How can Leadership Development Coaches improve their clients' critical thinking skills?

The following strategies could help: * Think 'fast' and 'slow' - along with trusting your gut, always gather facts and analyze the information before making decisions. * Be cognizant of the biases. * Almost always challenge assumptions, even when it may sound unreasonable. * Do not get stuck on your stated opinions - be agile enough to recognize the errors well in time and tweak accordingly. * Embrace diverse opinions - it almost always helps.

Critical thinking skills are critical for leaders as they navigate complex business landscapes, and make important decisions. These skills enable leaders to evaluate multiple perspectives, analyze data, objectively, and identify the best course of action by developing these skills in their client coaches can cultivate a new generation of agile, and effective and innovative leaders, the role of leadership development coaches can serve as mentor Accountability, partner, and skills trainer method for improving client critical skills using effective questioning techniques, problem-solving and decision-making exercises and encouraging open mindedness and perspective taking these perspectives are informed by Research from 2022 to 2023.

To improve their clients' critical thinking skills, Leadership Development Coaches should commence by conducting a comprehensive assessment. This evaluation entails deploying various tools such as self-assessments, gathering feedback, employing tests, and using real-world scenarios. By employing these methods, coaches can precisely determine the individual strengths, weaknesses, and specific areas in need of enhancement. Once these areas are identified, coaches can craft a customised coaching plan that aligns with the client's distinct requirements and objectives. This personalised approach facilitates the development of critical thinking skills by directly targeting the areas that demand improvement while harnessing existing strengths.

In my experience the first milestone with any client is to establish trust! Do you have your clients trust for coaching? Ive had one of my team members come to me advising a client is stubborn and is lost. The first step and review with the client is establishing trust. Trust is built through your ability to act on their best interest and show the results. After you have built that trust you break out your tools for a deeper understanding of the clients expectations and goals. You have now become a partner for coaching. - Client Feedback surveys - Client reports - Client product sentiment

I think it's up to the client to make the actual improvements. As coaches, we can offer insights that may help the client see what is truly possible. We need to provide the space for curiosity and creativity, allowing the client to explore and ultimately take action. Assessments can be a great tool for awareness and should provoke the curiosity needed to seek out the best way forward. I'm always happy to share tools, books, articles, etc. that are relevant to their needs. But the client decides what's most useful and I show up as an accountability partner throughout the process. And that process, with the client taking the lead, is a great way for those critical thinking skills to emerge and grow.

To enhance their clients' critical thinking skills, Leadership Development Coaches should offer valuable frameworks and tools. This entails introducing techniques like the Six Thinking Hats, the Five Whys, or SWOT analysis, showcasing how they can be applied to investigate various perspectives, pose pertinent questions, and uncover assumptions, risks, and opportunities. Additionally, coaches can provide practical tools such as checklists, mind maps, and diagrams, aiding clients in structuring and visualising their thoughts and ideas, thus promoting the development of critical thinking abilities.

Another useful framework is helping clients understand thinking errors (e.g. all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, personalizing). When clients identify and challenge any biases that may affect their critical thinking, they not only develop robust critical thinking skills but also apply them in a way that aligns with their values and authentic leadership style.

The coach can help the client connect to their essence and value system. We all have a way to read a situation that we activate by default. Then the coach can bring to the attention of the client another way to read the same situation.

Having identified the development areas, the next step would be to craft a development plan. This will help establish clear and well-defined goals that are set using the SMART technique to provide direction and motivation for the coaching process. The client will then have to be made more self-aware about their thinking process. In these sessions it is important to recognize cognitive biases, assumptions and mental models that hinder critical thinking. This I believe is a difficult part of the process and the client will need to be encouraged to question their own thinking patterns and beliefs. I have come across so many blocked learner who refuse to open up easily and one really needs to pry hard.

Since it's a contextual and role specific, it would be ideal to help client generate more ideas on the subjects which will impact learning and advancement. Cocreation and collaboration is what going to accelerate the process of learning.

Operating within a safe and trusting relationship, the coach and client collaborate to discover the much-sought "sweet spot" – akin to what athletes call a challenging yet non-harming zone that fosters sustainable skill development. As a coach, I often refer to this metaphor that cultivates a combination of tough challenges, shared accountability, introspection, and sincere recognition of the athlete/ client's efforts, learnings, and accomplishments.

I challenge my clients to take a few moments to reflect after they have experimented with an action by asking themselves- What went well? What can I do differently, next time? What did I learn about myself?

When crafting a solution idea for a real-world test to hone their skills, I encourage the person to attack their potential solution like a prosecuting attorney. Try to break it. Because I'm going to. What need and/or gap is your solution solving, saying? What is it implying or not implying? Biases? Your presumptions? What is left unsaid so the user can correctly or incorrectly presume and cause issues? How did you arrive at this? Walk me through your chart(s) (Mind Map, etc., whatever they used). Short-term value? Long-term value? Do you truly understand the need? Reliability? Sustainability? I'll provide support along the way but want them to gain these skills. (Maybe they will coach effectively one day if they choose to.)

Critical thinking involves analyzing information, applying logic and creativity. Leadership coaches assess skills, provide frameworks, and challenge clients with real scenarios. Ongoing practice and reflection are encouraged, and impact is measured through feedback, ensuring continuous improvement.

Stakeholders feedback in addition to feedback from coach will be helpful to reinforce confidence. In many situations accountability partners also brings out value added insights which if incorporated will bring new outcomes .

No Reflection = No Retention. Reflection is essential for sustaining the new ways of thinking and better applying what's learned in leadership development. How to Reflect Effectively: I use these 3 questions: a. What went well? b. What can I do better next time? c. What did I learn about myself? When to Reflect?: Reflect before, during, and after events: - Before: Set intentions for what you want to achieve. - During: Assess and adjust as needed. - After: Distill key takeaways and self-discovery. Example: apply this approach to meetings with direct reports to maximize its benefits in leadership development. A good resource to learn more: is "GOOD TO GREAT COACHING: Accelerating the Journey" by my late mentor David B. Peterson (RIP).

Critical thinking, despite the word 'thinking' is not necessarily a purely rational, mental exercise. Yes, that too, but it also involves listening to your intuition, as a sub-conscious source of 'knowing' long before the rational part of your brain has figured out something. That said, even your intuition is not necessarily the truth, however, may lead you to new paths to explore further, helping you to validate or discard earlier assumptions.

Recommend that client maintains a journal to document their decision-making processes and outcomes. Regular reflection on these entries can lead to improved self-awareness and the refinement of critical thinking.

Especially for new leaders, self-reflection is often one of the easiest and most natural places to begin. I'm a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, and I've often found that the self reflection from team members going through their own reports is a fantastic way to help them learn through key questions and quiet space for response. The benefit of asking a new leader powerful questions is that they also LEARN how to ask powerful questions of others. One of the absolutely essential skills for critical thinking is the ability to ask good questions before reaching a conclusion, and that's one of the most important skills we can teach emerging leaders.

More reflective inquiries will bring out more quality insights and questions to further focus to increase real-time gains . Challenging client to consider unorthodox path will streghthen confidence and exploration.

A growth mindset is a vital aspect of coaching to enhance critical thinking skills. Emphasis should go to the importance of critical thinking as a foundational skill that benefits not only leadership but also personal and professional growth. Celebrating small wins in critical thinking instills motivation and reinforces the belief in improvement. Encouraging curiosity and openness facilitates exploring diverse perspectives and continuous learning. Coaches also aid clients in overcoming barriers like biases and unproductive habits through strategies, offering essential support to empower clients in honing their critical thinking abilities for enhanced leadership and overall success.

Partnering with a Coach can help a client foster a growth mindset and be most impactful when viewed as a continuous journey rather than a singular one. Producing behavioral habits around leadership skills, such as critical thinking, require appropriate support, the desire to improve, and continued relevant experiences. These experiences allow the client to implement various critical thinking strategies while also applying the mechanisms necessary to understand the unique and individual scenarios demanding such skills. The culmination of learnings uprooted through the coach/client relationship, when demonstrated, showcase the client’s affinity towards further expansion of their understanding and essentially, their mind.

Open and growth mindset is pivtol to acquire new skills and harnessing positive beliefs is beginning in this endeavour and in many situations it's natural, hence the necessity to encourage more to " nurture" for lifelong benefits.

A growth mindset plays an important role in nurturing critical thinking skills. When individuals believe that their abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and learning, they are more likely to embrace challenges and view failures as opportunities for growth. Through supportive and trusting environment, coaches help leaders question situations, reflect and learn for future reference. As a result, they become more adept at analyzing information, making well-informed decisions, and solving complex problems. In essence, a growth mindset promotes a willingness to learn and adapt. Through constant feedback and powerful questions, coaches help leaders create new ways of thinking and problem solving.

Measure/review all the way through. I believe it's important to first measure the starting point. Strengths, weaknesses, knowledge level for each item, gaps, goals, confidence level for each item, mindset, etc. A simple yet powerfully worded assessment can work very well. At the end of the time together, have the person take the same questionnaire again as well as a feedback/satisfaction survey for the coach. Analyze the data from all tests reflections and all surveys to 1) provide feedback to the learner especially shining a light on their growth, 2) look for any areas that require coaching continuation, and 3) improvement ideas for the coach.

L'évaluation à mon sens fait partie du suivi. Par conséquent, elle se fait tout au long de l'accompagnement. A la fin de chaque session, le client est d'ailleurs invité à partager ce qu'il retire de la session. Un fiche de suivi post-session est également mise à disposition pour être complétée par lui avec des retours et points d'attention à avoir. Des points à mi-parcours sont également effectués pour juger de la pertinence et de l'efficacité de l'accompagnement. Et oui, si d'autres parties prenantes font partie de la relation de Coaching (un employeur ou manager qui a initié, un collègue ou conjoint avec qui elle est faite, un Accountability partner désigné/choisi...), il est important d'avoir leur retour sur les progrès réalisés.

Cortical step in coaching is follow-up. Not just coach, create an action plan and let them be on their merry way. It is important to set up periodical follow-up meetings to ensure that the students had an opportunity to put the plan into action and help and guide them if they had any problems or issues. Share success stories of implementation results with the entire team and reward those participants for their accountable behavior.

Work with the client to view the problem from other perspectives to build their awareness and gain new insights. This could involve “getting up in the balcony” to see the big picture view. It could involve taking the perspective of their boss, their direct report, or even a fictional character to evaluate the problem from a different angle. One of my favorite exercises is to view the problem from the viewpoint of my future self, 5-10 years from now. What wisdom can that future version of me offer?

In my past military experience we use what is "lovingly" called the OODA Loop. The OODA Loop is decision-making model that can be used to analyze new information and assess the best action to take as a result. OODA is an acronym for four steps—observation, orientation, decision and action—that form an iterative, recurring cycle as circumstances continue to unfold. 1. Observe. Take stock of the current situation. 2. Orient. Contextualize your performance with respect to your goals, and analyze why and how your team may be under- or over-performing. 3. Decide. Choose a path forward using the best information at your disposal. 4. Act. Once you’ve identified the best approach and methodology, take informed action quickly.

Leadership development development coaching and mentoring helps to develop strategic thinking. - It encourages leadership development within an organization. - It inspires and empowers leaders to nurture the next generation of leaders and build a strong leadership pipeline. - It provides opportunity for emerging leaders to up skill and cross skill

Assist them in raising awareness of their assumptions. Observing without judgment can help uncover updated beliefs and/or identify unhelpful thinking patterns. The Ladder of Inference can be a useful tool for this purpose.

- Assessing current abilities - Awareness of cognitive bias - Encourage questions - Structured problem solving - Discussion & case studies - Journaling + Reflection - Goal setting