Top 5 Critical Thinking Skills Important for Business

The importance of business critical thinking skills

Successful companies looking to hire workers for the future are discovering the importance of critical thinking skills in business.

If workers can’t keep up with rapidly changing economic and technology advancements, businesses are exposed to risks of errors and lost opportunities. Strength in business critical thinking skills is required for the strong decision-making and problem solving skills that move a company forward. Success depends on people able to learn their jobs quickly and to perform successfully in situations requiring problem solving.

Business professionals must be able to act with autonomy. They must be able to make sound decisions, solve problems, communicate clearly, be collaborative, flexible and multi-task.

Implementing corporate goals require a leadership team who can identify critical elements, evaluate options, anticipate risks, prioritize goal achievement.

The best way to reduce the risks of poor decision-making and problem-solving is to hire people with strong business critical thinking skills .

5 critical thinking skills Measured by the INSIGHT Business Pro:

1. Problem analysis:

The ability to analyze problem situations and identify the significance of key/critical data elements. A strongly skilled problem solver uses analysis and interpretation skills to determine the issues that must be addressed and to understand the complexities of the problem.

2. Evaluating alternatives:

The ability to evaluate options accurately and establish priorities. A successful business professional can differentiate the quality of different possible choices and explain the reasons for their decisions.

3. Decision-Making in Precise contexts:

The deductive reasoning skills necessary to anticipate outcomes and see logical consequences. Effective business professionals need to be able to see applications and implications of executive directives, company policies and regulations

4. Decision-Making in Ambiguous contexts:

Problem solving in contexts of risk, ambiguity and uncertainty. Strength in inductive and inferential reasoning lead problem solvers to determine the solution that has the strongest likelihood of success, given information at hand.

5. Decision-Making in Quantitative contexts:

The ability to reason well in contexts involving numerical data. Business problem solvers must demonstrate the ability to interpret and evaluate vital information presented in a variety of numerical formats in order to reach an optimal problem solution.

HR understands the importance of these top business critical thinking skills

You need strong critical thinkers. Why would you make a hire or promotion without assessing these 5 top critical thinking metrics?

Time is too valuable to waste interviewing candidates who don’t have the skills to expand your business. You only should interview, hire and promote the best thinkers in the pool.

INSIGHT Business Professional provides objective metrics on these key elements of critical thinking strength as well as 10 additional business mindset characteristics.