How can critical thinking help business coaches set realistic goals for their clients?

In my experience, realistic goals are the foundation of getting on the right path. Whether it is as simple as showing up to a gym daily to develop a habit of working out or as challenging as adding 1 new client. Seeing these basic goals, allows us to break down the steps to achieve success. Then we are able to build on that success.

Goals should follow a SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely). These guidelines are used by high performing organizations all over the world and goals being realistic (or "achievable") is a big part of that. In business, it's fine, and sometimes necessary to shoot for the moon. But, as business leaders, we need to ask ourselves if the organization in question is capable of reaching those goals. Some things to consider would be the size, makeup, purpose (i.e. is this an IT company or a manufacturing company?), and talent makeup of the organization. These characteristics make a big impact on whether a goal is realistic or not. We owe it to our teams to make sure that we are setting achievable goals.

Critical Thinking is a fantastic tool for business coaches, but before I applaud its efficacy, I want to state that Critical Thinking is more useful when used alongside Metacognition, which is the ability to be aware of one's skill, environmental contingencies and even deficiencies. Thus, coaches can help in a big way if by any means, before rushing to goal setting, they can take time to orient both themselves and their clients about what they have as skills/discipline assets and what they have as possible challenges, then working from there to develop a mechanism that helps the clients to be realistic in their pursuits. It's the job of the coach to ensure this happens, but it's the responsibility of the client to ensure this is successful

Critical thinking can help business coaches better support organizations by helping coaches offer suggestions that consider not just the goal to be attained but also the people it takes to make the goal a reality. Offering feedback or advice that is not from a place of solely solving problems but also from a place of amplifying what is working well can help businesses meet their organizational goals.

Critical thinking is 10% talking, 10% thinking and 80% listening. The truth about ‘critical thinking’ is that most of the time it should be easy. If you formulate great questions and listen to what responses they generate, most of the work is done. Spend most of your time on question development.

Some interesting studies have shown that in the case of consultants, most CEOs hire them to confirm their biases and prove that their position about something is not totally off. The same has been observed at the Board level, where CEOs and board members are recruited based on acquaintance. It is my considered view that the same is true with most individuals and or businesses who hire coaches. As such, dissenting views and exploration of what other strategies and models can be used to maximise the drive towards solutions, business coaches need to remain objective at all times and use tools and models that challenge idiosyncrasies rather than confirm them.

I attribute my success to being able to learn fast, but think slow. To develop better critical thinking skills, learn to slow down and analyze what is being presented to you. Take things at face value and ask the right questions to go deeper on the area.

My belief is that the ability to focus is what people are actually trying to achieve with critical thinking. Remove distractions and work on the hardest things first to reap the biggest rewards.