As your organization faces new challenges, the ability for your executive leadership team to think critically becomes increasingly more important. With this essential skill, leaders can see problems from all perspectives and are able to make more effective decisions. Without effective problem-solving skills, your leadership team tends to make decisions that are more likely to create a negative chain reaction throughout your organization, stunting its potential for growth and preventing positive change.
In today’s fast-paced, constantly evolving business environment, it has become even more pivotal for executives to be able to quickly make decisions and adapt to situations they previously have not encountered. Leaders who implement critical thinking into their decision process identify, evaluate, and analyze objectively, making decisions based on relevant data instead of personal biases and past experiences, which leads to more informed decisions and bigger improvements. Additionally, executives that implement critical thinking are better at problem-solving that meet multiple needs.
Prioritizing Soft Skills in an Executive Leadership Team
Difficult to learn soft skills, like critical thinking, problem solving, and time management are just as important to an executive’s work performance as their technical skills. In fact, according to LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report, 89 percent of recruiters say when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to missing a few key soft skills. Critical thinking has become so important among organizations that desire to grow, that many are prioritizing interviewing for critical thinking skills over other soft skills during the hiring process.
Evaluating Critical Thinking During the Hiring Process
Asking the right interview questions during the hiring process will help you uncover if a candidate’s critical thinking skills meet the nature and requirements of the position, helping to prevent any surprises after they’ve already started working in their new position.
To evaluate a candidate’s critical thinking skills, hiring managers should ask situational and behavioral questions, which will provide insight into a candidate’s reasoning and decision-making. The questions should require a candidate to demonstrate in detail how they solved a problem that they have not faced previously. Interviewers should listen for key points like how the candidate learned more about the issue and their analysis, specifically was it based on facts and evidence, or intuition, and the outcome of the result.
Hiring managers should also consider adding a pre-hire assessment to their hiring process. It’s easy for a potential candidate to modify attitudes and behaviors during an interview. Conducting a pre-hire assessment reveals consistent, in-depth, and objective insight into personality traits, learning skills, critical thinking, and reasoning styles, which helps identify how a candidate will perform on the job and work with others, preventing personnel issues and conflicts down the road.
How Torch Group Can Help
Torch Group is a leading retained executive search firm that partners with your hiring team as talent advisors who can offer unique insights into your hiring process, helping you make better hiring decisions. We are well versed in the art and science of interviewing for specific soft skills that align with your company’s unique culture and values. We have a proven track record of identifying and placing better-qualified, more invested candidates to drive positive change for your business.
To learn about our search services and Signature Search Process™, please contact Susan Acker, Vice President, Sr. Account Manager at sacker@torchgroup.com or 203-536-2249 or complete and submit this form and let us know how we can help.