once you've determined how similar or different things are from one another, Paired Comparison Analysis can help you to analyze them.

The final step involves challenging the information and rationalizing its arguments.

Apply the laws of reason (induction, deduction, analogy) to judge an argument and determine its merits. To do this, it's essential that you can determine the significance and validity of an argument to put it in the correct perspective. Take a look at our article, Rational Thinking , for more information about how to do this.

Once you have considered all of the arguments and options rationally, you can finally make an informed decision.

Afterward, take time to reflect on what you have learned and what you found challenging. Step back from the detail of your decision or problem, and look at the bigger picture. Record what you've learned from your observations and experience.

Critical thinking involves rigorously and skilfully using information, experience, observation, and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions and beliefs. It's a useful skill in the workplace and in life.

You'll need to be curious and creative to explore alternative possibilities, but rational to apply logic, and self-aware to identify when your beliefs could affect your decisions or actions.

You can demonstrate a high level of critical thinking by validating your information, analyzing its meaning, and finally evaluating the argument.

Critical Thinking Infographic

See Critical Thinking represented in our infographic: An Elementary Guide to Critical Thinking .

You've accessed 1 of your 2 free resources.

Get unlimited access

Discover more content

Book Insights

Overcoming Low Self-Esteem

Melanie Fennell

5 Customer Service Parables

Improve Customer Service With Stories

Add comment

Comments (1)

priyanka ghogare

Team Management

Learn the key aspects of managing a team, from building and developing your team, to working with different types of teams, and troubleshooting common problems.

Sign-up to our newsletter

Subscribing to the Mind Tools newsletter will keep you up-to-date with our latest updates and newest resources.

Subscribe now

Business Skills

Personal Development

Leadership and Management

Member Extras

Most Popular

Newest Releases

SWOT Analysis

SMART Goals

Mind Tools Store

About Mind Tools Content

Discover something new today

How to stop procrastinating.

Overcoming the Habit of Delaying Important Tasks

What Is Time Management?

Working Smarter to Enhance Productivity

How Emotionally Intelligent Are You?

Boosting Your People Skills

Self-Assessment

What's Your Leadership Style?

Learn About the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Way You Like to Lead

Recommended for you

Boost your team with positive narratives infographic.

Infographic Transcript

Infographic

Business Operations and Process Management

Strategy Tools

Customer Service

Business Ethics and Values

Handling Information and Data

Project Management

Knowledge Management

Self-Development and Goal Setting

Time Management

Presentation Skills

Learning Skills

Career Skills

Communication Skills

Negotiation, Persuasion and Influence

Working With Others

Difficult Conversations

Creativity Tools

Self-Management

Work-Life Balance

Stress Management and Wellbeing

Coaching and Mentoring

Change Management

Managing Conflict

Delegation and Empowerment

Performance Management

Leadership Skills

Developing Your Team

Talent Management

Problem Solving

Decision Making

Member Podcast

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Share Podcast

3 Ways to Build Critical-Thinking Skills

When was the last time you practiced your critical thinking skills?

• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts

When was the last time you practiced your critical thinking skills? Helen Lee Bouygues , an expert in business transformation, says many business problems are really about simple errors in critical thinking.

“People believe that critical thinking is something that we do every day and it comes very natural,” she tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch . “But in reality, critical thinking is not only extremely important for success in life, but it’s also something that needs to be learned and practiced.”

In this episode you’ll learn how to practice your critical thinking skills. Bouygues outlines three key components of critical thinking: questioning your assumptions, reasoning through logic, and diversifying your thought process.

Key episode topics include: strategy, strategy formulation, decision making and problem solving, managing yourself, critical thinking, managing emotions, strategic decisions.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Improve Your Critical Thinking at Work (2019)
• Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business. When was the last time you practiced your critical thinking skills in your business? Helen Lee Bouygues says many business problems are really about simple errors in critical thinking. Bouygues is an expert in business transformation and she’s been an interim CEO, CFO, or COO at more than a dozen companies. In this episode you’ll learn how to improve your critical thinking skills for business – through (you guessed it) practice. Bouygues outlines 3 key components of critical thinking: questioning your assumptions, reasoning through logic, and diversifying your thought process to avoid selective thinking. You’ll learn how to practice each and why building in time to think without distractions can also help you make better decisions.  This episode originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in July 2019. Here it is.

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch. You know the story. Maybe it’s even a nightmare of yours. One day, the company is flying high. No reason to change anything. Customers and contracts will always be there. And then one day – the money stops flowing in, and the business is suddenly in real trouble. Our guest today knows this all too well. She has been an interim CEO, CFO, or COO at more than one dozen companies. Sometimes they needed her because they were mismanaged. Some failed to stay in front of changing technologies. In a few cases, members of the senior team were simply negligent. But in her experience, all these organizational problems shared one root cause: A lack of critical thinking. Our guest is Helen Lee Bouygues. She’s the founder of the Reboot Foundation. Based in Paris, the nonprofit helps parents, teachers and employers think more critically about their problems. She’s also the author of the HBR.org article “3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking.” Helen, thanks for being here.

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Thank you for having me, Curt.

CURT NICKISCH: Helen, you worked in transitional periods for a bunch of big companies. And, you say that many people’s business problems really come down to simple errors in critical thinking. That just sounds a little surprising to me and I wanted to hear why you say that.

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Yeah, I think at first glance people believe that critical thinking is something that we do every day and it comes very natural. But in reality, critical thinking is not only extremely important for success in life, but it’s also something that needs to be learned and practiced. Critical thinking skills are very much predictive of making positive financial decisions, even more so than raw intelligence, but people kind of forget what that actually means in terms of tools and practices that they need to exercise in order to make the right decisions, or at least the better decisions. Based on my 20 years of different turnaround and transformation experience, I have noticed that very often when things go sideways or create problems and companies find themselves in a situation of a need for turnaround, it’s typically been because I would argue that the leadership perhaps lacked some elements of critical thinking.

CURT NICKISCH: Why do you think we lack critical thinking skills, or why do you think we think we’re better at it than we actually are?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: That’s a great question Curt and actually we did a survey at the Reboot Foundation about a year ago, where we asked people questions of everything from ranging from how often do they practice critical thinking to how important they think critical thinking is, and how often they teach their children critical thinking? I think one of the reasons why it’s more difficult in today’s day and age is that we live in a world of incessant distraction and technology is often to blame as well. We live in a period when we have a question, we want that instant gratification getting the information, just typing the question on Google, having the answer quickly and so, we don’t actually have as much time to stop and think. And part of the necessity of critical thinking is having that ability to take a step back and actually think about your own thinking. And yet, it’s actually becoming more and more critical because as businesses evolve and there’s more urgency to make decisions, that’s exactly when we need to do more critical thinking than perhaps we used to, because of evolving technology and rapidly changing competitive environments in business.

CURT NICKISCH: You say that getting better at critical thinking is something we can learn and cultivate?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Yes. The opposite of critical thinking could be selective thinking. And naturally selective thinking is something that you can actually do relatively quickly because it’s just a reinforcement of your own opinion. People in business can get better at critical thinking if they just do three things. One, question assumptions. Two, reason through logic. And three, diversify thought.

CURT NICKISCH: How do you actually do that?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: So, the taking a break, and that doesn’t mean doing meditation or yoga, but actually taking the time. It could be going for a run, or a walk around the block. That alone creates that opportunity for an individual to take the time to stop and think. So, that’s one dimension I think that people need to put in their normal practice. The second element that you wouldn’t necessarily think about in terms of an attribute necessary for critical thinking is management of emotions. So, the number of times that you can imagine, especially in a boardroom for a company that’s going through a difficulty, heated discussions, insults across the room. In that type of environment, it’s very difficult to engage in rational thinking. As much emotions are important, when it comes to true important decisions, we need to put aside the feelings and emotions that go awry in a meeting setting. In addition to that, I think the other element of what we need to make sure that we conduct is making sure that we have other points of views.

CURT NICKISCH: When you talk about looking at things from opposing viewpoints, sometimes that’s helpful when you have somebody who plays that role, or when you have a diverse team that you can share ideas with and explore. I don’t know that all of us are as good of just thinking from other perspectives when we’re kind of just in our own thoughts.

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Yeah, but it’s again, that’s why I think I started off this conversation Curt, in saying that critical thinking is something that you actually need to practice and you need to learn. Because indeed, it’s natural and it’s very human to stay in your own personal bubble because it’s comfortable. But you can actually do this from a small scale to a larger scale, and what I mean by that specifically is if you’re starting small, if you work in for example, in accounting. Go have lunch with people in marketing in your organization. I have a good friend, Mathilde Thomas, she’s actually the founder of Caudalie which is a very successful line of skincare products made from grapes. Mathilde grew up spending her time in her family vineyards, so her family originally was in the wine business. And the idea of the skincare product came about because one day a friend of the family, this physician, came to visit the vineyard and he was looking at the vat of grape skins that were about to be discarded and he said, well that’s a pot of treasure, so why are you just discarding that away? And that’s effectively how the business of Caudalie actually began. So, that’s a positive story where people who are not necessarily in the same field can get together and actually come up with innovation or here it wasn’t even intended to be an innovation. It just was an idea that sprung from two people from different walks of life getting together and coming up with the business idea. So, that’s a positive example in terms of diversity.

CURT NICKISCH: Where have you seen this failure in some of the companies that you worked with? Where have you seen the inability to diversify thought and opinions and host costly that can be?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: I think in terms of negative, I’ve seen a specific example for a pharmaceutical company where the founder brought in a CFO who actually had very little experience in accounting. He had experience in mergers and acquisitions, in elements of financing, but not pure accounting. But his true qualification of becoming the CFO was the fact that he was a very, very good friend of the CEO’s and you see that example over and over again, including in boards. The number of times you see the board of a company being surrounded, the CEO being surrounded by his or her friends, which is why often I think from time to time, you have companies, publicly listed companies where sometimes the board may not see certain indications. Be it the case of a Steinhoff or an Enron, which is an extreme case of fraud, but even in terms of general decisions, strategic decisions, that if you have a board composed of just a group of friends of the CEO’s, you don’t have diversity of thought in that type of environment.

CURT NICKISCH: So, we’ve talked some about questioning assumptions and the power of diversifying thought. But another point you make is that people need to get better about reasoning through logic. And I think this is going to surprise people too because logical is just such a household word. We think that we think logically, so why is logic a deficit and kind of a prerequisite for the critical thinking you think we need to see more of in management?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: So, one of the stories that I like to bring up is a specific company that I encountered a couple of years ago. It’s one of the world’s largest producers of aluminum tubes and they have clients ranging from L’Oréal to Proctor and Gamble, all over the world.

And the CEO of this company was blindsided by his own fervor and probably unreasonable optimism about the outlook for the revenue profile of this company. In reality, the company was in relatively dire financial straits, but again he was blinded with his hope that his clients would never leave because the switching costs of his clients would be too high, or that at least was his hypothesis. And for some business leaders I think some optimism is obviously a good thing. There wouldn’t be Ubers or EBays if we didn’t have entrepreneurs who have that charisma and exuberance. But what I often find in companies is CEOss with something I call simply WTF. Now Curt, that’s not what you think that we commonly use in text messages, but it’s for me it’s “wishful thinking forever’. And I think that blinded optimism can often mask the capability and the ability to reason through logic and actually re-question your approach and saying, “well, can my customers decide to change vendors? Is the competitive environment actually shifting? Are there low-cost companies that could actually take over my business even if that hurdle rate is high?” So, it’s again coming back to being able to ask the right questions and looking at your business and saying, “is there a different way of doing things?” And that’s when you avoid the pitfalls of actually reasoning through logic. And it comes back to the argument of having different views from your original views and your original sentiments. And obviously in order to do that, we need to really pay close attention to our own chain of logic.

CURT NICKISCH: Which I like by the way, wishful thinking forever. I’m going to read text messages that way now. Probably make them a little more optimistic. Yeah. A lot of companies pay consultants to do this kind of critical thinking for them and they come in with tools and concept mapping, and all of the sorts of things that maybe they’re a little more deliberate about and also, removed from the emotion of working in the culture of a company. Do you see consultants as essentially paid critical thinkers?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: I think many consultants are good at critical thinking. I don’t believe that the industry of management consulting is a sector that is there to enforce critical thinking for companies. And let me explain why I believe that. A lot of, in a lot of situations CEOs seek validation and look for evidence that supports their preconceived notions. And consultants are often trained to agree with their client’s theories. So, I would almost counter argue and say, for CEOs to effectively use consultants, they almost need to be very precise and be very upfront in their scope of work with the consultants, demand and ask that the consulting firm give a different point of view, or an opposing point of view than the original thesis of a leader. Now that is sometimes hard to do. It goes back to the original part of our discussion. It’s less comfortable for leaders and in a lot of situations why CEO’s are hiring consultants are to justify and explain with more detail to their boards of why they’re doing certain strategic activities. So, that’s where we have to be careful about relying on consultants as quote, “a mechanism to do better critical thinking in business”.

CURT NICKISCH: Have you actually seen companies turn around when they change the way they approach problems and instituted critical thinking across the organization in a more deliberate way?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Yes. I worked with a telecom company in Africa, not so long ago. And they had probably the lowest customer satisfaction rate across the board, amongst the different countries in Africa. And the CEO was somebody who was a very open minded, wanted to challenge – now you could argue Curt, they were on the low, they couldn’t get lower in terms of customer satisfaction, so they only had room to go up. But if you put that aside, what he instituted was to have a sub group of his team to go visit another South African country that had very high customer satisfaction rates. So, it was, I would call creating an environment for its employees to have a bit of a diversity of thought, but also to actually be exposed to give the capacity for its employees to question the assumptions about what they were doing wrong. So, very good CEOs not only are capable of trying to conduct metacognition for him or herself, meaning questioning his or her own way of thinking, but he’ll challenge his team and help them to challenge their own way of thinking by showing different examples of for example, success stories in the same type of work where in a case of this telecom company in Africa, where they could see and visit customer services centers in other African countries where they had high customer satisfaction rate. So, it’s giving the exposure to its team to seek out diversity of thought, but also promoting that, and encouraging that its employees think differently than being focused on their own silos of work and being, trying to be efficient in their own capacity, in their existing dimension.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. So, if that was a good critical thinker, as a CEO, what do most leaders do in that situation? What does the “uncritical thinker” do?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: The uncritical thinker would be to try to gain more efficiency out of its existing employees and continue to do more of the same thing. But probably putting in more KPI’s. That’s a popular thing that leaders do. And try to put more pressure in the system so that companies are more productive. Rather than thinking out of the box and trying to say, should we be doing something differently than the way we’re doing it today?

CURT NICKISCH: And for individuals? Because whether or not you have a CEO who’s good at this, you can still affect your own team and you can still affect your own work with your own critical thinking. What should they do to get better at critical thinking?

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Be curious. Ask the questions. “ What if” questions are great. It’s important to constantly challenge yourself saying, what if I did something differently than the way I’m doing it now? What if I approached my client differently than the way I’m doing it now? What if I changed the processes? Would there be improvement? That’s the type of individual who can improve by actually questioning the assumptions of what he or she is doing on a daily basis. And then the second element again, is trying to be very factual and be rigid about gathering facts and proof and accumulating data in order to truly justify why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s going back to paying close attention to the chain of your own logic. And then the third is expanding your horizon by interacting with people that are not in your existing silo. So, I go back to the example, very simple example, go have lunch, go have a drink with somebody that’s not in your same department, but go reach out to somebody who’s in a totally different building, or even different division within your group.

CURT NICKISCH: Helen, thanks for coming on the show and talking about thinking through how to be a better critical thinker.

HELEN LEE BOUYGUES: Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure to be on your show.

HANNAH BATES: That was Helen Lee Bouygues in conversation with Curt Nickisch on the HBR IdeaCast . Bouygues is an experienced business leader and founder of the Reboot Foundation – for improving critical thinking. We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from the Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review. We’re a production of the Harvard Business Review – if you want more articles, case studies, books, and videos like this, find it all at HBR.org. This episode was produced by Mary Dooe, Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. Special thanks to Rob Eckhardt, Adam Buchholz, Maureen Hoch, Adi Ignatius, Karen Player, Ramsey Khabbaz, Nicole Smith, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

• Subscribe On:

Latest in this series

This article is about strategy.

• Strategy formulation
• Decision making and problem solving
• Managing yourself

Partner Center

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• *New* Digital Transformation
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Business and Climate Change
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing
• Winning with Digital Platforms

4 Ways to Develop Your Strategic Thinking Skills

• 10 Sep 2020

Think back to the last time you participated in a strategic planning meeting for your organization. You were likely presented with a challenge to solve or goal to achieve.

Do you remember your contributions during that meeting? Did you offer compelling ideas and plot a course of action, or find it difficult to think strategically and develop a solution? Did you have a good idea, but struggle to communicate it in a logical way? Were you an active participant in the conversation, or did others helm it?

Strategic thinking skills are among the most highly sought-after management competencies. Why? Because employees capable of thinking critically, logically, and strategically can have a tremendous impact on a business’s trajectory.

If you want to improve your strategic thinking skills, the good news is that, with the right mindset and practice, you can.

Here are four ways to improve your strategy skills , so the next time you’re involved in a strategic planning meeting, you can ensure your contributions are noticed.

Access your free e-book today.

What Are Strategic Thinking Skills?

Strategic thinking skills are any skills that enable you to use critical thinking to solve complex problems and plan for the future. These skills are essential to accomplish business objectives, overcome obstacles, and address challenges—particularly if they’re projected to take weeks, months, or even years to achieve.

Strategic thinking skills include:

• Analytical skills: To ideate a strategy that helps your organization reach its objectives, you must be capable of analyzing a variety of inputs—from financial statements and KPIs , to market conditions, emerging business trends, and internal resource allocation. This initial analysis is crucial to creating a strategy that aligns with the current reality facing your organization.
• Communication skills: Putting a strategy into place for your company, regardless of its size, requires solid communication skills . The ability to communicate complex ideas, collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, build consensus, and ensure everyone is aligned and working toward shared goals are all central to strategic thinking.
• Problem-solving skills: Strategic planning is often used to solve problems or address challenges, such as missed financial targets, inefficient workflows, or an emerging competitor. Implementing a strategy that addresses the central challenge you face requires you to first understand the problem and its potential solutions. From there, you can craft a strategy that solves it.
• Planning and management skills: Strategy isn’t just about thinking of a solution—it involves implementation, too. Once data has been analyzed, the problem is understood, and a solution has been identified, you need strong planning and management skills to bring everything together.

How to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills

1. ask strategic questions.

If you want to improve your strategic thinking skills, one of the simplest things you can do is ask more strategic questions. Doing so allows you to exercise your planning skills, become adept at spotting opportunities, and develop a more strategic mindset you can leverage throughout your career.

According to the Harvard Business School Online course Disruptive Strategy , strategic questions can relate to a challenge, opportunity, or ambiguity you face in your current situation, whether personal or professional. They might, for instance, relate to launching a new business or product, beating a competitor, or structuring your organization for innovation.

It’s also important that your questions apply to your role and responsibilities so you can act on them.

Some examples of strategic questions you might ask include:

• How can we strategically position ourselves to enter a new market?
• What’s the direction for growth for each of our products or services?
• Where will the organization's growth come from in the next five years, and how does it compare with where growth has historically come from?
• How should the organization respond to the threat presented by potentially disruptive competitors ?

2. Observe and Reflect

In addition to asking strategic questions, you need to answer and address them skillfully. One of the most effective ways of accomplishing this is to observe and reflect on your current situation, ensuring any strategy you conceive is grounded in facts.

For example, imagine that the business you work for has begun losing market share for one of its products among its traditional customers. At the same time, it’s gained market share from an entirely new customer base. It’s easy to assume why this might be happening, but doing so can lead you down the wrong path at a critical moment in your organization’s existence.

Instead of blindly following an assumption, gather as much information as possible to use when crafting your strategy. For example, this might include conducting user interviews with new customers to identify the different jobs they hire your product to perform.

Understanding why new customers are attracted to your product can enable you to tailor your marketing strategy and product development to better embrace their needs .

3. Consider Opposing Ideas

Once you’ve landed on a strategy that can help your organization reach its goals, question your assumptions, and put your hypothesis through rigorous testing. By doing so, you can ensure you’re not overlooking another possibility.

Playing devil’s advocate with your ideas can allow you to preemptively identify weaknesses in your argument, and equip you to defend your strategy when others ask questions. It can also help you sharpen the logic skills you need to communicate and execute your strategy.

To develop this skill, get in the habit of questioning yourself any time you’re about to make an assertion. Should you consider a different perspective? Is there another possibility you may have overlooked?

4. Embrace Formal Training

By practicing the methods described above, you can improve your strategic thinking skills at your own pace. However, there are other learning options you can pursue.

If you need to quickly ramp up your strategy skills—to address a pressing need your organization is facing, position yourself for a new role, or finally launch your own business—formal training might be your best option.

For example, by enrolling in the online course Disruptive Strategy , you can discover how to make innovation a reality for your organization. Over six weeks, you’ll learn about the jobs to be done framework and disruptive innovation theory, and build skills to identify and execute high-level strategy.

Cultivating a Strategic Mindset

Whether in the long- or short-term, a strategic mindset can be developed through self-exploration, critical questioning, and formal training.

The advantage of having a strategic mindset is learning how to think rather than what to think. Although you might not always have the right answers, strategic thinking skills can empower you to spot new opportunities, address emerging challenges, and plan for future success.

Are you looking to develop a strategic mindset? Explore our portfolio of online strategy courses and download the free flowchart to determine which is the best fit for you and your goals.

About the Author

Get expert advice delivered straight to your inbox.

Everything You Need to Know About Critical Thinking Skills for Business Leaders

9 Min Read | Oct 3, 2023

We all have moments of bad decision-making. (Like that time you hired your best friend’s cousin’s neighbor without interviewing them. Wrong move.) But consistently making decisions by the seat of your pants is no way to live your life—or build your business. What you can build your company on is the momentum that comes from critical thinking, aka making smart decisions and solving tough problems like it’s your job. Because if you’re a leader, it is.

Now, don’t get tripped up on the word critical . We’re not talking about overthinking every little thing and never really deciding on anything. And we’re also not talking about being critical or judgmental of your team. Both suck the life out teams and businesses. Critical thinking is really just about asking great questions, analyzing possible solutions, and taking action.

Let’s explore what critical thinking is, why it matters to you as a business leader, and how to apply how to apply critical-thinking skills examples to your work.           

What Is Critical Thinking?

One scholarly explanation of critical thinking goes something like: a system of thought incorporated in scientific, mathematical, historical, anthropological, moral, philosophical and economic thinking. Yeah, that definition’s a 0 out of 10 on the helpfulness scale. Critical thinking is more than knowing about something. It’s actively exploring facts and making discoveries. It’s getting to the bottom of problems by asking smart questions so you can make a good judgment based on facts—not feelings.

You already use critical thinking in your everyday decisions without realizing it. As a leader, you probably have 50 “great” ideas before you get to work in the morning. But do you act on all of them? Of course not. Because after you take a closer look at your priorities and available time and resources, you realize some of those ideas aren’t worth pursuing, at least right now. That’s critical thought.

Ready to Level Up Your Business?

Find out your Stage of Business with our free assessment and get additional resources to help you level up by focusing on the right things at the right time.

When you use critical thinking, you don’t just take things at face value or go with your initial gut reaction. You weigh, measure and challenge information carefully, with the goal to improve what and how you think. One quick note though. Don’t mistake critical thinking for memorizing facts and figures. That’s what you do when you’re prepping for your fifth-grade multiplication test. It’s not how you make new discoveries.

If you want to solve problems and find better ways of doing things like the great leader you’re meant to be , you will rely on a combination of data, facts, research, wise counsel, and assumptions from your knowledge and experience.

Pro tip: Being wishy washy can paralyze your team, your business and your mission. That’s what’s called indecisive leadership, and that’s an oxymoron. Don’t do that. Once you think through your information and options, make up your mind.

Why Is Critical Thinking Important to Leaders?

As if paralyzing your team isn’t bad enough, indecision also costs your business time and money. You give life permission to make decisions for you when you don’t move. Yuk! But when you think and move your way through obstacles, you hold the reins and can overcome challenges when others just give up.

Ready to be challenged, inspired and motivated by the world’s top business and thought leaders? Join us online for the EntreLeadership Summit livestream—you can even invite your team to watch with you.

Are you losing steam with your current ad strategy? Critical thinking can lead you to new advertising ideas and marketing streams—and create even more business traffic. Stressed out by supply chain issues? Critical thinking can help you find new vendors and ways of doing business. When you think boldly and keep control of the situation, you impose your will (and good sense) on the world around you.

Here’s one more example of why critical thinking is important: Say you notice a dip in sales one month. You could blow it off as a fluke and charge ahead blindly. Or you could panic, treat it as the beginning of the end, and pressure your sales team to turn the ship before you’re forced to close your doors. Which one is right? Probably neither. But you won’t know how to respond until you carefully look at your business trends, analyze market conditions, and talk with some other smart, experienced leaders.

Your team and your business are just as good as your reasoning and decision-making skills.

Critical thinking helps you:

• Keep emotions and chaos in check as you approach problems with facts, not feelings
• Understand the importance and relevance of ideas
• Know when to challenge information and when to stop overthinking
• See how ideas are linked and call out inconsistencies and mistakes
• Appreciate different perspectives
• Consider others’ needs and show respect

Ask yourself how much you prioritize running your business with clarity, fairness, accuracy, and relevance. Your answer will give you a good picture of how much you value critical thinking.

Related article: What is Transformational Leadership?

Critical thinking has plenty of enemies though. Beware of these traits and behaviors that can lead to bad thinking and bad business:

• Self-interest
• Blind acceptance of what’s “normal”

Have you ever heard the phrase, “ready, fire, aim”? Probably not—but that’s what it looks like to act before you get a clear picture of the situation. Things run smoother the less you shoot from the hip and the more you carefully consider your decisions.

Examples of Critical Thinking Skills in Business

Here are some examples leaders in different lines of work who use critical thinking to solve everyday business problems:

• A funeral home director who considers a grieving family’s budget and wishes and guides them to the best choices
• A home health care manager who analyzes their cases and matches team members with clients based on their needs and schedule preferences
• A home contractor who weighs out which subcontractors are the right fit for the job
• A customer service leader who uses feedback forms to decide on training needs for their team
• A landscaper who evaluates the risk versus the potential revenue growth of adding team members

The Critical Thinking Process

We’ve looked at why and when to put some extra thought into your business decisions, but let’s be real. Not every decision requires deep-level thinking. The amount of time and energy you spend deciding should be based on the size of the decision’s impact on your business.

If it’s your job to choose whether your company’s Christmas card envelope is white or red, for the love of holiday cheer, just decide. But if you’re about to make a major purchase or new hire, you’ve got some big investments on the line. Pause to think over the details before you advance.

Related article : Product Launch: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Launch a New Product

Also, as you prepare to solve a tricky problem, ask yourself these questions:

• What’s the real issue?
• Why does this problem or challenge exist?
• What information do I need to gather to understand more?
• How should I keep my notes organized?

Let’s say, for example, that your business issue is consistently unhappy customers. On the surface, it looks like your team members serve customers too slowly. Since both team members and customers are involved, you need to get perspective from both sides to learn why the problem exists. So, you gather details from them on when and where the issue shows up and how they think it is or isn’t being handled. As for how to keep track of the information you learn, you could simply take notes on your phone or computer to review later. Or, you might need to put them in a shared document so your key leaders can see them as you work on a solution together.

After doing some high-level digging, you may find that your team members really are slow, but why ? That’s the next thing you need to discover. Are they poorly trained? Working in a role they’re not good at? Using faulty equipment?

Following these steps of deeper-level critical thinking will help you uncover root issues—so you can fix any problems:

• Observe: Look at the issue from different angles and ask questions about it.
• Analyze: Test how true your information is.
• Reason: Come up with your top theories for why there’s a problem, then list possible conclusions and solutions. (We’ve already established that you’re an idea machine. That’s great!  Keep those possible solutions flowing.)
• Communicate: Talk with people who are smarter and further ahead in their career than you for deeper insight. That doesn’t mean to just ask anyone with an opinion—find someone with experience.
• Solve: Decide and act.

Now for an important reminder: Thinking critically means you’re always discovering, changing and improving. Afterall, the one thing thriving businesses count on is change . That means you might solve a customer concern one way today but find better ways to solve it in the future. The same is true in any situation where you use critical thinking steps. The more you want to grow, the more you challenge your ideas and ways of doing things to get the positive change!

How to Think More Critically

We get it. You’re reading this because you’re serious about taking new ground and winning in business. You’re serious about going the extra mile to raise your critical thinking game even more. Here are four practical ways to build stronger critical thinking skills:

• Take a course or play video and board games that challenge your brain.
• Volunteer to solve problems at work and home for practice.
• Talk to others who are really good at thinking critically.
• Expand your job knowledge and skills so you can see problems more clearly.

Related article :  Mastermind Groups: What Are They, and How Can They Help You Grow Your Business?

What’s Next: Decision Time

Great leaders are people of action. They’re neither knee-jerk and emotional or passive and indecisive. They get the facts, think them through, then make the call. Of course, your personality style will influence whether you naturally make decisions quickly or need more time—and that’s okay. But, when it’s go time, leaders lead. Those who don’t end up like the squirrel in the middle of the road looking back and forth, then moving in circles or not at all. We all know what happens to that squirrel.

One way to stretch your critical thinking skills is to learn from today’s top voices in business and leadership through The EntreLeadership Podcast . You’ll hear practical decision-making insights that help you lead with confidence, solve big problems and grow your business.

Did you find this article helpful? Share it!

About the author

Ramsey Solutions has been committed to helping people regain control of their money, build wealth, grow their leadership skills, and enhance their lives through personal development since 1992. Millions of people have used our financial advice through 22 books (including 12 national bestsellers) published by Ramsey Press, as well as two syndicated radio shows and 10 podcasts, which have over 17 million weekly listeners. Learn More.

What Are the 4 DISC Personality Types?

People are your greatest resource and biggest challenge in business. Teach your team to focus more on we and less on me by understanding DISC personality types.

EntreLeadership: What Are the 5 Stages of Business?

Running a business is a lot like running a marathon. You need a clear path, plan and perseverance to get ahead. Learn which stage of business you’re on so you can build a lasting legacy.

Do you have the world's best boss? Enter them to win two tickets to Sandals!

• Starting a Business

Our Top Picks

• Best Small Business Loans
• Best Business Internet Service
• Best Online Payroll Service
• Best Business Phone Systems

Our In-Depth Reviews

• OnPay Payroll Review
• ADP Payroll Review
• Ooma Office Review
• RingCentral Review

Explore More

• Business Solutions
• Entrepreneurship
• Franchising
• Best Accounting Software
• Best Merchant Services Providers
• Best Credit Card Processors
• Best Mobile Credit Card Processors
• Clover Review
• Merchant One Review
• QuickBooks Online Review
• Xero Accounting Review
• Financial Solutions

Human Resources

• Best Human Resources Outsourcing Services
• Best Time and Attendance Software
• Best PEO Services
• Best Business Employee Retirement Plans
• Bambee Review
• Rippling HR Software Review
• TriNet Review
• Gusto Payroll Review
• HR Solutions

Marketing and Sales

• Best Text Message Marketing Services
• Best CRM Software
• Best Email Marketing Services
• Best Website Builders
• Textedly Review
• Salesforce Review
• EZ Texting Review
• Textline Review
• Business Intelligence
• Marketing Solutions
• Marketing Strategy
• Public Relations
• Social Media
• Best GPS Fleet Management Software
• Best POS Systems
• Best Employee Monitoring Software
• Best Document Management Software
• Verizon Connect Fleet GPS Review
• Zoom Review
• Samsara Review
• Zoho CRM Review
• Technology Solutions

Business Basics

• 4 Simple Steps to Valuing Your Small Business
• How to Write a Business Growth Plan
• 12 Business Skills You Need to Master
• How to Start a One-Person Business
• FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks Comparison
• Salesforce CRM vs. Zoho CRM
• RingCentral vs. Zoom Comparison
• 10 Ways to Generate More Sales Leads

Building Critical Thinking Skills to Solve Problems at Work

Table of Contents

Critical thinking is a vital soft skill that uses one’s experiences and analytical skills to deduce information and make educated decisions. It’s an essential skill to have in the workplace, as the ability to use information from a broader and more impartial perspective allows your employees to make more informed decisions and see a comprehensive view of any situation. 

The U.S. Department of Labor identified critical thinking as a key component for essential workplace skills, including problem-solving and decision-making. Here’s how to build – and implement – critical thinking skills in the workplace.

>> Learn more: 12 Business Skills You Need to Master

How to use critical thinking to problem-solve

Here is a six-step problem-solving process to try with your team to build and use this skill.

1. Name the situation.

When you name the situation, you present a single discussion point that everyone in the discussion can identify. This statement can be written on a whiteboard as a visual prompt so that the team can focus on the point and redirect the discussion when the topic shifts. Critical thinking involves keeping an open mind about situations. You help participants remember the goal of the group by naming the situation.

2. List all possible solutions.

Brainstorming takes place during this part of the process. There is nothing outside the realm of possibilities at this point in the discussion. When you open the conversation to unlimited options, you expand thinking beyond one person. The ability to expand your thinking offers the conversation many possible solutions that you may not have considered without the expression of thoughts and opinions. Make sure that all potential solutions discussed during this time stay on task for the situation that has been named in the first step. Critical thinking includes the ability to keep an open mind to other considerations and viewpoints without losing track of the end goal. You expand the discussion to see new options and stay on task by identifying multiple opportunities.

3. Narrow your solutions to three options.

Everyone on the team needs to agree with at least one of the three options. Individuals who can find a compromise and create solutions from many perspectives are better able to bring a team together. Write each solution at the top of a whiteboard and include below each one a list of its advantages and disadvantages. Critical-thinking skills offer the ability to look at situations rationally without judgments of good and bad or wrong and right. You can maintain a rational discussion when you bring consensus to a few intentionally chosen solutions.

Critical thinking helps individuals look at situations from multiple sides and imagine several ways to respond.

4. Choose one option from the three choices.

Make a final choice that offers the best chance of success based on rational discussion about the situation. Review this choice in relation to how well it solves the designated problem. Critical thinking skills help individuals use a more systematic way to come to conclusions. This reduces the chance of making decisions based on incorrect inferences arising from emotional conclusions.

5. Put a plan in place to implement the chosen solution.

Your chosen solution should have timelines and a list that identifies which participants are responsible for what parts of the final plan. Critical-thinking skills include the ability to commit to the chosen solution. You increase attention to detail and interest from the participants in implementing the solution when they are an integral part of the process.

6. Complete the plan.

Some employees find this part of the process the most difficult. Think of the number of times a great plan floundered because there was no follow-up. Make sure each person from the team has a part to play in the process that emphasizes their areas of expertise and interest. Complete regular reviews of people and timelines for project management. Critical thinking involves the ability to see the value of the overall plan. At this point in the process, individuals should be able to see the value of the solution and have buy-in since they were part of the process.

This problem-solving process creates an environment where critical thinking becomes a working part of finding a solution. For individuals who struggle with this method, you may want to consider some training in critical thinking. Overall, though, this process promotes critical thinking in your employees. You can also integrate this activity for making plans and creating a mission. The value added to your organization includes improved engagement , insight and productivity from your team.

According to research from America Succeeds , durable skills – such as critical thinking – accounted for 7 out of 10 requested skills in a study of 82 million job postings.

Why critical thinking is essential in the workplace

In recent decades, companies have recognized the need for integrating critical thinking into the workplace to help build the success of their organizations. Strong critical-thinking skills can greatly benefit everybody in the workplace. Not only does thinking more openly introduce ideas and solutions that widen the opportunities for success, but it also provides an increase in teamwork and productivity and a decrease in conflict . Here are some additional benefits of critical thinking in the workplace.

Required in certain professions

In many professions – particularly those based on research or that require deductive reasoning, such as finance, education, research and law – acquiring critical-thinking skills is necessary. With critical thinking, employees can solve problems objectively by considering varying perspectives and analyzing facts without bias, allowing for smart decision-making and problem-solving.

Improves decision-making

Those with critical-thinking skills mull over their decisions thoroughly by researching, looking at information objectively, asking questions, and weighing the pros and cons before acting. This skill can help businesses stay on track when making decisions by thoroughly reviewing the risk versus reward of each decision. 

Boosts happiness

Critical thinking can boost happiness , as it is empowering to have the skills to make your own, well-informed decisions. Those who possess this skill are more in tune with their goals, needs and personal ethics, and they have a better understanding of what in their situation needs to change to make themselves happy or grow. [Read related article: How Hiring a Chief Happiness Officer Can Save Your Business ]

One of the main reasons businesses don’t embrace critical thinking as an essential part of their organization is that they feel they are just too busy; however, the benefits of critical thinking are invaluable to a team.

How to build critical-thinking skills

Here are a few ways you can polish your critical-thinking skills.

Practice active listening.

Practice actively listening by keeping an open mind and being attentive to those around you, from associates to executives. Listen to what others are saying to gain an understanding of each person’s individual perspective, needs and expectations, and show them empathy. This level of understanding will allow you to work together more effectively and make decisions that everyone is satisfied with.

Ask critical questions.

Instead of taking information at face value, be curious and ask questions to ensure you have everything you need to make a well-informed decision. Using open-ended questions offers an opportunity for further exploration, as they dive deeper and provide insightful details that can be helpful when making decisions.

Vet new information.

Don’t assume all new information you hear is true; instead, take time to thoroughly vet it by ensuring it’s up to date and it comes from a trustworthy source. Look at the existing evidence and the new facts being presented, then question thought processes and consider whose voice is missing.

Consider more than one perspective.

While you may feel that you have the “right” perspective, consider all points of view to fully understand others and their reasoning. This will help you improve your working relationships, better understand where your peers are coming from and tailor your communication to meet their needs.

Question your own biases.

Regardless of whether or not you try to avoid it in your decision-making process, everybody has their own biases, which are the foundation of their thinking. By uncovering your own biases and being actively aware of them, you can grow as a critical thinker and work to keep them separate from your decision-making process. 

Conduct research.

If there are any unanswered questions or gaps in the information provided, conduct research to further your understanding and reach a decision. Consider a source’s intention when conducting research, avoiding any that are sales-based or contain ill will. Don’t use social media to obtain information; stick to reputable publications free of bias and cite their sources.

Form your own opinion.

Be an independent thinker and form your own opinions by considering the information presented to you, including facts and evidence. Listen to and consider the opinions of others, but use deductive reasoning to form your own opinion – and stay true to it.

Lynette Reed contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. 

Get Weekly 5-Minute Business Advice

B. newsletter is your digest of bite-sized news, thought & brand leadership, and entertainment. All in one email.

Our mission is to help you take your team, your business and your career to the next level. Whether you're here for product recommendations, research or career advice, we're happy you're here!

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Critical Thinking Skills: Why They’re Important for Professionals with Business Management Training

Business managers are key players in ensuring that a company runs smoothly and efficiently. Within a variety of office environments, these professionals are responsible for handling a number of tasks which contribute to optimizing a company’s performance. If you’re seeking a career in business management, being able to think critically will help you to conduct quality assessments of an organization’s situation and determine the best way forward. 

Read on to discover what exactly thinking critically means, and why it’s important in this career path.

If You’re in Business Management Training, Here’s What it Means to Think Critically

Critical thinking is the process of receiving information and evaluating it in many different ways to make an informed decision. This means considering a situation from many angles, and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of possible solutions. In the business world, leaders are forced to think critically every day, as they must make high-stakes decisions that have the potential to impact a company’s performance, its reputation, and the livelihoods of the employees that work there. 

If you’re studying for your business management diploma , thinking critically will enable you to 

Critical Thinking Will Help You to Solve Problems

Problems are bound to arise within any organization. As a business manager, it’s important that you’re able to address a problem by thinking critically. Instead of viewing the problem as an obstacle, try seeing it as a challenge to overcome. As an example, if an employee is underperforming, thinking critically might influence a business manager to consider the fact that this employee has been undergoing personal stress, leading them to give the person a second chance rather than letting them go. If you have business management training , thinking critically will enable you to come up with several alternative solutions to a problem, ensuring that the decision made is one that’s best for the company overall. 

Thinking Critically Enables Business Managers to Communicate Effectively

Within any company, communication entails more than just exchanging information. Effective use of this skill involves understanding the needs of others, anticipating how they might respond to the information they’re given, and determining the best way to establish a channel of communication. As a business manager, you’ll be communicating with your colleagues, business executives, your team, other employees, and clients. 

When you apply critical thinking to both your verbal and written communication, you’ll be able to consider the perspectives of those you are communicating with. Thinking critically will help you to navigate communicating with those of backgrounds different than your own, enabling you to develop a strategy based in mutual understanding. This will lead to a clearer and more effective exchange of information within an organization. Not only does strong communication improve productivity, but it also ensures that employees within the business feel acknowledged and respected.

Thinking of attending business college ?

Build the skills to become a successful business manager with a program at Oxford College.

• Search Search Search …
• Search Search …

Critical Thinking Skills for Managers

Most companies will have managers on their team. There are different types of managers, but they follow a general job description. In most cases, they oversee a team or a group of people in a certain department.

Managers take care of the overall performance of their assigned department or area. They make sure that it’s provisioned and well-staffed. They make decisions such as hiring and training employees.

Making decisions that will impact their own group, department, or the company in general require skills that involve critical thinking. Critical thinking skills are crucial for managers because it will help them solve problems within the team more efficiently.

What is critical thinking and what are the critical thinking skills for managers ? Critical thinking is the process of analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing facts about an issue so that a decision or judgment can be made.

Critical Thinking Skills For Managers

• Managers need to learn to observe and then ask questions.

As manager, you are not supposed to take things at face value. When you receive a report, When a report is passed to managers, evaluate and verify information stated in the report. Ask questions from colleagues and employees.

• Managers should think broadly and evaluate the validity of ideas, arguments, and points raised.

As a manager, you’ll always have to look at the bigger picture. You’ll have to be always curious – always questioning. You should not be immediately satisfied with what is presented to you. Always have a thirst for knowledge, this will help you see the bigger picture.

• Be open to bigger ideas.  

A manager will never stay inside their comfort zone. You will always have to think outside the box.

• Managers should learn to reason clearly.

When you ask questions, you get enough information to make intelligent decisions. Once you get the different answers to your questions, maintain a clear mind to think things through – deeply and carefully.

Weigh in your options and think about different possible scenarios.

Think about the worst thing that could happen, but also think about what good may come out of the different options. Consider what impact a particular decision would have – on the people and on the company, in general.

Consider the pros and cons. Make a list of the benefits and detriments of certain actions (options). Analyze your list. If you listed 5 pros and 2 cons, ask yourself if they are of equal weight. Do these cons far outweigh the 5 pros?

Ask questions, analyze, evaluate, and you’ll see the bigger picture.

• Managers should know how to organize their thoughts so they can have good working relationships with both their subordinates, colleagues, and superiors.

There are mangers who fail in doing their job because they fail to communicate well. For some, they are always overcome with emotions causing them to say and do things they’d regret once they have calmed down.

You should learn how to organize your thoughts – even before you say and do anything. Learning to organize your thinking goes a long way in terms of your overall relationships with the people you work with, whether they are your superiors or your subordinates.

Organizing one’s thinking may be different for different people. For some, they are comfortable having a journal where they write their thoughts, ideas, dreams, aspirations, opinions, etc.

For others, they take advantage of technology and create online to-do-lists with their PDAs or personal digital assistants.

Whatever method you want to adapt will be up to you. Choose one wherein you’ll be most comfortable with. It is important to find a way to organize your though process. Doing so will get you one step closer to organizing your life.

• Managers should give time to thinking.

Your brain is like a muscle that you need to exercise to function the way it should be. Immerse yourself in activities that will stimulate your brainpower. Be committed to self-growth and to achieving good health.

For instance, you have tons of magazines and other reading materials just sitting on your desk. If you are always swamped with work and you don’t have time to read them (hence, they just keep on piling up), make it a point to pick two mags with relevant content every start of the week.

Run through the table of contents and choose at least 3 topics (articles) that you can read over lunch, or when riding the bus or subway, or during your coffee break.

You’ll find this practice more efficient in the long run. Aside from getting caught up with relevant things, you also get to exercise your brain. Reading is a good brain stimulant.

Finding the time to read can also apply to taking time to think. This allows you think things carefully and rationally. This will help avoid making hurried decisions and actions.

Need to make an important decision? If time permits, take a walk first and think. You’ll be amazed at how fresh your mind will become after you’ve taken a “thinking break”.

• Managers should learn to look at problems as challenges to overcome.

Most managers also fail at this. Often, you might look as problems as a hindrance to achieving their goals, that they end up ignoring the problems rather than facing them.

A strong manager will have a different perspective – they will look at every aspect, every option, and every possible action to work around their problems.

Learn to “explore” the problems you are presented.

• Managers are not afraid to discover different perspectives.

As a manager, you should look beyond the facts, as you learned earlier. But you’ll also have to be open to other people’s perspectives. Don’t be afraid to ask for other people’s opinions, suggestions, and ideas.

• Managers are fair and reflective.

A good manager will always play fair. It is important that you carefully analyze if you are playing favorites or you are biased that may be clouding your decision-making.

As a manager, you should be able to give equal opportunities to all your employees. Also, you should also have to know when to reprimand (punish) an employee who may have done wrong.

Critical thinkers make decisions not just based on intuition or instinct alone. Everything is based on facts, information gathered, and careful evaluation.

Critical thinking is a life skill that not only managers can learn.

References:

• http://changethis.com/17.CriticalThinking
• https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-thinking.html

You may also like

Divergent Thinking vs Brainstorming: How to Use These Techniques to Get Better Ideas

We often get used to doing things a certain way, because it’s fast or convenient or “it’s always been like this.” Even […]

Critical Thinking for Self-Improvement: A Guide to Unlocking Your Potential

Critical thinking plays a significant role in self-improvement as it allows individuals to analyze information, question assumptions, and make informed decisions. By […]

How to Use Artificial Intelligence in the Critical Thinking Process: Enhancing Human Decision-Making

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way critical thinking is approached in various sectors. By integrating AI into the critical thinking process, […]

Critical Thinking Skills and the Academic Performance of Students

Critical thinking skills are essential for children to develop and can be used in any area of life. By encouraging children to […]

12 Must-Have Skills for Effective Business Management

• POSTED ON July 19, 2023
• by Marcjean Yutuc

[Level Up Your Life]  With a growing library of 3,000+ on-demand video courses, you can level up at your own pace.

Click here to get your All Access Pass today

Many jobs are at risk of becoming obsolete due to various factors, such as advancements in AI technology, increased competition, and the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of the business world. Luckily, certain skills for business management will always be in demand. Learning business skills is essential for anyone who wants to succeed in the modern workplace. The good news is that these skills can be easily practiced, and some can even be learned online and certified.

In this blog post, I’ll introduce 12 must-have skills for effective business management that will help you stay relevant in the job market and excel in your career. In addition, I had the opportunity to interview experts in the field who shared valuable tips to improve these skills. So whether you’re an aspiring or current manager, business owner, entrepreneur, or anyone looking to improve their management skills, this post is for you.

Leadership skills

Great leaders should focus on empowering their teams and helping them grow professionally and personally. Ralph Nader, an American political activist and consumer advocate, once said: “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

Effective leaders inspire their team members to become leaders themselves, promoting a culture of growth and development within the organization. By doing so, they create a team of self-reliant individuals who can lead and make decisions independently, ultimately contributing to the success of the business.

To become a great leader, you can focus on developing your own leadership skills and then promoting those same skills in others. You can mentor team members, provide them with opportunities to lead and encourage them to take on new challenges. By doing so, you help to create a team of leaders who can work together towards a common goal.

Andy Kalmon, CEO of Benny , shares another valuable tip on how to improve leadership skills:

“One of the best ways to improve your leadership skills is to emulate leaders you admire. You don't have to copy their methods exactly, but finding some techniques that resonate with your natural leadership inclinations can help you hone your own skills. For example, leaders with a high degree of empathy can help you learn how to better navigate difficult interpersonal situations with employees.” Andy Kalmon, CEO of Benny

Communication skills

Communication skills, including interpersonal skills, are crucial for effective business management. Communication involves written and verbal interactions with your team, clients, and stakeholders. Good communication skills also involve active listening and the ability to provide constructive feedback.

One example of a great communicator is Melinda Gates, the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is known for her public speaking skills and her ability to communicate complex ideas in a clear and concise manner. Her communication skills have been instrumental in advancing the foundation’s mission of improving global health and reducing poverty.

One way to improve communication skills is by actively listening and responding appropriately to the person speaking. This means giving your full attention, asking relevant questions, and taking notes. Another way is to practice clear writing and speaking abilities by keeping your message concise and free of jargon.

Rhett Stubbendeck, CEO of LeverageRx , emphasizes the importance of a participative leadership style in strengthening communication skills within the business:

“In order to strengthen communication skills in my business, my participative leadership style comes into play. My employees are encouraged to speak and share their ideas. This strengthens communication in my workplace and enables us to come up with innovative solutions to our problems.” Rhett Stubbendeck, CEO of LeverageRx

Financial management skills

According to a 2021 survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, only 40% of small business owners consider themselves “very knowledgeable” in financial management. Poor financial management can result in a lack of cash flow, inability to pay bills, and, ultimately, business failure.

To improve financial management skills , consider taking finance and accounting courses, seeking mentorship from experienced financial professionals, and staying up-to-date on financial regulations and market trends.

To manage financial operations effectively, you can use financial management software. For example, SAP’s ERP system consolidates financial and operational data, and CubeSoftware offers tools to manage income, assets, and expenses. These platforms can help reduce computation errors, maintain audit trails, and ensure compliance with accounting standards.

Geoff Cudd, Founder of Don’t Do It Yourself , shares valuable insights about the importance of developed financial management skills for business managers:

“In the rapidly changing and competitive business world, having developed financial management skills enable business managers to manage and handle finances efficiently. This involves not only managing the company's own finances effectively but also keeping up to date with trends in tax legislation, investment opportunities, and other areas of business finance. Seeing the bigger picture and having a long-term perspective is critical in this aspect, as businesses have to manage the needs of both their stakeholders and customers.” Geoff Cudd, Founder of Don’t Do It Yourself

Strategic planning skills

Strategic planning skills are essential for any business or organization to achieve long-term success. The world has witnessed how Apple Inc., did this when it faced financial difficulties and market share losses in the late 1990s. Apple’s leaders were able to turn the company around by developing innovative products, investing in marketing, and vertically integrating the entire production process. This strategy allowed Apple to control quality and pricing and introduce iconic products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

To improve strategic planning skills, start by creating a clear and actionable plan that aligns with your business goals and objectives. Ensure that the plan has a forward-focused vision that can align the entire organization and its stakeholders. Encourage your team to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. Sticking to the strategic plan requires proactively connecting company objectives to daily work, monitoring progress, and making adjustments as needed. 

It is also essential to stay informed about industry trends, competition, and emerging technologies to remain competitive. Various resources, such as strategic planning templates and courses, are available to assist businesses and individuals in developing their strategic planning skills.

Felipe Vasconcelos, Founder of More Naturals and Kapuluan , reveals the key elements of strategic planning:

“To improve strategic planning, you need to have a clear understanding of your business goals and develop a plan for achieving them. This involves identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and regularly assessing progress towards those goals.” Felipe Vasconcelos, Founder of More Naturals and Kapuluan

Decision-making skills

Business leaders often face situations where they need to make informed decisions that can impact the success of their business. For instance, a leader might need to decide whether to invest in a new product line or to cut costs to avoid a financial crisis. In these situations, decision-making skills can be critical. 

Effective decision-making requires the ability to gather and analyze relevant data, identify potential risks and benefits, and evaluate the consequences of each option. 

You can improve your decision-making skills in business by embracing data-driven decision-making. By collecting and analyzing data, you can make informed decisions based on facts rather than biases, which helps to ensure fairness and balance. This approach also helps to measure progress toward business goals and enables you to make informed decisions in real-time.

Khurram Suhrwardy, CEO of Caption Easy , highlights key strategies to enhance decision-making abilities in business: 

“To enhance decision-making abilities, it is important to follow key strategies. Begin by gathering all relevant information pertaining to the decision, conducting research, seeking expert advice, and analyzing available data to gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem. Involve others in the decision-making process, especially those with expertise or experience, to gather diverse perspectives and consider different viewpoints.” Khurram Suhrwardy, CEO of Caption Easy

Time management skills

Effective time management skills are essential for success in both personal and professional life. According to research, poor time management can lead to increased stress, missed deadlines, reduced productivity, and decreased job satisfaction. In contrast, better time management skills can help reduce stress, increase productivity, improve focus on tasks, boost confidence, and enhance workplace relationships. 

One strategy that works well with business leaders is timeboxing, a goal-oriented time management technique that can help improve productivity, reduce stress, and increase focus. This technique involves breaking down tasks into smaller segments, assigning a specific amount of time to each segment, and then focusing solely on that task for the allotted time. 

By implementing timeboxing, you can ensure that you make the most of your time and focus on high-priority tasks that align with your goals and objectives. 

Pavel Konstantinov, CEO of RetroStyle Games , notes the importance of time management when working in a team. He shares the following thoughts on time management skills:

"People who work with you should be aware of the list of tasks that need to be done. As a leader, you have to learn how to set realistic goals and understand how many resources and time it will take to accomplish them. You don't have to blame your employees if they move one of their tasks to the next day, but it's essential that they understand the importance of the objectives and the time that should be spent on them." Pavel Konstantinov, CEO of RetroStyle Games

Project management skills

Think about the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building located in Dubai. Completed in 2010, it stands at 828 meters tall, involved over 12,000 workers, and took six years to build with a budget of over $1.5 billion. The successful completion of this project within budget and timeline constraints was made possible by effective project management skills.

Whether your business is small or large, project management skills are essential for success. To effectively manage a project, you need to have a clear understanding of the ultimate goal, the key elements that go into an intelligent project plan, and a smooth and actionable strategy to achieve it.

If you are interested in honing your skills, taking project management courses with certification can greatly enhance your knowledge and expertise.

Mike Grijavalva, Owner of Sacramento Plumbing Solutions , emphasizes the importance of constant communication and support in effective project management: 

“Constantly checking in with team members to make sure the jobs are going according to plan and helping them with anything they need as quickly as possible. This creates accountability, a strong team, and usually allows us to solve problems before our clients even know they exist.” Mike Grijavalva, Owner of Sacramento Plumbing Solutions

Risk management skills

Risk management skills are essential for any business to mitigate and minimize potential risks. By acknowledging the worst-case scenario and preparing for it, leaders can make more informed decisions and take calculated risks that have the potential for significant rewards.

To inspire and encourage a risk-taking mindset in business leaders, Dave Hitz, co-founder of NetApp, suggests looking at risks from a different perspective: “What’s the worst thing that would happen if I failed?” This approach helps business leaders evaluate risks more objectively and prepare for potential negative outcomes. In other words, it shifts the focus from avoiding risks to managing them effectively. 

There are several effective approaches that a business manager can take to improve risk management skills. One example is the use of 4Ts model , a risk management framework that can be used to identify, assess, and manage risks effectively. The four Ts stand for Tolerate, Treat, Transfer, and Terminate.

Mitchell David, Founder of Beach Life Premier Team , shares an actionable tip that every entrepreneur must follow: 

“Always try to stay one step ahead of the potential risks. Identify the potential risks at the very beginning of a task or project. Track Early Warning Indicators or EWIs for different risks. Get risk management embedded into the work processes as well as corporate culture.” Mitchell David, Founder of Beach Life Premier Team

Marketing and sales skills

Marketing and sales skills are crucial for business leaders as they enable them to effectively promote and sell products/services, support sales teams, and build strong relationships with customers and communities.

Put yourself in the shoes of a business owner of organic products. To sell organic products effectively, it’s crucial to understand the needs of your health-conscious consumers. Conduct market research to gain insights on their motivations for purchasing organic goods. Then, develop marketing campaigns and sales techniques that align with their interests and values. 

In business today, it’s also important to know about digital marketing and e-commerce. This can help you make informed decisions about a company’s web presence, digital content, and customer needs.

Emrah Akdeniz, Chief Sales Officer of Workhy , highlights the importance of leaving one’s comfort zone and embracing new challenges to excel in marketing and sales:

“Excelling in marketing and sales is about leaving your comfort zone and facing new challenges. Accepting challenges and stepping out of your comfort zone to improve your marketing and sales skills is crucial. And, as a marketing and salesperson, you can’t leave your comfort zone unless you are persistent to search for new clients, focus on larger groups, and experiment with new marketing and sales approaches.” Emrah Akdeniz, Chief Sales Officer of Workhy

Team-building and management skills

Business leaders who are skilled in team-building and management can identify the strengths and weaknesses of their team members, create a positive work environment, and provide opportunities for growth. 

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, is a great leader with team-building and management skills. He initiated the One Microsoft strategy to encourage greater cooperation among different teams and departments. Under his leadership, Microsoft shifted its focus from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” culture that values continuous learning and improvement.

Good communication is key to effective team-building and management. Listen actively, communicate clearly and regularly, and encourage open and honest dialogue. When conflicts arise, address them promptly and constructively.

Henry Waddilove, Managing Director of Novus Business Connections , shares a valuable tip about improving team-building and management skills:

“Make sure there is constant two-way communication between everyone on the team and the higher-ups. Meetings, check-ins, and one-off gatherings are all viable options. This kind of regular interaction can do wonders for fostering trust and camaraderie within the group's members.” Henry Waddilove,Managing Director of Novus Business Connections

Adaptability and flexibility skills

Do you remember how businesses worldwide shifted from office-based to work-from-home setups when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged? Or how companies quickly started new technologies and processes to mitigate the risks of cross-infection? This is adaptability and flexibility in action.

Managers who work in fast-changing environments need to be adaptable and flexible. It means adjusting to new situations quickly, being open to new ideas, and managing stress well. Having good adaptability skills also means being able to work under pressure and build a resilent business .

To enhance your skills, embrace new technologies and ideas, adjust your plans to changes in the market, and develop backup plans for unexpected problems. Cultivate a culture of flexibility and innovation where people can experiment and try new things.

Jeff Mains, CEO of Champion Leadership Group , shares an important attitude we must adopt:

“Remain open-minded and adaptable to survive in today's dynamic business landscape. Cultivate a mindset that sees change as an opportunity for growth rather than a setback.” Jeff Mains, CEO of Champion Leadership Group

Problem-solving skills

Problem-solving skills are essential in today’s workplace. According to a report on hiring statistics by LinkedIn, problem-solving skills are highly valued by employers. 

Employers recognize the importance of having employees who can identify problems, brainstorm and analyze solutions, and implement the best course of action to solve problems. Thus, job seekers who possess strong problem-solving skills are more likely to be attractive to employers who value these abilities in their employees.

To improve your problem-solving skills, it is important to first identify and analyze the problem at hand. This involves using techniques like root cause analysis, SWOT analysis, and gathering feedback from stakeholders. Then, use critical and creative thinking to develop and evaluate potential solutions. Collaboration with others can also be helpful in finding solutions.

Smita D Jain, Founder and CEO of Empower Yourself , shares valuable tips for personal and professional growth. She highlights the importance of honing decision-making and critical thinking skills . 

“Hone your critical thinking and decision-making abilities. Seek diverse perspectives, analyze data, and consider the long-term impact of your decisions. Be proactive in identifying and addressing problems.” Smita D Jain, Founder and CEO, Empower Yourself

Challenges Faced by Managers and Strategies for Overcoming Them

Being a manager can be a rewarding experience, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. Effective managers need to have a variety of management skills to overcome these challenges and lead their teams to success. Here are five common challenges that managers often face and the management skills needed to overcome them:

• Managing conflicts: Conflicts in the workplace can arise from various sources, such as differences in opinions, miscommunication, or task-based issues. To effectively manage conflicts as a manager, it’s important to practice effective communication, active listening, and negotiation skills. You can resolve conflicts by inviting colleagues to a face-to-face meeting in a neutral location where they can openly express their differences and by actively listening to each person’s perspective.
• Time management: Managers are often pulled in different directions, managing various tasks and responsibilities. You can start your day by creating a plan of all the tasks that need to be done, both urgent and non-urgent. Scheduling your tasks in a calendar and setting reminders can also help you stay on track and meet deadlines. Don’t forget to regularly review your progress.
• Motivating employees: Keeping employees motivated and engaged can be a challenge. You need to have strong leadership skills, and the ability to provide feedback and recognition. To create a positive work environment, lead by example and demonstrate the behavior and values you expect from your team. Effective communication is key, so make sure to communicate clearly and respectfully, showing empathy towards your team members. 
• Adapting to change: Adapting to change is essential in today’s fast-paced work environment, especially for managers. Whether it’s implementing new technology, changing policies, or adapting to a new team structure, having strong adaptability skills is crucial. To navigate these changes, take the initiative to learn, keep your team, and colleagues informed and updated about the changes, and encourage open communication to address any concerns or questions that arise.
• Decision-making: Managers are often required to make tough decisions that can impact their team or the organization. One important aspect of making informed decisions is to incorporate data-driven insights. Data-driven decision-making is the process of collecting and analyzing data based on key performance indicators to transform it into actionable insights.

In conclusion, being a manager comes with its own set of challenges. However, managers can overcome these challenges with the right management skills and lead their teams to success.

FAQs About Skills For Effective Business Management

What are the key skills required for effective business management.

The key skills required for effective business management include leadership, communication, strategic thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, financial management, time management, and project management.

How can I develop my problem-solving skills as a business manager?

You can develop your problem-solving skills as a business manager by analyzing problems from different perspectives, gathering relevant data and information, brainstorming possible solutions, evaluating the pros and cons of each option, and selecting the best course of action.

What is financial management in business management?

Financial management is the process of planning, organizing, and controlling the financial resources of a business to achieve its objectives. It includes activities such as budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, and risk management.

What is the difference between leadership and management?

While leadership and management are often used interchangeably, they are different concepts. Leadership is about inspiring and motivating people to achieve a common goal, while management involves planning, organizing, and coordinating resources to achieve specific objectives.

How can a manager foster a positive work culture?

To foster a positive work culture, a manager should lead by example, communicate effectively, recognize and reward employees, promote work-life balance, encourage collaboration, and create a safe and inclusive environment.

Key Takeaways

These 12 must-have skills for effective business management are essential for aspiring and current managers, business owners, and entrepreneurs to succeed in a fast-paced, ever-changing business world. While some skills are soft skills that require emotional intelligence, such as team building and adaptability, others are more technical and require specific knowledge and training, such as project management and marketing.

Regardless of the type of skill, they are all important because they enable managers to make informed decisions, manage resources effectively, and lead their teams to success. Moreover, employers also highly value these skills in today’s competitive job market, making them essential for career advancement. The good news is that many of these skills can be practiced and improved with training, practice, and reflection.

With online courses like those offered by Skill Success, developing and improving these skills has never been easier or more convenient. Skill Success offers a quick and convenient way to develop these skills through their All Access Pass , which provides access to a wide variety of courses for one price. By investing in developing these skills, you can increase your value as a business manager and achieve long-term success.

Take advantage of the opportunity to develop and improve these essential skills for business management with Skill Success All Access Pass.

Ready to fully dive into your learning? Join All Access Pass and unlock our entire course library for only $15/month.

Click here to learn more

Marcjean Yutuc

Browse all categories, related posts, financial literacy: mastering finances for success, how to use customer feedback for business growth, easy online finance: basics of banking & investing, 3 powerful strategies to take control of your finances, 11 essential skills for ai developers.

Be the first to get the newest articles!

Get free articles weekly and put your skills on turbo mode. Subscribe with your email today.

Look out for useful articles and resources delivered straight to your inbox.

Looking for a solution to discover, change, or advance your career?

Get all access pass for only $15/month and unlock 3,000+ online video courses today..

SKILLSUCCESS.com 2024 All rights reserved

Online courses.

Software Tutorials

Personal Development

Career Development

Become an Instructor

Support FAQs

Create An Account

All Access Pass

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

SKILLSUCCESS.com 2022 All rights reserved

Subscribe For Success!

Get fresh content every week to upgrade your skills today!

Join our newsletter and get your first course free!

Congratulations! You get one free course of your choice. Please check your email now for the redemption code.

Is critical thinking a future skill for business success: science mapping and literature review

Central European Management Journal

ISSN : 2658-0845

Article publication date: 17 May 2023

Issue publication date: 30 May 2023

This article aims to review critical thinking (CT) as a future skill in business.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed two research methods: science mapping analysis based on bibliometric keyword co-occurrence data and systematic literature review following PRISMA guidelines. The application of two distinctive research methods meant that we could obtain a broad picture thematic overview as well as a detailed, fine-grained insight into the content of CT business research.

Research in CT in business studies is dominated by themes related to education, university and learning that far outweigh CT business application, which focuses on three research axes. These are specific business functions (e.g. accounting, marketing, human resources and identifying business opportunities), certain skills used in business (e.g. decision-making and creativity) and other business-related topics (including ethics, stakeholder relations and individual employee performance).

Practical implications

The article identifies new research gaps related to the link between CT and business performance, a firm’s ability to innovate and company characteristics. Moreover, the article highlights that CT positively influences business decision-making under the influence of cognitive biases and heuristics.

Originality/value

The article provides the first literature review on CT in business research. It uses a novel method of science mapping analysis to show unbiased algorithmic-based insight into the structure of the research, followed by a systematic literature review.

• Critical thinking
• Science mapping
• Systematic literature review
• Future skill

Skrzek-Lubasińska, M. and Malik, R. (2023), "Is critical thinking a future skill for business success: science mapping and literature review", Central European Management Journal , Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 48-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/CEMJ-09-2021-0110

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Małgorzata Skrzek-Lubasińska and Radosław Malik

Published in Central European Management Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

The social and economic shifts in the contemporary world put strong pressure on labor markets, including progress in AI applications ( Vrontis et al. , 2021 ), migration ( Mak, Roberts, & Zimmerman, 2021 ), climate change ( Berrang-Ford et al. , 2021 ) and rising life expectancy ( Schneider & Langen, 2021 ) identified as crucial drivers of the change ( Balliester & Elsheikhi, 2018 ; Malik & Janowska, 2018 ). It is predicted that 65% of children entering education today will work in jobs that do not yet exist ( WEF, 2016 ). In times of constant change, replenishing knowledge and skills is essential to remain competitive ( OECD, 2017b ). Therefore, the crucial problem is to recognize competencies that will be required by business and will provide employees with a competitive advantage in the future ( Visvizi, Lytras, & Daniela, 2018 ). A review of analyses regarding key future competencies shows the growing importance attached to the competence of critical thinking (CT) ( Palacios-Huerta, 2013 ; EC, 2016 ; Bakhshi, Downing, Osborne, & Schneider, 2017 ; Janowska & Skrzek-Lubasińska, 2019 ; Visvizi, Jussila, Lytras, & Ijäs, 2020 ).

What are the principal themes researched in CT-related studies in business literature?

What is the insight gained from the key articles about the application of CT in business?

The article consists of five sections. After the Introduction above, we will discuss the importance of CT as a fundamental future skill in business and its key dimensions so as to demonstrate the rationale for the presented study. Next, we will elaborate on the two research methods applied in the study, along with research limitations. The following section presents the study findings, and the article closes with a discussion and conclusions.

2. Critical thinking as a future skill

According to the European Council, the key skills that will create resilience against changes in the labor market and will be particularly valuable are CT, creativity, communication and collaboration ( EC, 2016 ). These skills are also recognized by other researchers, and they are dubbed the 4Cs ( Lamri, 2018 ). A World Economic Forum Report ( WEF, 2020 ) lists CT among the top 10 skills of 2025, including such skills as active learning, creativity, leadership, social influence and technology use. The OECD (2017a) places CT in the group of key cognitive skills. In a European Commission Report, Gonzalez Vazquez et al. (2019) call CT a meta-cognitive skill.

CT skills are often combined with problem-solving ( Edmond, 2017 ) as a bundled set of skills that highlights the practical and applicational edge of CT ( Heckman, 2008 ; Cunningham & Villaseñor, 2016 ; Sousa & Wilks, 2018 ). However, in the OECD Employment Outlook 2020, the two skills are separated, and CT alongside complex problem-solving is recognized as a transversal skill ( OECD, 2020 ). In an attempt to define this distinction further, Lamri (2018) states that CT enables solving problems using available knowledge, known facts and available data and logic.

the ability to develop and the ability for lifelong learning ( OECD, 2017b );

the ability to think strategically and apply rules to new situations to solve problems ( OECD, 2017b );

the skill of CT enabling individuals to proactively and effectively deal with non-routine challenges ( OECD, 2015 );

the ability to undertake analysis and synthesis (to go through large amounts of available information, evaluate it and make judgments; OECD, 2017b );

the ability to use logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems as well as assess one’s own performance, others’ performance, or the performance of organizations to make improvements or take corrective action ( WEF, 2020 );

the ability to identify and select information due to access to almost unlimited information resources ( Lamri, 2018 );

the ability to analyze and evaluate arguments according to their soundness and credibility, respond to arguments and reach conclusions through deduction based on certain information ( Tiruneh, Verburgh, & Elen, 2014 ).

As the line between the concepts of skills and abilities remains debated, and opinions vary in their views on CT attributes, we adopted the following operational definition of CT for the purpose of our study: CT in business means the skills to identify and select information, undertake their analysis and synthesis, and utilize them to solve business problems by proactively and effectively dealing with non-routine challenges to achieve strategic goals . Thus, when analyzing CT in business, we adopted a skill-based definition instead of a general one to provide a more focused analysis.

Most agree that CT is of vital and amplifying importance for business success, and its features are “hard to measure, but essential to the success of individuals and firms” ( OECD, 2017a , p. 9). This calls for a review of the current state of the art so as to build an indispensable foundation for future research. Moreover, due to the complexity of the matter, we believe it is advisable to apply both novel and more conventional research methods to achieve more sophisticated insight.

3. Materials and methods

This article employed two methods to address the research questions. To answer the first research question, we used a science mapping analysis based on bibliometric keyword co-occurrence data. Moreover, a systematic literature review with the support of PRISMA guidelines was applied to address the second research question.

3.1 Science mapping analysis

Science mapping is a graphic representation of knowledge areas ( Small, 1990 ). It uses automated algorithmic systems to analyze keywords to provide unbiased insight into the research subject based on the frequency at which two keywords appear together ( Su & Lee, 2010 ). We utilized the SciMAT software to gain insight into the interaction between article keywords in the analyzed pool to generate a list of key themes ( Santana & Cobo, 2020 ). Each theme was characterized by two dimensions: centrality and density ( Callon, Courtial, & Laville, 1991 ). Centrality represents the extent of an interaction between the theme in question and all other themes. Therefore, centrality provides an insight into the strength of the thematic network’s external ties (ties with other themes). Consequently, centrality is considered to be the degree of the theme’s importance in the research area. Density explores the internal strength of the theme, namely the strength of links between the number of co-occurring keywords that are part of the theme (ties inside the theme). Density is considered a degree of theme development. The higher the density, the more concentrated the research on the theme ( Santana & Cobo, 2020 ). SciMAT allocates themes based on their centrality and density into a strategic diagram. The strategic diagram is divided into quadrants representing four types of themes: motor, basic, specialized and emerging themes ( Gutiérrez-Salcedo, Martínez, Moral-Muñoz, Herrera-Viedma, & Cobo, 2018 ). The strategic diagram template is presented in Figure 1 .

Motor themes have a high level of centrality and density, so they are considered well-developed and important for the research area. Thus, motor themes are viewed as a major contribution to the research area. Basic themes are characterized by high centrality and low density. Therefore, they are considered important but not key contributions to the research area. Specialized themes represent themes with low centrality and high density, so they are internally well-developed but not strongly linked to other themes. Hence, they make a limited but focused contribution to the research area. Emerging themes have a low degree of centrality and density, which illustrates their relatively insignificant internal and external development. Each theme is represented on the diagram by a sphere. The sphere size can refer to various bibliometric indicators, while in our study it indicated the number of articles with the keyword used as a label of the sphere. The label of the sphere is the keyword with the highest occurrence frequency in a network of articles in the theme ( Santana & Cobo, 2020 ).

Science mapping analysis is a new kind of bibliometric analysis, but it has already been applied in the field of business and economic research. The same method – including SciMAT software and the use of strategic diagram analysis – was applied to research into a significant array of topics, including gig-economy ( Malik, Visvizi, & Skrzek-Lubasińska, 2021 ), the future of work ( Santana & Cobo, 2020 ), big data ( López-Robles, Rodríguez-Salvador, Gamboa-Rosales, Ramirez-Rosales, & Cobo, 2019 ) and creativity in business economics ( Castillo-Vergara, Alvarez-Marin, & Placencio-Hidalgo, 2018 ).

In this research, bibliometric data was obtained through the Web of Science (WoS) database, while the sample used in this study was limited to published articles. The sample for our study comprised 1074 WoS-indexed articles published between 1992 and 06.2021 These texts covered a total of 3419 unique keywords, and these keywords – together with their co-occurrence – were subjected to the algorithmic analysis with the SciMAT software. Then, we searched in the articles selected for the analysis for keywords “critical thinking” in all fields. The query scope was limited to articles in the field of business study.

3.2 Systematic literature review

To answer the research questions, we analyzed the existing scientific research and conducted a systematic literature review. To ensure the robustness of the review results and safeguard the consistency of the process, we followed the latest guidelines ( Page et al. , 2021 ) for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA; Moher et al. , 2015 ). Therefore, we developed a review protocol describing the article selection criteria, search strategy, data extraction and data analysis procedures. The key part of the data analysis procedure followed a three-step process, which comprised identification, screening for eligibility and inclusion of other texts.

In the initial phase, article selection criteria were established. To ensure a broad scope of the search and cover diversified insight from various sources for this systematic review – including research articles, public intuition papers and commercial reports – our search strategy used the Google Scholars database as the primary source of information. We noticed that not all texts included in this database undergo the same rigorous scientific verification procedure as in WoS. However, the texts in our research were validated and analyzed by the authors in a course of further PRISMA steps to ensure the high quality of data input. Moreover, regarding a more focused scope of systematic literature review compared to science mapping analysis, more conservative criteria were adopted in the next steps of the review process.

In the search strategy and extraction phases, the initial step of the review was performed on July 13, 2021, when articles with the phrase “critical thinking” and the word “business” in the title of the article were selected from the Google Scholar database. To fine-tune the results to the use of CT in business, we applied the exclusion criterium. In this step, the texts related to CT in business education were removed from the scope of our search by excluding texts with the following words in the title: “school,” “course,” “student,” “teaching,” “learning,” “curriculum,” and “education.” We did not use any additional inclusion criterium for our search. We found that 256 articles meet the original criteria and directed them to the data analysis phase for identification. By applying the exclusion criterium related to CT in business education, 212 articles were removed from the scope of our search while six texts were inaccessible. Consequently, a total of 38 articles remained in our database with potentially important insight into the application of CT in business.

However, the screening of the texts for eligibility further limited the number of articles to 15, because 23 texts provided no valuable insight into CT in business, usually because the term “critical thinking” was used in these texts in a different context, mostly to show that the authors thoroughly scrutinize their research subject. In the group of 23 excluded texts, 16 texts were excluded due to insufficient focus (e.g. CT used in colloquial meaning or in a context unrelated to the research field) and seven texts were excluded on the grounds of limited scientific rigor (e.g. lack of peer review process).

Six texts were included in the research based on references from primary studies. As a result, the insight from 21 texts is presented in the next section of this article. The selection process is summarized in Figure 2 .

3.3 Limitations

This study used multiple research methods to address research limitations. However, this study was not devoid of embedded limitations related to applied research methods and other limitations related to the scope of the study. Three limitations are highlighted and discussed in this part of the text.

First, science mapping as a method of analysis assumes that the content of the texts is adequately represented by the keywords provided by the articles’ authors. In this view, the outcome quality relies on input data quality. Input quality cannot be monitored during research that employs this method. Nevertheless, to address this limitation, other research methods can be deployed, and in the case of this research, science mapping analysis was followed by a systematic literature review.

Second, the findings of science mapping and systematic review depend on the choice of language of the scrutinized texts and the selection of databases. Despite the dominance of the English language in scientific literature, the exclusion of non-English articles adversely still affected the quality of this study.

Third, the use of specific databases and queries raises questions of inclusion, exclusion and bias. This study used the WoS database for science mapping and Google Scholar for the systematic literature review. Science mapping requires a list of keywords as article attributes. As Google Scholar does not have the keyword function, it cannot be used for this purpose. On the other hand, we preferred Google Scholar as it has a broader scope than WoS, which maximized the scope of the systematic literature review. However, the use of other databases such as Scopus would have further enhanced the study quality.

4. Findings

Application of the two distinctive research methods to analyze CT in business provided a detailed assessment of the research subject and allowed for capturing both overviews of the research landscape through science mapping and the more fine-grained insight through systematic literature review.

4.1 Science mapping

The science mapping analysis of the bibliometric data with the support of SciMAT software – based on keyword co-occurrence – allowed us to generate the following strategic diagram for CT studies presented in Figure 3 .

Eleven themes were identified and mapped in CT research. The size of the theme sphere was proportional to the document number covered by the theme, while their allocation in the diagram was a derivative of theme centrality (importance in the research) and density (degree of development in the research). CT science mapping analysis using a strategic diagram allowed us to identify three motor themes (university, skills and creativity), three basic themes (education, experimental learning and perspective), three specialized themes (personality, assessment and impact) and two emerging themes (ethics and perceptions).

The results indicated that the research on CT in business literature was dominated by themes related to education and learning, mostly tertiary. This vein was represented by one motor theme with the highest density and centrality, namely “university,” and two basic themes: “education” and “experimental learning.” The second important perspective used in CT research in business studies was related to CT as a skill, along with its connection with other skills and attributes of personality. This stream of literature was identified based on two motor themes – “skills” and “creativity” – and one specialized theme: “personality.” The application of CT to business practice was represented by a limited number of themes, and this line of research could be traced in “impact” as a specialized theme and “ethics” as an emerging theme. Moreover, the science mapping results showed that researchers attempted to analyze and assess CT from various perspectives indicated by the themes such as “perspective,” “assessment,” and “perceptions.”

The review of science mapping results provided a bigger picture of the studies related to CT in business literature and demonstrated an elaborate overview of the state of the art in CT research, revealing that researchers approached CT from a number of perspectives. Moreover, the review suggested that there was no research into the application of CT to business practice. This became especially apparent compared to more mature research perspectives related to education and learning, along with CT as a skill. On the one hand, the science mapping results showed a promising but broad area for further research related to the application of CT in business and business practice. On the other hand, the results called for a more fine-grained analysis of the body of research that would be directly related to CT in business, thus allowing for an overview of the current state of the art and identification of more focused research areas.

4.2 Systematic literature review

The application of a systematic literature review allowed us to prepare a detailed and focused analysis of CT in business. The application of PRISMA resulted in a decrease in the initial number of articles to only 38 texts once education-related texts were excluded. Following the application of further exclusion and inclusion criteria, 23 texts were excluded due to insufficient focus and lack of scientific rigor and six new texts were added based on references from primary studies. Thus, the final number of texts analyzed in this systematic analysis was 21 as shown in Annex 1 .

The research on teaching CT far outweighs research on CT in business practice. This has already been observed by Dwyer, Boswell, and Elliott (2015 , p. 260) who state that “there is a dearth of research on individuals” CT development and performance after university, “… and especially, in the working world.” This gap is puzzling, as CT is associated with crucial business applications, e.g. the ability to assess the situation in conditions of uncertainty ( Halpern, 2003 ; Butler et al. , 2012 ). In this case, research on combining business activity with CT skills should be particularly important.

application to business functions;

part of a skillset used in business;

other business-related topics.

Business areas in which CT was researched at the business function level include accounting, marketing, human resources and business opportunity identification. Scholars showed that the application of CT in accounting allows for the appropriate construction of accounting systems, which increases profits thanks to appropriate information ( Ikbal, Paminto, Darma, Ulfah, & Ilmi, 2020 ). Others revealed that the application of CT skills to marketing – especially advertising and promotion – increase their effectiveness by enabling businesses to reach intended target groups more efficiently ( Kraus, Harms, & Fink, 2010 ). CT skills improve the quality of business opportunity identification through active information search ( Sugito, Kamaludin, Pramaditya, & Putri, 2020 ), as these can be used as a framework for evaluating new product concepts and developing unique product designs ( Eggers, Lovelace, & Kraft, 2017 ).

Moreover, some mention the application of CT might be beneficial for business, but these elements were not analyzed, including covers risk management ( Chartrand, Ishaikawa, & Flander, 2009 ), organizational planning ( Chartrand et al. , 2009 ) and strategic planning ( McKee, 2020 ). Consequently, these texts do not provide insight into the application of CT in business, yet such areas should be considered as a research gap for future research.

Furthermore, studies showed that CT refers to several other skills used in business practice, such as creativity, problem-solving, information selection and evaluation and decision-making. The studies linking CT to creativity in business revealed its positive influence on a variety of business performance indicators. In this vein, CT emerged as beneficial to creativity – measured as the number of product designs – and business performance, namely the ability to effectively manage firm resources ( Eggers et al. , 2017 ). Others discovered that CT combined with creativity increases a firm’s financial performance ( McMullan and Kenworthy, 2014a , b ). Studies related to problem-solving ( Kahneman & Frederick, 2002 ) found that those different business problems require different proportions of qualitative (via intuition) versus quantitative analysis (i.e. models based on quantifiable factors, objectives and constraints), as CT involves objective quantitative analysis. The literature focused on the application of CT to the selection and evaluation of information in business practice recognizes that CT is essential to the selection of a huge amount of information to evaluate and connect the information as necessary for business ( McKee, 2020 ). Moreover, Wertz et al. (2013a , b) found that CT helps to identify what information is needed, accurately document information and evaluate its reliability.

The application of CT to decision-making in business is an important research area with a significant number of scientific texts. The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the extent to which CT helps in making better business decisions ( Williams, 2002 ; Dobbs & Hamilton, 2007 ; Ayad, 2010 ; Deane & Borg, 2011 ; Dwyer et al. , 2011 , 2014 ) According to Dwyer et al. (2015 , p. 261), CT “enables individuals to act independently; analyze and evaluate data in order to draw conclusions; and thus, make the inferences, judgments and decisions necessary to take action.” Chartrand et al. (2009) argue that CT helps to make adequate decisions, because it requires focusing on the most relevant information, asking the right questions and separating reliable facts from false assumptions.

The effectiveness of developing CT skills is a crucial research area addressed, among others, by Anderson and Reid (2013) , who showed that a long-term approach to CT skills development resulted in the successful acquisition of CT knowledge, skills and strategies. The developed CT skills were subsequently applied by the respondents in their professional lives and other areas as well. This skill transfer to real-life work-related situations was validated by respondents’ qualitative descriptions about their use of CT. Therefore, our study creates an important foundation for future research into the effectiveness of CT skills.

The use of CT in business decision-making is frequently studied in the specific area of judgment under the influence of cognitive biases and heuristics. In this light, CT is researched as a potential remedy to avoid biases and heuristics. With the use of Kahneman’s System 2 (slow thinking), CT may improve the quality of reasoning and decision-making ( Kahneman, 2011 , pp. 20–26). Critical thinkers as experts tend to use rational thinking rather than intuition to avoid making elementary errors ( Williams, 2002 ; Dwyer et al. , 2015 ; qtd. after Tversky & Kahneman, 1974 ; Kahneman & Frederick, 2002 ). In turn, Ayad (2010 , p. 562) notices the usefulness of CT in avoiding business mistakes: “critical thinking could guard the judgment from biases, bad data, wrong interpretation, and fallacies in reasoning. Furthermore, CT has the capacity to explore the context of situations, and provides a broad platform for understanding patterns, consequences, and risks.”

The third important area in business research that engenders studies on CT encompasses other subjects, unrelated to business functions and skills, including business ethics, stakeholder dialog and individual employee performance.

Several studies address the connection between ethical behavior in business and CT skills ( Mahin, 1998 ; Seele, 2018 ; Boda, 2019 ). Seele (2018) suggests that we should make CT the common denominator of all business ethics activities. Seele’s study combines CT with corporate social responsibility, sustainability and corporate citizenship, recognizing CT in the application of business ethics and observing that CT “helps to challenge different notions and contest business activities as not serving the best sort of life and offers mental models, moral imagination, and system thinking” ( Seele, 2018 , p. 564).

A crucial study by Rear (2008) , about the role of CT in facilitating dialog between businesses and government, shows that non-conformity resulting from CT can destabilize an organization, whether it is a company or a state. On the one hand, CT supports innovation and creativity, but on the other hand, it becomes a challenge to the stability of traditional social and economic structures.

Although direct relationship between CT and business performance remains to be researched in detail, some studies indicate that CT is positively correlated with business achievement. Dwyer et al. (2015) indicated that managers, supervisors, or business owners who hold more senior positions in a company scored significantly higher on business-related CT than company employees. By applying the CT definition used by Facione (1990 , p. 11) – which proposes that CT is a structured approach to problem-solving that includes collecting, segregating and analyzing information and evaluating results – Birkan and Yaşar (2021) compared the disposition of managers and white-collar employees to CT. The results of their studies revealed a moderate level of CT skills in both groups and showed that there were no statistically significant differences in this skill set between these two groups. The study is a rare example of a structured approach to analyzing CT and its link to business achievements, along with the application of mixed research methods – both qualitative and quantitative – that increases the reliability of the findings. Based on their study findings the authors propose a greater focus on the rollout of CT training in workplaces ( Birkan & Yaşar, 2021 ).

5. Discussion and conclusions

Currently, the world faces profound social and economic changes that exert intense pressures on businesses and generates a growing need to apply new skills by both individuals and firms in order to adapt to future challenges. One of these new skills is CT. Therefore, this article sought to enliven the debate on CT in business by identifying and mapping existing research on CT in business studies and by reviewing the key insight from papers that directly tackle the issue of CT business applications encapsulated in the two research questions formulated in the introduction. Having done so, we have striven to provide a thorough examination of the research areas and underexplored synergies that have emerged in CT studies.

Our review has suggested that CT is broadly perceived as a concept that will gain importance and offers a variety of still underexplored research opportunities. This idea is shared by both researchers and business practitioners, which means that there is a greater need for more in-depth research into CT.

Our elaboration of the two research questions has led to four main conclusions. First, our article has shown what is missing in the research and what should be an important research topic. We expected to conduct a review of many practical studies showing the importance of CT in various sectors of the economy. Moreover, we expected a large number of studies on the importance of CT at various stages of company development and in different business units such as strategic planning, marketing, or finance. Meanwhile, this type of research was found to be extremely rare. Moreover, we did not find any studies that showed a correlation between business success (measured, e.g. by higher survival rate or financial performance) and CT skills. Therefore, the business applications of CT, its practical implementation and its outcome have been identified as under-researched. Our systematic literature review has confirmed the limited scope of the studies that directly refer to CT in business practice, demonstrated by the restricted number of articles in the scope of the review. Moreover, our study has also shown that there is no research consensus on the definition of CT in business and the operationalization of this concept.

Second, we have demonstrated that while research on CT proliferates in business studies, there are substantial imbalances in the body of literature, with most of the research dedicated to university education and the development of CT skills by other learning forms. This is evidenced by the study of articles on CT in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. In an additional review performed by us following the outcome of this research, we studied CT in connection with Covid-19. The results showed that there were 54 articles with the words “critical thinking” and “Covid” in their titles. However, none of them concerned business, economics, or company research. This is astonishing at a time when substantial parts of the global economy are in lockdown, and many companies face the specter of bankruptcy. On the other hand, many articles from the sample focused on CT in education, especially on blended learning. This further indicates the imbalance in CT studies that we have identified in the course of our bibliometric analysis and literature review.

Third, the results of our study reveal that, relatively speaking, the most researched area in CT business application is its use as part of a skillset employed in business. The results of our research into this stream of literature generally indicate that CT skills reinforce business decisions and prevent cognitive biases and heuristics. However, the extent to which this contributes to better business decision-making requires further validation through empirical research. In this research stream, CT is often considered as a bundle of various skills, which frequently includes relatively distant and vaguely related concepts such as creativity. This result suggests that more research efforts are required to properly define and operationalize CT skills and chart a more evident boundary between CT and other skills.

attempts to explore the link between CT and business performance;

possible dependence between the application of CT and firms’ ability to innovate;

application of CT to assess investment decisions;

strategic decision-making such as entering new markets or mergers and acquisitions;

assessment of decisions made by artificial intelligence (algorithms);

implementation of CT in risk assessment;

linking of soft skills (including learnability) with CT in business;

the potential relationship between the application of CT and company characteristics such as company size, internationalization and ownership.

The results of our systematic review demonstrate opportunities for future studies, which are based on investigating the application of CT to other business functions than those identified in our research, namely accounting, marketing, human resources and business opportunity identification. Moreover, the current literature seems to offer only rudimentary insight into the application of CT in each of the business functions discussed above in Section 4.2 . This opens research avenues for more in-depth studies with a particular focus on empirical research, as empirical research has proved to be especially scarce in the literature.

we need a broad discussion to develop a definition of CT in business, as the participation of researchers from various disciplines could especially strongly improve the consensus on how to operationalize CT in business;

the research gaps could be reduced by undertaking extensive research by teams of many scientific fields, including multidisciplinary research, which would investigate the relationship of CT with various aspects of business management;

the research gaps could be narrowed down by various types of research, but two research types are particularly relevant: panel studies – e.g. a panel study of newly established companies and experimental research – conducted by psychologists inside firms and in controlled environments of laboratory experiments. These types of research would progress our understanding of the link between CT skills in business and the economic performance of companies. However, these studies should be preceded by a broad discussion on the definition of the concept of “critical thinking in business” and the operationalization of this concept.

To conclude, based on the advice of researchers and business practitioners, we agree that CT is one of the crucial skills of the future. Research on the use of this skill in business should definitely gain higher priority in management and economic studies. Our research is a voice in this discussion. We have synthesized the most prominent areas of study so far and have suggested the way forward for CT application in business. Without proving the usefulness of this skill in economic practice, teaching CT to many students of economics may turn out to be direly ineffective.

Strategic diagram template

PRISMA diagram and the selection process with the number of documents

The systematic review process and the number of papers reviewed

Texts included in the systematic literature review

Source(s): Own elaboration

References:

Anderson , P. R. , & Reid , J. R. ( 2013 ). Critical thinking advances the theory and practice of business management . Journal of the North American Management Society , 7 ( 1 ), 24 .

Ayad , A. ( 2010 ). Critical thinking and business process improvement . Journal of Management Development , 29 ( 6 ), 556 – 564 . doi: 10.1108/02621711011046521 .

Bakhshi , H. , Downing , J. , Osborne , M. , & Schneider , P. ( 2017 ). The future of skills: Employment in 2030 . London : Pearson and Nesta .

Balliester , T. and Elsheikhi , A. ( 2018 ). The future of work: A literature review . ILO Research Department Working Paper , 29 .

Berrang-Ford , L. , Siders , A. R. , Lesnikowski , A. , Fischer , A. P. , Callaghan , M. W. , Haddaway , N. R. , & Abu , T. Z. ( 2021 ). A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change . Nature Climate Change , 11 ( 11 ), 989 – 1000 . doi: 10.1038/s41558-021-01170-y .

Birkan , I. Ş. I. K. , & Yaşar , O. ( 2021 ). Critical thinking dispositions in business world: Mixed method on employees and managers . OPUS Uluslararası Toplum Araştırmaları Dergisi , 17 ( 35 ), 1644 – 1673 . doi: 10.26466/opus.830064 .

Boda , Z. ( 2019 ). Business ethics as critical thinking: Moral motivations and the limits of ethics . Ethical Business Leadership in Troubling Times . Edward Elgar Publishing . doi: 10.4337/9781789903058.00011 .

Butler , H. A. , Dwyer , C. P. , Hogan , M. J. , Franco , A. , Rivas , S. F. , Saiz , C. , & Almeida , L. S. ( 2012 ). The Halpern critical thinking assessment and real-world outcomes: Cross-national applications . Thinking Skills and Creativity , 7 , 112 – 121 . doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2012.04.001 .

Callon , M. , Courtial , J. , & Laville , F. ( 1991 ). Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research – the case of polymer chemistry . Scientometrics , 22 ( 1 ), 155 – 205 . doi: 10.1007/BF02019280 .

Castillo-Vergara , M. , Alvarez-Marin , A. , & Placencio-Hidalgo , D. ( 2018 ). A bibliometric analysis of creativity in the field of business economics . Journal of Business Research , 85 , 1 – 9 . doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.12.011 .

Chartrand , J. , Ishaikawa , H. , & Flander , S. ( 2009 ). Critical thinking means business. Learn to Apply and Develop new # 1 workplace skill . Available from: https://talentlens.in/CriticalThinkingCases/e-commerce-giant/images/downloads/TalentLens-Critical-Thinking-Means-Business.pdf ( accessed 13 July 2021 ).

Cunningham , W. V. , & Villaseñor , P. ( 2016 ). Employer voices, employer demands, and implications for public skills development policy connecting the labor and education sectors . The World Bank Research Observer , 31 ( 1 ), 102 – 134 .

Deane , M. , & Borg , E. ( 2011 ). Inside track: Critical thinking and analysis . London : Pearson .

Dobbs , M. , & Hamilton , R. ( 2007 ). Small business growth: Recent evidence and new direction . International Journal of Entrepreneurship Behaviour Research , 12 , 296 – 322 . doi: 10.1108/13552550710780885 .

Dwyer , C. P. , Hogan , M. J. , & Stewart , I. ( 2011 ). The promotion of critical thinking skills through argument mapping . In C. P. Horvath, & J. M. Forte (Eds.), Critical thinking (pp.  97 – 112 ). Nova Science .

Dwyer , C. P. , Hogan , M. J. , & Stewart , I. ( 2014 ). An integrated critical thinking framework for the 21st century . Thinking Skills and Creativity , 12 , 43 – 52 . doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2013.12.004 .

Dwyer , C. P. , Boswell , A. , & Elliott , M. A. ( 2015 ). An evaluation of critical thinking competencies in business settings . Journal of Education for Business , 90 , 260 – 269 . doi: 10.1080/08832323.2015.1038978 .

EC ( 2016 ). The future of work. Skills and resilience for a world of change . Brussels : EPSC Strategic Notes .

Edmond , C. ( 2017 ). 7 skills your child needs to survive the changing world of work . Available from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/skills-children-need-work-future/ ( accessed 15 May 2021 ).

Eggers , F. , Lovelace , K. J. , & Kraft , F. ( 2017 ). Fostering creativity through critical thinking: The case of business start‐up simulations . Creativity and Innovation Management , 26 , 266 – 276 . doi: 10.1111/caim.12225 .

Facione , P. A. ( 1990 ). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction . The Delphi Report (pp.  11 ). California Academic Press .

Gonzalez Vazquez , I. , Milasi , S. , Carretero Gomez , S. , Napierala , J. , Robledo Bottcher , N. , Jonkers , K. , & Goenaga , X. ( 2019 ). In Arregui Pabollet, E., Bacigalupo, M., Biagi, F., Cabrera Giraldez, M., Caena, F., Castano Munoz, J., … Vuorikari, R. (Eds.) . The changing nature of work and skills in the digital age . Luxembourg : Publications Office of the European Union , ISBN 978-92-76-09206-3 . doi: 10.2760/679150 , JRC 117505 .

Gutiérrez-Salcedo , M. , Martínez , M. Á. , Moral-Muñoz , J. A. , Herrera-Viedma , E. , & Cobo , M. J. ( 2018 ). Some bibliometric procedures for analyzing and evaluating research fields . Applied Intelligence , 48 , 1275 – 1287 . doi: 10.1007/s10489-017-1105-y .

Halpern , D. F. ( 2003 ). Thought and knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking ( 4th ed. ). New Jersey : Erlbaum .

Heckman , J. J. ( 2008 ). Schools, skills, and synapses . Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2008.00163.x ( accessed 5 May 2021 ).

Ikbal , M. , Paminto , A. , Darma , D. C. , Ulfah , Y. , & Ilmi , Z. ( 2020 ). Business and accounting standards that only support the capitalist interest: Critical thinking with institutional theory . Journal of Public Value and Administrative Insight , 3 ( 4 ), 153 – 162 .

Janowska , A. , & Skrzek-Lubasińska , M. ( 2019 ). Kompetencje przyszłości w warunkach ekspansji gospodarki 4.0 . Studia Ekonomiczne. Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Katowicach , 379 , 57 – 71 .

Kahneman , D. ( 2011 ). Thinking fast and slow . London : Penguin .

Kahneman , D. , & Frederick , S. ( 2002 ). Representativeness revisited: Attribute substitution in intuitive judgment . In T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), Heuristics of intuitive judgment: Extensions and applications (pp.  267 – 294 ). Cambridge University Press . doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511808098.004 .

Kraus , S. , Harms , R. , & Fink , M. ( 2010 ). Entrepreneurial marketing: Moving beyond marketing in new ventures . International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management , 11 ( 1 ), 19 – 34 . doi: 10.1504/IJEIM.2010.029766 .

Lamri , J. ( 2018 ). Les Compétences du 21ème Siècle, Comment faire la différence? Créativité, Communication, Esprit Critique, Coopération . Malakoff : Dunod .

López-Robles , J. R. , Rodríguez-Salvador , M. , Gamboa-Rosales , N. K. , Ramirez-Rosales , S. , & Cobo , M. J. ( 2019 ). The last five years of big data research in economics, econometrics and finance: Identification and conceptual analysis . Procedia Computer Science , 162 , 729 – 736 . doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2019.12.044 .

Mahin , L. ( 1998 ). Critical thinking and business ethics . Business Communication Quarterly , 61 ( 3 ), 74 – 78 . doi: 10.1177/108056999806100310 .

Mak , J. , Roberts , B. , & Zimmerman , C. ( 2021 ). Coping with migration-related stressors: A systematic review of the literature . Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health , 23 ( 2 ), 389 – 404 . doi: 10.1007/s10903-020-00996-6 .

Malik , R. , & Janowska , A. A. ( 2018 ). Megatrends and their use in economic analyses of contemporary challenges in the world economy . Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego We Wrocławiu , 523 , 209 – 220 . doi: 10.15611/pn.2018.523.18 .

Malik , R. , Visvizi , A. , & Skrzek-Lubasińska , M. ( 2021 ). The gig economy: Current issues, the debate, and the new avenues of research . Sustainability , 13 ( 9 ), 5023 . doi: 10.3390/su13095023 .

McKee , J. ( 2020 ). Critical thinking in research and analysis for business development . Journal of Research in Administrative Sciences , IX/II , 6 – 9 . doi: 10.47609/JRAS2020v9i2p2 .

McMullan , E. , & Kenworthy , T. P. ( 2014a ). Examining an implicit theory of Small business entrepreneurship . Academy of Management Proceedings , 1 , 13130 . doi: 10.5465/ambpp.2014.13130abstract .

McMullan , W. E. , & Kenworthy , T. P. ( 2014b ). Creativity and entrepreneurial performance: A general scientific theory . Springer , Berlin . doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-04726-3_9 .

Moher , D. , Shamseer , L. , Clarke , M. , Ghersi , D. , Liberati , A. , Petticrew , M. , … PRISMA-P Group ( 2015 ). Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement . Systematic Reviews , 4 ( 1 ), 1 . doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-4-1 .

OECD . ( 2015 ). OECD skills Outlook 2015: Youth, skills and employability . Paris : OECD Publishing .

OECD ( 2017a ). Getting skills right: Skills for jobs indicators . OECD Publishing , Paris .

OECD ( 2017b ). In-depth analysis of the labour market relevance and outcomes of higher education systems: Analytical framework and country practices report, enhancing higher education system performance . OECD Publishing , Paris .

OECD ( 2020 ). Employment Outlook 2020: Worker security and the COVID-19 crisis . Available from: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1686c758-en/1/3/5/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/1686c758-en&_csp_=fc80786ea6a3a7b4628d3f05b1e2e5d7&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book ( accessed 5 May 2021 ).

Page , M. J. , Moher , D. , Bossuyt , P. M. , Boutron , I. , Hoffmann , T. C. , Mulrow , C. D. , … McKenzie , J. E. ( 2021 ). PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews . British Medical Journal , 372 ( 160 ). doi: 10.1136/bmj.n160 .

Palacios-Huerta , I. ( 2013 ). In 100 Years: Leading Economists Predict the Future . MIT Press . doi: 10.7551/mitpress/9404.001.0001 .

Rear , D. ( 2008 ). Critical thinking and modern Japan: Conflict in the discourse of government and business . Available from: http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2008/Rear.html ( accessed 5 May 2021 ).

Santana , M. , & Cobo , M. J. ( 2020 ). What is the future of work? A science mapping analysis . European Management Journal , 38 , 846 – 862 . doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2020.04.010 .

Schneider , K. , & Langen , R. ( 2021 ). What is the future of adult training? A systematic literature review . Psychology , 12 ( 02 ), 236 . doi: 10.4236/psych.2021.122015 .

Seele , P. ( 2018 ). What makes a business ethicist? A reflection on the transition from applied philosophy to critical thinking . Journal of Business Ethics , 150 ( 3 ), 647 – 656 . doi: 10.1007/s10551-016-3177-8 .

Small , H. ( 1990 ). Visualizing science by citation mapping . Journal of the American Society for Information Science , 50 , 799 – 813 . doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(1999)50:9<799:AID-ASI9>3.0.CO;2-G .

Sousa , M. J. , & Wilks , D. ( 2018 ). Sustainable skills for the world of work in the digital age . Systems Research and Behavioral Science , 35 ( 4 ), 399 – 405 . doi: 10.1002/sres.2540 .

Su , H. N. , & Lee , P. C. ( 2010 ). Mapping knowledge structure by keyword co-occurrence: A first look at journal papers in technology foresight . Scientometrics , 85 , 65 – 79 . doi: 10.1007/s11192-010-0259-8 .

Sugito , P. , Kamaludin , M. N. S. , Pramaditya , H. , & Putri , W. S. ( 2020 ). Linkages of entrepreneurial experiences & critical thinking with ability to identify business opportunities through active information search . Solid State Technology , 63 ( 6 ), 7646 – 7653 . doi: 10.2991/assehr.k.201017.128 .

Tiruneh , D. T. , Verburgh , A. , & Elen , J. ( 2014 ). Effectiveness of critical thinking instruction in higher education: A systematic review of intervention studies . Higher Education Studies , 4 ( 1 ), 1 – 17 . doi: 10.5539/hes.v4n1p1 .

Tversky , A. , & Kahneman , D. ( 1974 ). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases . Science , 185 , 1124 – 1131 . doi: 10.1126/science.185.4157.1124 .

Visvizi , A. , Lytras , M. D. , & Daniela , L. ( 2018 ). (Re)defining smart education: Towards dynamic education and information systems for innovation networks . Enhancing knowledge discovery and innovation in the digital era (pp.  1 – 12 ). IGI Global . doi: 10.4018/978-1-5225-4191-2.ch001 .

Visvizi , A. , Jussila , J. , Lytras , M. D. , & Ijäs , M. ( 2020 ). Tweeting and mining OECD-related microcontent in the post-truth era: A cloud-based app . Computers in Human Behavior , 107 , 105958 . doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.022 .

Visvizi , A. , Troisi , O. , Grimaldi , M. , & Loia , F. ( 2021 ). Think human, act digital: Activating data-driven orientation in innovative start-ups . European Journal of Innovation Management , 25 ( 6 ), 452 – 478 . doi: 10.1108/EJIM-04-2021-0206 .

Vrontis , D. , Christofi , M. , Pereira , V. , Tarba , S. , Makrides , A. , & Trichina , E. ( 2021 ). Artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced technologies and human resource management: A systematic review . The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 1 – 30 . doi: 10.1080/09585192.2020.1871398 .

WEF . ( 2016 ). The future of jobs: Employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution . Geneva : World Economic Forum .

WEF . ( 2020 ). The future of jobs. Report 2020 . Geneva : World Economic Forum .

Wertz , R. E. , Purzer , Ş. , Fosmire , M. J. , & Cardella , M. E. ( 2013a ). Assessing information literacy skills demonstrated in an engineering design task . Journal of Engineering Education , 102 ( 4 ), 577 – 602 . doi: 10.1002/jee.20024 .

Wertz , R. E. , Saragih , A. , Van Epps , A. , Sapp Nelson , M. , Purzer , S. , Fosmire , M. , & Dillman , B. ( 2013b ). Work in progress: Critical thinking and information literacy: Assessing student performance . paper presented at the 2013 Annual American Society for Engineering Education Conference , Atlanta, US , June 23 – 26 .

Williams , S. ( 2002 ). Making better business decisions: Understanding and improving critical thinking in problem-solving skills . London : Sage Publications Incorporation .

Corresponding author

Related articles, we’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

• Accounting & Finance
• Communication
• Critical Thinking
• Marketing & Strategy
• Starting a Business
• Team Management
• Corporate Philosophy
• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
• Kokorozashi
• Sustainable Business
• AI Ventures
• Machine Learning
• Alumni Voices
• Yoshito Hori Blog
• Unlimited Insights
• Career Skills
• GLOBIS Community

The Best Critical Thinking Questions in Business

Critical Thinking: Hypothesis-Driven Thinking

Anyone can come up with a good idea. The real challenge is putting that idea into action. In this online course, explore how to form compelling, testable hypotheses and bring ideas to life in your own organization.

Critical Thinking: Structured Reasoning

Even a few simple techniques for logical decision making and persuasion can vastly improve your skills as a leader. Explore how critical thinking can help you evaluate complex business problems, reduce bias, and devise effective solutions.

Critical Thinking: Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is a central business skill, and yet it's the one many people struggle with most. This course will show you how to apply critical thinking techniques to common business examples, avoid misunderstandings, and get at the root of any problem.

Soft skills can be a true superpower in your career, and one of the best among them is critical thinking. Everyone says so, from the World Economic Forum to Forbes .

Much of the power of critical thinking comes from identifying and solving problems through questions. To find out which critical thinking questions have the most value and why, we spoke to three lecturers who teach Critical Thinking at GLOBIS University .

3 Reasons Employers Value Critical Thinking in Business

Critical thinking is a great mental exercise in its own right. It can help with more organized, logical thinking and persuasiveness. It can expand your point of view and, as an extension, raise your emotional intelligence.

But there are a few important reasons employers are seeing the value of critical thinking in business management now more than ever.

Next Article

5 Critical Thinking Interview Questions to Evaluate New Talent

How to Identify and Remove Barriers to Critical Thinking

“You want to hire people who can think for themselves.”

Critical thinking in business is important because you want to hire people who can think for themselves and give creative opinions based on their own experiences. This may seem obvious, but you might be surprised how often people look for employees who just reinforce the status quo.

The most valuable employees don’t just accept what we say as management. They think about how and where something works. They also consider where it may not work, why, and what to do about it.

Modern companies must utilize diversity. Diversity of thought requires an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable enough to express a devil’s advocate opinion. Without that, diversity is wasted or, at best, kept from reaching its full potential.

—Brian Cathcart, GLOBIS University

“Conventional wisdom is less and less applicable.”

Things are changing drastically, and everyone is feeling anxious. Conventional wisdom is less and less applicable. But critical thinking enables us to think independently and proactively while questioning conventional wisdom and precedents.

Employers will want to know whether you will work passively in the face of drastic change or become a human resource who can take charge of opportunities and solve problems proactively.

—Hideaki Kanazawa, GLOBIS University

“We need to make better business decisions.”

In an age where technology is moving quickly and we have access to more information than ever before, there remains one constant: We need to make better business decisions.

The essential skills of critical thinking, including analysis, communication, and problem solving , are applicable across a wide variety of fields. Employees who have a solid foundation of these skills can flexibly apply them to the changing nature of business , especially in roles where strategy is an important part of the job.

—Alex Scharf, GLOBIS Corporate Education

5 of the Best Books on Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

The Importance of Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving in Startup Culture

5 Critical Thinking Questions for the Business World

Employers are seeking critical thinking skills in business. So how can you demonstrate that you have them?

One of the core components of critical thinking is asking questions . Here are a few recommendations from GLOBIS lecturers that can be applied to your day-to-day thought process and stimulate your skills as a critical thinker and problem solver.

“Why me, why this, why now?”

Even if you trust your boss (and I hope you do!), you want to ask yourself contextual questions like, “Why are they asking me to do this now?” There are three critical thinking keywords here:

These are all significant for understanding the background of assigned tasks and therefore becoming a more effective employee.

It’s important to understand why a task is important to the greater context of the company strategy. Considering that can help you think and act more strategically and communicate more persuasively . It can also help you in your career planning.

“Do you agree or disagree?”

Often people get stuck at the starting point, wasting time when they could be analyzing the problem and digging deeper. It’s difficult to stare at a blank slate and come to a meaningful decision, so I always encourage learners to start with their instinctual response.

Of course, once you collect facts and draw conclusions , it’s more than OK to change your position. In fact, by changing your position and preparing counterarguments to the opposite point of view, you can often make your argument stronger.

“Is this an important question?”

Peter Drucker said, “The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.”

We tend to either think about the questions we really want to think about or work on issues our bosses assign us to without question. It’s also easy to get swept up in the information at hand and lose sight of the big picture. However, if you get off to the wrong start, everything you think about after that will take you in the wrong direction.

The most important thing is to be willing to ask yourself, “Is this really something I should think about?” or “Is this an important question?” These questions will help ensure you’re looking at the right issue in the first place.

Critical Thinking as Rethinking

Even a solid grasp of frameworks like MECE , logic trees , and the Pyramid Principle won’t enable you to solve problems instantly. The ability to think critically involves analysis, hypothesis testing, and rethinking in order to make an informed decision.

As Kanazawa puts it, “Critical thinking is a way of solving problems by objectively analyzing them with a healthy critical spirit.” Incorporating critical thinking questions will ensure that spirit adds value to your organization and spurs your growth as a professional in a changing world.

Related Articles

Need help prioritizing tasks try the eisenhower matrix.

How Recruiting Companies in Japan Are Connecting Foreign Grads with Global Careers

One-to-one Marketing: The New Age of Parasocial Relationships 

Get monthly Insights

Sign up for our newsletter! Privacy Policy

GLOBIS Insights

• Submission Guidelines
• Our Contributors

Accountability

• Privacy Policy

GLOBIS Group

• GLOBIS Corporation
• GLOBIS University
• GLOBIS Capital Partners
• GLOBIS Asia Pacific
• GLOBIS Asia Campus
• GLOBIS China
• GLOBIS Europe
• GLOBIS Thailand
• G1 Institute
• Ibaraki Robots Sports Entertainment
• KIBOW Foundation

© GLOBIS All Rights Reserved

• Book an appointment
• Contact us Careers

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills In Business Management Career

What is the importance of problem-solving and critical thinking skills in Business

With a growing number of professionals being employed in highly competitive industries, the role of being a manager has never been more important. In order to be successful in this environment, business managers need to know how to make decisions and solve problems. The article in question looks at critical thinking skills which are key for success in any professional field. Using the internet to access information is an incredible advantage for those who've already mastered their craft. But when you're still new in your field, it's best to have that extra hand - that is, until you can rely on your internal critical thinking skills and problem solving abilities. In this article, learn about how to improve these skills in a way that'll be beneficial for your career as well.

What are Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills?

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are often thought of as separate things, but they are the same. Problem solving is an active process where someone identifies a problem, conducts research, and then comes up with a solution. Terms like critical thinking and problem solving skills can be interchangeable depending on the context. Critical thinking and problem solving skills are important in any business arena. As a young professional, it is very important to invest time in these skills. Without these skills, it is impossible to get the most out of your career and it will be harder for you to advance your career. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skills is a process of analyzing, evaluating, and developing creative solutions to problems. These skills are highly valued in business management careers such as marketing, finance, or human resources. They are also important for individuals who want to improve their learning or skill development.

How can you improve your critical thinking and problem solving skills?

There are a few ways to improve your critical thinking and problem solving skills. You can become more proficient in reading the emotions of others, utilize the skills you already have, and learn new skills. Developing your critical thinking and problem solving skills helps you be an effective leader in today's changing world. One way to improve your critical thinking and problem-solving skills is to take advantage of available resources. For example, there are a lot of online courses that you can take that will teach you these skills in detail. You also don't have to simply rely on your work environment because there are many ways you can practice these skills outside of work. Critical thinking can be defined as using your imagination and reasoning skills to understand the world around you. Problem solving is a process of finding a solution to a problem or dilemma. Many people think that these skills are not relevant in the business world, but it is important for business managers to develop their abilities because these skills are needed for effective decision-making in any sort of occupation or career.

How to apply critical thinking and problem solving skills for successful business management career

Critical thinking is an important tool for problem solving. However, a lot of people don't know how to analyze problems. They might not know what a good problem looks like or how to know if their problem can be solved using critical thinking. This blog post will teach you the steps for applying critical thinking skills for a successful business management career. The most important skill to have when advancing your business management career is the ability to think critically and solve problems. Critical thinking can help you answer questions like: "Should I work at this company?" or "How much money do my employees need to make a comfortable salary?" While problem solving can help you answer questions like: "How many people should this project take?" or "What does this report mean for our bottom line?" Employers want people who are creative and proactive because it shows that they care about the success of their company.

In the beginning of my article, I mentioned that critical thinking and problem solving skills are important in any profession, but they are especially necessary when you're pursuing a career in business management. In this blog entry, I have given strategies for developing these skills. Critical thinking and problem solving skills are important for a successful career in business management. These skills are often related to decision-making. Developing these skills will allow you to make good decisions based on your own opinions and the advice of others. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills in Business Management Career

You can also refer this

1. Top Business Management Courses in USA for Masters

• How To Calculate ROI of a MBA Program Abroad? Calculate ROI of a MBA Program Abroad
• Eligibility Criteria for MBA Abroad Requirements for MBA Abroad
• How to Improve Your Business Management Skills and Your Business What skills do you need to be an effective manager?
• Why Business Management is a Great Career Choice What are the benefits of studying Business Management?
• USA BBA Degrees - What You Need to Know What Can I Do With A BBA Degree?
• How to Become a Successful Business Manager What are the steps required to become a business manager?
• UK BBA Degrees: What You Need to Know Why should one pursue BBA course?
• German MBA Degrees: What you need to know What are the requirements for MBA in Germany?
• Dubai BBA Degrees: What you need to know How to get admission to MBA programs in Dubai?
• Ireland BBA Degrees: What you need to know Is Ireland good for BBA?
• UK MBA Degrees: What you need to know What every MBA student should know?
• Dubai MBA Degrees: What you need to know Is it worth studying MBA in Dubai?
• Australian BBA Degrees: What you need to know What are the admission requirements for a bachelor's degree in Australia?
• What Business Management Specializations are Available? What are the different types of MBA specializations?
• Business Administration Degrees Of Dubai: Benefits, Scope, Jobs And Cost What is the scope of business administration?
• MIM in Australia : Everything you need to know Which master degree is best in Australia?
• MIM in Dubai : Everything you need to know Do you get jobs after MIM?
• Bachelors of Human Resource Management in USA Is a bachelor’s degree in HRM worth it?
• How to Become the Best Human Resource Manager What should I learn to become HR manager?
• Become The Best Project Manager What makes an excellent project manager?
• Human Resource Skills In Business Management Career What is the role of human resource management in business?
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills In Business Management Career What is the importance of problem-solving and critical thinking skills in Business
• How to Become the Best Sales Representative How do you become an effective Sales Representative
• Bachelors of Human Resource Management in Dubai Is Dubai good for bachelors Bachelors of Human Resource Management ?
• How To Become The Best Community Manager What is the most important role of a community manager?
• Leadership Skills In Business Management Career What skills do you need to be a business leader?
• Communication Skills In Business Management Career What communication skills are needed in a business career?
• How to become a better business manager What makes a business manager successful?
• Financial Skills In Business Management Career What are financial management skills?
• How To Become A Successful Logistics Manager What is the most valuable skill to have as a logistics manager?
• What Makes a Successful Account Executive? What skills should an account executive have?
• Mentoring skills In Business Management Career What is the role of mentoring in management?
• Organization and delegation skills In Business Management Career What is the importance of delegation in an organization?
• Planning Skills In Business Management Career What are the skills needed in business management?
• How to become the best office department manager What qualities make a good office manager?
• How to become the Best Staff Accountant What skills does a staff accountant need?
• Creativity and Innovative Skills In Business Management Career What is creativity and innovation in business?
• Learn how to become the best client services manager What qualifications do I need to be a service manager?
• Budgeting Skills In Business Management Career How to manage a budget in Business Management?
• How to become the best sales manager What skills should a sales manager have?
• How to become the best Business Development Director What are skills for business development executive?
• How To Become A Best Administrative Supervisor What do you need to know to be a successful administrative assistant?
• How to Become the Best Administrative Assistant What skills do administrative assistants have ?
• How To Become The Best Program Assistant What are the roles of program assistant?
• Masters of Human Resource Management in Malaysia Is human resources a good career in Malaysia?
• What you need to know to be a Director of Operations What skills do you need to be an operations manager?
• How to become the Best Financial Manager What are the qualities of a good finance manager?
• How To Become The Best Personal Assistant What skills are needed to be a personal assistant?
• How To Become The Best Business Consultant How do I start a career in business consulting?
• How To Become The Best Business Management Analyst What should I study to become a business analyst?
• Masters of Human Resource Management in Dubai Can I do masters in Dubai?
• Bachelors in Human Resource Management in Malaysia Is HR a good career in Malaysia?
• Find out if you're a Human Resource major How do you know if a career in human resources is right for you?
• What Are The Job Opportunities With A Business Management Degree In USA? What is the scope of business management in USA?
• Is Ireland Having The Best Universities For Business Technology Studies ? Is Ireland good for business studies ?
• What You Need To Know About Studying Business Technology In Japan ? How can you study Business Technology in Japan ?
• What Can I Do With A Degree In Business Technology ? Is there demand for Business Technology In Netherlands ?
• What Is The Career Prospect In Sweden For Business Technology ? Is it worth studying in Sweden for Business Technology ?
• What Are The Jobs Available After Studying Business Technology In France ? What is the salary for Business Technology in France ?
• What Is The Future Scope For Business Technology In USA ? What can you do with a degree in Business Technology ?
• Is Business Technology A Good Degree & Does UK Have Demand For It ? What Can I Do With A Business Technology Degree In The UK ?
• What Does It Take To Make It As A Study Business Technology Professional In Hungary? Why Study Business Technology In Hungary ?
• Is Good To Choose Germany For Studying Business Technology ? Why Study In Germany For Business Technology ?
• Which Business Degree Is Best In Australia ? What are the Facts of Business Technology in Australia ?
• What Is The Study Of Business Technology In Canada ? Is studying business good in Canada ?
• Does New Zeáland Having Demand For Business Technology ? Is New Zealand Good for Business Studies ?

We are recruiting for our Top Partners for 2024/25, Apply Now !

10 Most In-Demand Soft Skills to Put on Your Resume

L ong gone are the days when listing hard skills was the best (and oftentimes only) way to get your foot in the door at a prestigious company. While technical knowledge and training will always be important, soft skills (or essentially personality traits) are becoming increasingly important to highlight on your resume. And it makes sense, as more companies prioritize work culture and, therefore, the personalities of those they’re hiring.

But which soft skills are the ones that standout the most on a resume? Using data from Indeed.com, CashNetUSA scoured job ads for 46 predetermined soft skills to find the ones that appeared the most on high-paid jobs that surpassed the 75th percentile of wages in America’s most populated cities as well as each state. These are the soft skills that came out on top.

10. Resilience

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 34.29%

Resilience is a soft skill that highlights your ability to handle stress and challenges that come up at work. 

A good example of how to add this to your resume could be, “Showed resilience when leading a team after budget cuts by still delivering work on time and within scope.”

* Data comes from a January 2024 report released by CashNetUSA .

9. Financial Management

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 38.24%

If you’ve ever been in charge of a budget of any size, you can say that you have financial management skills. 

For instance, something like “oversaw the financial management of the freelance budget” could work if you hired contractors for a specific project.

8. Innovation

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 39.24%

Sure, this one makes our eyes roll a bit, too, but in today’s fast-paced world, innovation is key. No one wants an employee that stays stagnant or, worse, digs their heels in at the slight mention of change. 

You know who’s not stagnant? Someone who “excelled at brainstorming and ideation in the innovation process for [fill in project name].” You get it.

7. Emotional Intelligence

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 43.11%

We’re actually pleasantly surprised with this one. After all, we didn’t think corporations necessarily had it in them to care about this.

Jokes aside, having emotional intelligence is something that makes a good team member and an even better manager. After all, it’s hard to resolve team conflicts without it. The more a company emphasizes a “harmonious work environment,” the more this soft skill will matter.

6. Mentoring

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 47.89%

Here’s another managerial skill that job ads like to use to weed out the haves from the have-nots when it comes to managers. Do you actually enjoy mentoring people or have you just fallen up the corporate ladder into a management position?

True leaders will make mentoring a priority and want to highlight it on their resume.

5. Critical Thinking

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 47.94%

“Critical thinking” or “problem solving” can be put in the same bucket as resilience. How did you handle a challenging situation at work? It’s even better if you have data to back up your claim.

Well, maybe you “demonstrated strong critical-thinking skills when analyzing financial reports and making forecasts for the following quarter.”

4. Presentation Skills

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 56%

Presentation skills are the nature of the beast when it comes to today's Corporate America. That's because lots of today’s high-paying jobs require working with cross-functional teams and being able to explain your work in easy, digestible terms.

Think someone on a data science team explaining their findings to a marketing team. Along with "presentation skills," you could also add the specific presentation tools or software you use for your presentations on your resume.

3. Persuasion

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 57.41%

Persuasion sounds rather seductive, but it's crucial when trying to get specific projects across the finish line.

It's also a term that's used a lot in marketing when talking about "persuasive marketing skills" required to communicate well with a customer audience.

2. Negotiation

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 58.26%

This skill goes back to business basics. Proper negotiation skills come in handy in any aspect of life, whether you're negotiating a $1 billion merger or whether or not your toddler can have dessert for breakfast.

That said, it's a skill that takes time to hone — which is why it's considered all the more valuable.

1. Strategic Thinking

Percentage of highly paid jobs requiring the skill: 64.77%

Strategic thinking is essentially a combination of innovation and critical thinking, but the best way to incorporate this keyword on your resume is by using the CAR (challenge, action, result) technique.

You could say something like, "Used strategic thinking skills by analyzing user engagement data and running an A/B test that resulted in increased engagement of 20 percent."

For more resume advice, check out "How to Make Your Resume Shine."

• Study Guides
• Homework Questions

1-1 Discussion Business