Guest post by Rt. Rev. Daniel T. Partiss. Rt. Rev. Daniel T. Partiss was ordained as a Minster and Missionary Evangelist in 1985 by The Right Reverend William H Jackson of the Church of Universal Brotherhood in Bristol, CT. Dan is pastor of the Spiritualist Church of love and Light. For over 25 years Rev. Dan has been a teacher of several topics in Prosperity. At this time Dan is teaching 2 courses a year. Due to the fact that he asks no salary from the church Dan finds other ways to gain the prosperity. In 1997 Dan graduated from Central Connecticut State University. He then worked with corporations and the City of New Rochelle, New York as a Consultant. Dan has been the CIO for 2 businesses, the Owner of an LLC and 2 other businesses, one he is currently developing. His Twitter ID is @revdanpartiss
Two Thinking Processes Essential to Successful Leaders
Critical vs. Strategic Thinking
Critical Thinking is a problem solving process used for issues that seem insurmountable at first glance. By taking facts and events, analyzing them using reason and evidence, and not your personal opinions or feelings. Critical thinking is an important leadership skill because it helps you come to a reasonable solution to a problem. Without critical thinking there would be no problem solving ability and without problem solving nothing would get done.
Strategic Thinking, however, is based on process analysis. It is used to assess a company program or corporate direction and see if it is maintaining its goals. If the company program or corporate direction is not maintaining goals, strategic thinking allows the leader to ask the correct questions to get back to those goals or if the goals need to be rethought. Strategic thinking is important to leaders because it is a skill based on process analysis. It is the ability to access a program and see how well it is maintaining its goals. If it s not maintaining it goals, it allows a person to ask the correct questions to get back to those goals.
Talk To Someone…
Critical Thinking works best using diverse groups when solving a problem (also called Masterminding). Getting several persons’ perspective can help you conceive of more creative answers. While In Strategic Thinking you try to get feedback from within your industry and not just from your internal sources. Things like market research and surveys can help Strategic Thinking match the vision for your company to all expectations.
Critical Thinking requires asking more questions instead of giving an answer right away. This helps to stimulate thinking by digging further into a problem. Strategic Thinking asks you to examine the status quo, but not live by it. Its skills require you to examine its “always been” in order to determine if that is what should be done. Strategic thinking requires looking to find more efficient, attractive, and creative answers.
Where Do I Start?!?
Both styles of thinking need you to examine the current state of the problem, process, or business. See it as the starting point to the next evolution. And don’t delude yourself into thinking you need ALL the answers NOW. Solve a piece of the issue, the remainder is easier to chew and digest, don’t try to eat an entire elephant in one mouthful.
Critical Thinking means you need to think outside the box when solving a problem, or better yet throw the box away. Come up with the most absurd solutions you can think of, and then pare back. Critical thinking involves creative thinking around all possibilities, even outlandish ones..
Strategic says, “Look at the forest, not the trees.” Strategic thinkers are not mired down by details and day-to-day issues. Strategic Thinking looks at the organization as a whole to assess possible opportunities. In Critical Thinking you look beyond the words on the paper, you must read between the lines. Just because the answer is not spelled out, there may be clues about motives or thought processes. With Strategic you look at all external forces and anticipate challenges in planning. You take account of how policies, regulations, legal issues, market conditions, economics, and Technology all affect your plans. An important part of thinking strategically is being able to predict what issues can arise and devising plans to confront them proactively.
Ignore The Past At Your Own Peril!
Look back on your previous experiences and think of how you dealt with them. A critical thinker is reflective and can find what methods worked and which did not. For example, if you did well on a test that you studied hard for, then studying hard will help in the future. Strategic Thinkers check the facts. Even though strategic thinking involves making predictions about the future, those predictions must be founded in reality. Gather hard data, including your organizations financial reports and analysis of your industry, to inform your predictions and help you develop goals based in reality.
Future Quest
Both systems focus on the future. Both critical and Strategic thinking are guided by a vision for going forward. Whenever you are developing strategies for business growth or problem solving, those strategies must have clearly defined goals that contribute to the vision for the company. Particularly in Strategic, consider the structure of your business and assess how the team fits into your strategies for the future. You may have to reorganize or replace your team to achieve your goals.
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