Building Relationships and Resolving Conflicts: Infusing Critical Thinking into Workplace Practices

Abstract

As we are now living in a world characterized as a “new normal,” nothing is more important than leaders who are adept at critical thinking enabling them to enhance their businesses by making judicious decisions while remaining sensitive to the needs of their employees. When talking about critical thinking, often neglected is the descriptor “critical.” Among other things, “critical” means significant, vital, essential, and analytical, and involving skillful judgment as to truth and merit. From the point of view of commonsense, “critical” may also imply an effort to see a problem or situation clearly and truthfully in order to make fair judgments and wise decisions. Thus, critical thinking is more than learning to use specific thinking skills deemed necessary for business and everyday life. A critical thinker will have a sense of ethics governing his or her decision making and business acumen. Consequently, critical thinking necessitates life-long learning, experience, developing one’s intuitions, and above all, being creative, flexible-minded, sensitive to one’s environment, as well as being trusted and fair-minded. The ethical overtones of becoming a critical thinker are obvious making critical thinking and essential component of values-based leadership.