Use Critical Thinking to your advantage!
By: Neil Patrick G. Nepomuceno
Employers are often impressed by the hard skills that an applicant may have learned in their school or previous work. But research suggests that there’s a rising trend wherein soft skills are equally praised whenever an applicant demonstrates them.
Achieve greater goals by strengthening your soft skills. It’s time to use critical thinking to your advantage!
What is critical thinking?
Just as knowledge means factual learning, critical thinking is your wisdom—a collective understanding that helps you decide which way to move forward. Critical-thinking is a crucial soft-skill that helps an employee decide which step to take whenever two or more solutions seem plausible.
Four Situations Where Critical Thinking Can Be Applied:
Observation
This step is crucial in critical thinking because this is where you examine things. Whether it’s a task, a specific step, or a full-blown project, observation is a critical skill to have because it allows you to mitigate risks and eliminate mistakes that may otherwise show up later, if you are not observant.
TIPS: Regularly practice attentive listening and understanding
It’s easy to claim that you were listening on that phone call, meeting, or seminar that you just participated in, but it takes a lot more to know that you understand the discussions that occurred.
You can strengthen your listening skills by jutting down notes as the speaker said something important, or recording the whole meeting so you can come back to it and listen to specific parts to extract information. Marking down time stamps on your digital notes or notebook whenever you find something valuable is also a good practice whenever a meeting is being recorded.
Negotiation
This soft skill is crucial for every profession, but it is more important for those who are in the banking, finance, automotive, real estate, and brokerage industry, to name a few. Negotiation is a two-way street wherein you propose an outcome, and you return with either a yes or no from your client or leaders.
TIP: Build your confidence
When you are confident with a product you sell or an idea you propose then you will not be rattled easily by some critical comments or questions from your peers and leaders during a meeting. Be confident, close deals, and build more confidence until you are 100% confident with your negotiation skills.
Persuasion
Although similar to negotiation, persuasion is different in the sense that you are influencing the decision of your clients, teammates, or even leaders to support what you have been negotiating with them.
TIPS: Use Psychology!
There are a lot of psychological tips and hacks that can help persuade others in supporting your proposal. One example of this is “the power of three” wherein you give out three options that are carefully constructed to make them lean towards one option because it is exceptionally better than the first two options.
Tech brands use this all the time, by persuading consumers into buying a certain product because of its price, performance, and other features.
Analytical skills
Analytical skills can help you break down complex problems and understand their underlying components. These skills allow you to evaluate data, identify patterns, and draw meaningful conclusions.
By honing your analytical skills, you improve your ability to think critically, which in turn makes you a more effective and valuable employee. This combination of critical thinking and analytical prowess enables you to tackle challenges efficiently, innovate, and contribute to your organization’s success.
Want more career tips? Learn more on how you can seize bold career opportunities here: https://www.ubphenom.com/category/career/