You, as a leader, should understand how to use critical and reflective thinking skills. These skills are essential for you to be an effective leader and to grow your expertise. Critical thinking and reflective thinking do not apply solely to learning. Still, they are crucial practices for deeply processing information for leaders’ throughout your career. Most organizations want all of their leaders to utilize these skills, but they are rarely discussed or taught to junior leaders. Maybe the senior leaders themselves do not understand how to use them or explain how to implement them. Below are a few things that can guide you in understanding and implementing these thinking strategies.

I learned these skills and used them throughout my military career and used them extensively after leaving the military to navigate many different challenges I faced in business.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves questioning what has been seen, heard, read, or experienced. Critical thinking ensures that the person is engaged in the learning process, critically considering the information or practice of skills. Critical thinking requires analysis, comparisons, contrasting ideas, making inferences and predictions, evaluating the strength of evidence, and drawing conclusions. It also requires the self-discipline to use reason and avoid hasty decisions. These questions can guide critical thinking—

• What is the evidence for and against this conclusion?
• What would be the alternative or competing theories, explanations, or perspectives?
• Why is this important?
• What are the implications of this?
• Is the logic of the argument or reasoning sound?
• Do the numbers, quantities, and calculations make sense?
• Do the supporting facts agree with other sources?
• Why or how does this work?
• How likely is this?

Reflective Thinking

Closely related to critical thinking, reflective thinking seeks to build understanding, interpret experiences, and resolve questions. Reflective thinking requires thinking through the collected information in detail to organize it, apply principles, make connections, and form conclusions. Use these questions to organize personal thoughts—

• What does this information mean?
• What are the conclusions from this?
• How can this information be used?
• How does this fit with my existing knowledge and experiences?
• What are the implications of this for others or me?
• What is the big picture, and how does this fit into it?
• What is the best way to learn about this subject?
• Where should this take me in my studies and self-development?

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