You are delivering some information to someone above your rank in the organization (it can be a presentation or a 1-on-1 sit down). The deeper into the discussion you go, the more irrelevant the comments and question you’re receiving become. Before too long, it’s fairly clear that your audience has very little knowledge as to how the processes used to gather the information, the methods for analyzing it, or why the work is done that way.
It’s OK, you can put your hand down now. We’ve all been there. Unfortunately, it’s all too familiar – but why does this situation exist?
Part of the answer has to do with the way in which we hire and promote people.
Managers need to know the work they supervise, however, they also need to be able to teach others how to do that work. In addition to the Positional Authority bestowed upon them by their own managers, they need to exhibit Experiential Authority that is derived from actually having performed the job they now supervise, as well as Personal authority that comes from their demonstrated ability to manage that work. By showing they understand the difficulties inherent in the job and are capable of “rolling up their sleeves” and actually performing it when required, managers can display expertise. If this expertise is combined with empathy, it creates a powerful catalyst to transforming that manager into a mentor and coach.
The Critical Thinking Process
Unfortunately, there are going to be situations where individuals will be put in the position to oversee work they have little or no personal experience with. For those who are not yet managers, there are skills that you should develop in order to assure yourself, and those you will eventually be leading, that you can still offer something of value to your team. Two of the most important skills you will develop are Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking.
Highly developed Critical Thinking skills provide the manager with the ability to ask pertinent questions, identify root causes, maintain objectivity and, most importantly, to re-examine his or her own thought processes, behaviors and understandings in order to continuously learn new approaches to solving problems. Developing the habits and traits of a critical thinker are essential for both individual and organizational growth & development.
Creative thinking complements Critical Thinking by taking the next step beyond identifying the sources of problems. Creative thinking is necessary for innovation and is fundamental to the problem solving process. Combining Creativity tools with Critical Thinking skills often reveals unexpected skills among team members and allows them to arrive at solutions that had never before been considered.
The Creative Mind
- Avoid wasteful ”Bring me a rock.” exercises. (Providing more and more data without guidance on what data is needed in order to make a decision.)
- Build respect by providing mechanisms for working through problems when the answers are unknown
- Gain trust by creating confidence that the solutions developed are well thought out, relevant, and based on clear thought processes, rather than random guesses or dictated resolutions.
