When I ask leaders to tell me about the competitiveness of their organizations, they usually start rattling off a long list of favorable metrics about the company. It’s not uncommon for these senior people at the top of an organization to get seven or eight items deep in their list before they mention the people on their team as a competitive strength. This, in itself, is often an indicator of other problem areas in the organization.

Once we get through that positive list of competitive advantages, I usually ask them to tell me about a competitor that might be doing a better job in some areas than they are. Here, I get all sorts of answers as well. Some are rationalizations, some are market related, and yet others are obstacles or barriers that present challenges. There’s really no limit to the number of reasons that a leader might tell me that another company is more competitive or stronger than they are. Sometimes it’s product advantage, sometimes it’s market conditions, sometimes is more favorable tax treatment. This all makes sense,

but you know what it never is on their mind?

They virtually never say that XYZ competitor thinks better than they do. But in my experience, that’s often one of the biggest competitive advantages that they’re up against.

We tend to think that if we hire smart people, develop a strong product offering, properly segment our marketplace, and actively engage our clients and prospects we will rise to the top. We work hard on developing sales skills, marketing expertise, refining our organizational administration, and striving to be better leaders.

But how much time do you really spend making you and your team better critical thinkers? When I ask this question, I find that most senior leaders are very receptive to considering both the fact that this might be an area that’s worthy of being exploited and that it could be a significant reason they’re not number one in their category. What comes next is always the same, they tell me that they really don’t have any idea how they would go about making their team better critical thinkers. If you think about it in totality, it seems quite challenging, may be insurmountable. The key, like most things, is to break it down into actionable components.

Let’s talk about the key elements of what it takes to be a great critical thinker. If we want to break it down into actionable components we would need to think in terms of the process that allows us to quickly but fully take in as much relevant information about the situation as possible. Then we would need to effectively evaluate the situation and analyze all of this new information, once we figure out what information we have to work with… We need to dramatically develop our ability to draw the best conclusions from this volume of information that we have analyzed.

It’s unlikely that were going to be making the major decisions that are available to us in the critical thinking process… All alone. That means we need a stronger methodology to explain and discuss issues and the possible solutions with colleagues and other stakeholders. That’s right, communication capability is one of the five critical skills that we need to develop if we want to be better critical thinkers. Lastly, we need to work on becoming better problem solvers and use this to focus our efforts on executing our solutions in the most effective way.

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Becoming better critical thinkers can transform your competitive advantage in your marketplace and be the catalyst that helps move the organization to the head of the pack. It starts with a proactive plan to break this complex process into actionable items you can work on. If you become a better observer, stronger analyzer, more adept at drawing conclusions, and more effectively communicating to network with your colleagues and stakeholders, the problem-solving part of the equation will be less intimidating and far more successful.