Next, we will hear from my friend Ann Meacham, also a leadership expert. Before I interviewed Ann about leadership one on one, I had the pleasure of watching her conduct a thorough program on critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is a cornerstone of effective leadership so we will start out with key kernels from her program and then move into the conversation we had with one another in a future post.
The Importance of Critical Thinking as a Foundation of Leadership
The first aspect of critical thinking comes down to asking the right questions. When I heard Ann discussing this in her presentation, I got excited because I’ve always been a question asker and a curious person, someone who wonders about everything (including both the good and bad aspects of life). The secret to knowledge is not to have all the answers, but to ask the right questions.
A good rule of thumb is to question authority figures, people who claim to know it all. Questioning people does not mean you are disrespecting people. Remember, being polite, friendly, and respectable are hallmark traits of successful people. Questioning others just means that you think for yourself.
From my own experience, I can testify to the challenge of blocking out the noise of other people’s opinions. Even as an independent thinker, it’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of automatically believing the spoken word without questioning it. But Ann gives us a series of practical questions to ask when facing particular statements and claims from others:
- Who said that?
- Is that source reliable?
- Is there data to support that claim?
- Has it been scientifically proven?
- Is this person qualified to speak on this topic?
- Do they have a personal stake in this issue?
“While I grew up,” Ann said, “I wasn’t very discerning. I took what some people said to be truth.”
I loved Ann’s transparency and honesty as a speaker, as I am transparent and honest myself. I completely relate to Ann being too trusting while growing up. I far too frequently took other people’s words as the truth.
“One time I asked someone where I should park my car,” Ann said. “I wanted to put it in my driveway, but the other person said to park it on the road. It ended up being a bad decision because I ended up falling and badly injuring myself. I had to learn to stop listening to other people without checking in with myself first! Sometimes we forget to do this and just out of habit we do what others ask us, even at a self-sacrifice.”
Here we have more powerful advice from Ann. Constructive feedback and helpful advice from others are great, but Ann knows we must not let others dictate what to do, especially if it’s detrimental to yourself – this is relevant because it is also a key kernel of leadership and leading yourself to your own mountain, your own version of success. You may have initially thought that where Ann parked her car was insignificant, but it ended up costing her a broken wrist and great pain.
Please know that Ann is not blaming the other person for her injury. Rather, she is helping us to become aware of the tendency that we all have, including me, to listen to other’s thoughts and opinions before our own. Consider outside feedback and other points of view, but don’t betray yourself if your intuition is telling you that you have the right answer.
Sometimes the best leaders are forced to do what’s unpopular. As a leader, you must do what you feel to be right even when other people disagree with your decision.
Ann gave another highly relevant example that you might relate to. She was working on a project and wanted other people’s opinions, so she asked her friend what she thought.
“My friend wanted me to do what was best for my friend, not for me,” Ann said. “Put your antenna up and ask: do they have a stake in the outcome?”
Ann went on to provide the audience with more useful questions to ask when considering a new idea. It’s important to take time to make the right decision, but there’s a certain tipping point where more time could be a bad thing.
“The longer it takes to decide something, the harder it gets,” Ann said.
To make the decision-making process easier and more effective, Ann encourages us to continually ask the following four questions:
- What do we already know about this idea/choice in question? What are the pros and cons? Start with what you know and work your way from there.
- What concerns us? Writing down our concerns helps us to identify bottlenecks, which in turn gives us insight into potential solutions.
- What scares us? Sometimes writing down our fears, worries, and concerns can be the very thing that helps us to move beyond them. Worst-case scenarios are usually not as bad as we may have initially thought.
- What could be the benefits? Oftentimes we are so preoccupied with what could go wrong that we forget the possibility of everything working out in our favor (which, as you know, is never guaranteed, but nonetheless far more likely than you may have initially thought and expected).
Critical thinking is a powerful skill. It’s straightforward and relatively simple, but not always so easy to apply. The truth is that most people do not ever engage in critical thinking. As Napoleon Hill pointed out in Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success, the sad truth is that most people don’t think for themselves. But you are not most people. If you have read this far, then I’m certain you are the kind of person who is destined for great things. I say that not in some airy-fairy romantic sort of way, but rather in a real, genuine, and practical way for you to find your own truth and then act on it.
Once you connect with your own inner wisdom and truth, it will then be a lot easier to help others find theirs.
This is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of the award-winning book Reach Your Mountaintop: 10 Keys to Finding the Hidden Opportunity in Your Setbacks, Flipping What You’ve Heard on Its Head, and Achieving Legendary Goals. For part two of my discussion with Ann Meacham, read this post about skills for leaders and how to lead from within.
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