As a business owner it’s crucial that you develop your critical thinking skills. When you were in school or your old W-2 job, you were always told what to do and how to do it. But as someone who is building a business of your own, even if you’re modeling it after an already established and successful business, there will be things that are different.
Every business has elements that are unique and different. A different demographic of clients, a different product for a specific set of customers. Whatever the differences are, you have to adjust for them, and think outside of the system you’re modeling and find new ways of doing things.
There are work creators, the people who have the ideas, the thinkers, and then there are the technicians, the ones who take the steps necessary to move the business forward. You can build a great business by just being a technician, but you need to have someone who can help you with the ideas part. Most entrepreneurs are the thinkers with all of the ideas, but they typically have too many ideas and not enough hours in the day to act on all of them. Sound like anyone you know?
One of the things I’ve seen in my business is that the information needed is out there a lot of the time, but the people who need the information don’t know where to look, or expect to be spoon fed what they need to do or be told what to do next.
The key critical thinking skills are: analysis, interpretation, explanation, self-regulation, open-mindedness, and problem-solving.
Analysis – Some of the questions to ask, what’s the problem, why isn’t the system working, why are you lacking clients or profit?
Explanation – good communication, each person involved needs to be able to give their perspective and be understood in order to get to the root of the problem in order to create a solution. If the problem is hidden you won’t know it needs to be fixed. Allow for feedback and constructive discussions.
Interpretation – Step back and really dissect the issue, look at all the different possibilities and consider alternatives. Avoid getting defensive or blaming others for an issue.
Self-regulation – no one is going to do it for you, you tell yourself when and how to act, what to do, why you’re doing it, and take responsibility. You have to hold yourself accountable for the things that need to be done.
Open-mindedness – the ability to consider things that may seem unorthodox. Ask others for different opinions, gather information and read research.
Problem-solving – Trial and error is ok. Failure is ok. Having a back up plan is ok. You need to decide how long to test a solution ad what metrics will be used to consider it a success before swapping it for something different.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result” – Albert Einstein
Next time you’re feeling stuck in the rat’s wheel, reach out and ask for some outside perspective. We can show you how to think differently.