Critical-thinking competencies for candidates
A candidate with critical-thinking skills will have a number of competencies:
• Observation skills: Candidates with critical-thinking skills will be observant. They will always try to get information. Sometimes, they will have people tell them the information, but they will also observe their environment and the people around them.
• Analysis: When they observe their environment and the people in it, they are able to analyze the data and the situation at hand. They can use analysis in a new situation that requires fast thinking, but they can also slow down and analyze situations by asking questions and carrying out research. They know the importance of data so they try to analyze it as thoroughly as possible with the time they have at their disposal.
• Decide: After observing and analyzing the data, it’s time to make a decision. This decision will always be based on partial data, but the candidate will be sure to analyze every piece of information they have so that the decision is based on the data.
• Communication: A great critical thinker also knows the importance of communicating their decisions to those around them. Critical thinking produces decisions and people with this skill know that they need to explain their position to others.
• Problem-solving: Problem-solving is all about execution. After the candidate has observed, analyzed, decided, and communicated their decision, it’s time to implement the solution. Even though the decision won’t always produce the desired results, it will be the right decision if the candidate took into account all the information they had before making it.
What happens when a candidate doesn’t have critical-thinking skills
Critical-thinking skills require candidates to slow down, take a breath, and analyze a situation to come up with the best possible solution to it.
A candidate with fewer critical-thinking skills will jump to a conclusion without taking into consideration the data or information at hand. This can create quite a lot of turmoil in the workplace. Not only that, but this kind of behavior can create a lot of problems when dealing with customers and clients.
For example, if a client doesn’t answer their emails for a couple of days because they are in the middle of negotiations, a candidate with no critical-thinking skills might rush to send an email to the customer demanding an answer. This could create a bad experience for the potential client, resulting in the breakdown of negotiations.
On the other hand, a candidate with critical-thinking skills will slow down and wait for a little while because there could be a number of reasons why somebody has not responded to their email for a couple of days.