Part of being a business management major at University of Phoenix is learning leadership, critical thinking, and decision-making skills to make me a successful business leader. In the article Keys to Critical Thinking, author Rick Helliwell says that "without exception" these skills listed above are "core competencies, which distinguish the truly successful business leaders." This paper will summarize the article that discusses how important critical thinking is to making the right senior executive recruitment decisions in today's market. This paper will also discuss how Helliwell deals with factors such as perception, assumption, emotion, language, argument, fallacy, logic, and the resolution in his article.
What to look for in a Senior Executive.
In today's marketplace there is a high demand for talented people who are also quick learning and can rise to the challenge of the increasing momentum of change and use it to drive business performance. When looking for a business leader, Helliwell suggests someone that "empowers and influences their management teams." They should also create a working environment where staff at all levels "possess strong critical decision making skills to drive the organization.".
A 1995 combined study showed that 99% of CEO's felt that critical decision making skills among their senior staff are essential. However, it was assumed in the article that many CEO's weren't sure they had the skills as leaders to increase their manager's and organization's critical thinking capabilities.
The article went on to address the critical thinking process that CEO's must go through the make effective management recruitment decisions. A study by Hunter and Hunter in the 1980's (still considered important) found that intellectual ability was the "largest predictor of on-the-job success." Managers in the 2000's fast paced business world need to be able to process multi-sourced information from the market, from people, and from systems, and then effectively use that information to make the right decisions.
