How to Improve Critical Thinking Skills in The Workplace - Executive Coaching

As you start to approach higher levels of your career path, executive positions and beyond you will really become aware of that critical thinking skills are going to be crucial when it comes to performing, or you need to perform well when it comes to being able to have great meaningful conversations with senior leadership, critical thinking skills are going to be important to you. But how do we develop it? And that is the topic of my video today.

So at the end of the video, you're going to come out with some really clear principles on how to develop your critical thinking skills. But first, before we begin, let's talk about critical thinking itself. Like, what is it?

Right? There is a lot of information out there around critical thinking, a lot of tips and tricks that you might have come across. But I want to give you a clear distinction on what critical thinking is.

All right. So I want to share with you two characteristics of critical thinking and the activities involved in as well. Okay.

Let's start with the two characteristics. The first characteristic of critical thinking is a disciplined process. So what does that tell you?

It means that critical thinking is not a destination. It means that it is a process, not a destination. It means that in every situation, any conversation, collaboration or transaction, that you are a part of, this is your ability to go through a process with discipline and focus, right?

So that is the first characteristic. The second characteristic of critical thinking is that it is a way of reasoning, right? It is a methodology that you are really utilizing the first, the fore center of your brain, the rational centers, and this rational center the executive function of your brain is the opposite of the emotional side.

In fact, this is where you are not making decisions or having judgements or presumptions based on emotional responses, but more so from executive function. That, that, that's what that means. Critical thinking is a way of reasoning.

So those are the two characteristics of it. So what are the activities? When you are practicing critical thinking, what you are essentially doing is that you are analyzing, you are conceptualizing and you are synthesizing new information.

And sometimes it could, as a result of it, it could come out that you produce some new knowledge, but more importantly, it means that you are putting perspective on the information you are getting outside of you. Right? So with that distinction in mind, what critical thinking is, I want to hear from you, it's really important comment below, what have you learned so far in this video?

Because when you really share your takeaways, what's happening is you get to learn it twice. You learn it once when I share it with you and you learn it twice when you put in the comment below. So comment below and let me know what you think so far.

And also as we progress as well, I do want to hear from you and remember to subscribe to my channel as well, ring that bell below because every single week I release videos like this on topics that are for executive professionals and beyond. So I look forward to let's go. The next, the next part is about the principles on critical thinking.

So when it comes to the principles on how to master your critical thinking skills, it breaks down into these concepts, right? So these are the concepts that are that stem from the principles that I want to share. And the first concept, the key concept to mastering your critical thinking is this, it is the wisdom of the ages, wisdom of the ages.

What do I mean by that? Right? When it comes to being able to refine and hone the way that you think it's important that you continue growing, because remember critical thinking is not a destination.

It is a process. It's a way of reasoning, right? So when it comes to that, it is really important that you don't stop learning.

You are a lifelong learner within your field and also related to your field as well. So this requires you to constantly be developing your knowledge, deepening knowledge in certain areas while obtaining breadth in knowledge in others, as well that are related, or that could cause the current depth of knowledge to have more meaning to it. So when you are attaining knowledge from sources around you, it's important to focus more on the, what is wisdom versus what is popular.

Because if you think about it, there are a ton of books out there, a ton of resources out there that you can tap into. And some of these resources, books included are popular, but I always say, instead of searching for and going for what's popular, going for what is wisdom. So this is really key.

Cause have you ever done this before? Read a book, or maybe read an article and really thought to yourself, oh, this is not very helpful. It's very general.

Or maybe you thought to yourself, well, it's very fluffy or maybe you thought to yourself, well, I don't know how this is particularly helpful. I've heard those concepts before. And that's because this is where, what happens when you go for things that are popular, but wisdom of the ages are things, wisdoms and insight that come from original thinkers.

They come from geniuses that are unborrowed. They come from original thinkers as well. Cause when you think of your knowledge, you can think of your knowledge, like a tree, a tree has branches and leaves and the branches come from a trunk as well.

But the trunk is grounded in its roots. And the roots, the stronger the roots are the stronger the tree can withstand weather outside or winds that blow very strong. So your knowledge is like a tree.

And so when you're focusing on the wisdom of the ages, you are strengthening your knowledge tree from its roots. So this is where you are learning from original thinkers. You're learning from people who have depth of insights and spent a lot of times synthesizing their knowledge and not what's popular, but what has stood the test of time, or a lot of these original thinkers are no longer alive.

So this is where you can learn from individuals who have learned from them. Individuals who have studied wisdom of the ages, individuals who have spent their years solidifying their knowledge tree. You can learn from those as well.

So that is the very first key concept when it comes to, how do you master your critical thinking skills. It is to focus on this concept, learning from the wisdom of the ages. Now it can take a very long time to develop the wisdom of the ages or to read old texts and a lot of resources that come from individuals who then have passed on, but left their wisdom behind.

It can take a very long time. But if you're someone who is serious about developing your critical skills and you know, that critical thinking is going to be key for you to move forward in your career path and continue to make your most meaningful contribution, using your knowledge and your expertise, then I invite you to work with me every single week I share in my classes and in my coaching as well, real wisdom. These are the truths that stand the test of time, not the popular beliefs, not the what's popular out there, but the truths that are being withheld in college education systems, the truths that are being unheld and kept secret the truths that are hidden from us from popular books and popular resources.

So if you are genuinely serious about developing and mastering your critical thinking skills, then I invite you to look at the link below in the description below this video. The first link is a link to apply for coaching from me. And this is where I can take you every step of the way to show you how to understand and uncover the hidden truths that could really hone your skills to be able to think, and to be able to reason, to be able to synthesize and have your perspectives anytime you communicate.

Right? So this is the first key concept that is wisdom of the ages. The second concept is called conceptual frameworks.

What are conceptual frameworks? You see your brain is a machine that tries to understand the world around you to make sense of things that you observe, make sense of things that you, that you notice and make sense of situations and events that you are a part of. And this is one of the most important jobs that your brain has is how do you make sense of things to help you understand where you're in to help you understand your environment and the way your brain helps to understand the world around you is by creating what I call conceptual frameworks.

And you have frameworks about everything. You have frameworks about politics. You have frameworks about relationships.

You have frameworks for your industry as well, and you have frameworks for every subject matter that you have studied in college or in your education. And your frameworks are literally your best thinking. If you think about every decision you made in your career path, up until now, every decision you've made in your life, you did your best at making that decision.

You did your best at formulating your own perspectives, your personal philosophies as well, and your belief systems. That was your best thinking. And your best thinking is made up of many, many conceptual frameworks that are in your mind.

And that think about the conceptual frameworks is that they may or may not be grounded in the truth. They may be grounded in our own perspectives that we observe around us. But the thing about critical thinking is that we require to, it would be wise to update constantly update and refine our conceptual frameworks.

And the way to do that is one, to focus back on the wisdom of the ages in our reading and our learning as well from other people. The biggest problem when it comes to reading and education is that we have been programmed by society and with public education systems, we have been programmed to read for the purpose of either memorizing a thing or criticizing it for the purpose of searching for what's right or what's wrong. Think about it.

We've been programmed to read in school to memorize what we read so that we can pass the exam. We've also then subsequently been programmed to read a thing and criticize it and say, oh, this isn't right. This is not right.

That one is wrong. And so therefore, when we do that, we are that's based on our own current understanding. The problem with this programming reading is that when we read to memorize or to criticize, it limits us as to the wisdom we can gain from that piece of knowledge.

And it also causes us to live within our current understanding without expanding it. It also causes us to call confirmation bias, to pick out the things that we agree that I was right. And therefore, to discard the things that are what we perceive as wrong.

And sometimes it's those things that we discard are areas that we don't know that we don't know. And that's where sometimes the greatest growth and the greatest opportunities to refine our critical thinking exists. So the whole purpose of reading is not to memorize them or to criticize that, that insight.

But the purpose of reading is mastery, the foundation of it, but really it is to formulate new perspectives. And that can only be done when you come into this reading and you are approach you approach reading activities with the purpose of how do I take withdraw with an open mind, this new knowledge that I'm picking up that I'm studying so that I can update and refine my conceptual frameworks? Because so long as you keep holding your current ones, your current conceptual frameworks inside of your mind so long as you keep them and you keep them the same and you block out what's wrong when you only take in what's right.

So long, so long as you keep doing that, then your conceptual frameworks will stay as they are. And remember, that's your best thinking, it's your best decisions. So your best decisions got you where you're at right now.

But if you want to take your career and your life to whole new levels, unprecedented areas that you've never been before, but you truly do desire it. Then it requires you to update and refine those conceptual frameworks. Alright, so those are the first two key concepts on how to master your critical thinking wisdom of the ages.

Number two, your conceptual frameworks, number three, the third key concept to helping you master your critical thinking skills is reflective awareness. What does that mean? Now, you have a familiarity.

You must've heard of having a greater self-awareness. So what is reflective awareness? Reflective awareness is where you are completely opening your perspectives, because remember, there's only two things you can influence in life.

They are the actions you take and the perspectives you have. So reflective awareness is a process in which you are truly going more towards closer and closer to your true, authentic self, your place of authenticity. This is where you realize this is who I am.

I have nothing to prove, but these are all of my characteristics. I'm aware of my characteristics. I'm aware of all of the skills that I have.

I'm aware of all of the traits that I own as well. The value that I have within me, my intrinsic value. This is receiving that full awareness and of you, of you, of who you are, because let's face it, when you are working alongside of key leader, senior leaders who have been there and done a lot of achievements that you would admire as well.

Oftentimes we see another person that we feel a little bit intimidated by, and we see them as having certain things that we don't. It could be a certain area of intelligence. It could be a certain vernacular of articulation that we perceive they have, or it could be that they have a level of authority or power or success that we don't have.

And when we are in the presence of these individuals, this is where we have our greatest propensity to feel that they have this over us. And we feel intimidated by them. And in that moment, we feel impostor, especially when we go and we try to exude our confidence and we try to put our value in, into the teams.

We feel imposters. So this is where it's important, when you want to over come imposter. When you want to overcome the nervousness and intimidation, this is where your consciousness of brain's conscious activity to bring you closer and closer to your authentic self.

And that is the only way to come close to your authentic, authenticity is to practice reflective awareness. So these three, these three key concepts, wisdom of the ages, conceptual frameworks, and reflective awareness when you will learn to hone these three concepts, when you learn to deepen your activity, deepen your mindset into delving and leaning into these three concepts, you will master your critical thinking skills. And by the way I have another learning coming up, right, next right after this.

And this is five key steps, some very simple steps on how you can increase your brain power. So that's coming up next and I will see you there.