3 Ways Critical Thinking Improves Emotional Quotient of Your Leaders _ Critical Thinking

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Home 2013 December 3 Ways Critical Thinking Improves Emotional Quotient of Your Leaders

December 18, 2013 by Tanmay Vora in Critical Thinking, Training and Development

When presenting the case for critical thinking, we often hear acontrarian view about emotional intelligence that critical thinking isimportant but we also need leaders to be emotionally intelligent. Thereis no doubt that in a highly knowledge driven creative world, lack ofemotional intelligence can be detrimental to a leaders success. On theother extreme, if leaders are overly driven by emotions (their own andothers), it can be equally detrimental.

We tend to look at critical thinking and emotional intelligence as twomutually exclusive concepts on the opposing ends. The fact is that aleader needs a fine balance of emotion and rationality to succeed.

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They need to connect with their people using emotion and decidewhat is best for them using rational thought. Critical Thinking is theconnecting link between emotions and intelligence.

In fact, critical thinking feeds and enables emotional intelligence.Let us explore how:

Critical thinking is introspective. The word critical often

misleads us to think that critical thinking is only based on

soul-less data, information and evidences. According to a

definition given by Rudd, Baker and Hoover (2000), critical

thinking is a reasoned, purposive and introspective approach to

solving problems or addressing questions. Introspection when

solving problems as a team includes acknowledging the

thoughts of others, one of the key elements of emotional

intelligence.

1.

Emotional Intelligence is not just emotional, it is also

intelligence. Emotional intelligence is usually perceived to be

heavy on the emotion side. At the core of emotional intelligence

is ones ability to accurately perceive, appraise and express

emotions. It is also about ability to understand emotions and

knowledge that is derived from emotions. Appraising thoughts,

consciously looking for non-verbal cues, acknowledging

emotions of the group members are all critical thinking skills

applied in the context of emotional intelligence. These critical

thinking skills help a leader in improving their emotional

quotient. Furthermore, any flaw in our ability to understand

emotion can lead to flaws in our decision-making.

2.

Both critical thinking and emotional intelligence are about

self-regulation. In the process of thinking critically, regulating

ones own emotion is a skill that helps in avoiding bias in

decision-making. An emotionally intelligent leader is also

expected to regulate emotions when dealing with others.

3.


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Self-regulation is the key competency that connects critical

thinking and emotional intelligence. The other common

competencies between critical thinking and emotional

intelligence are self-awareness (understanding of the self) and

social awareness (understanding of others).

So, what does this mean for HR and Learning and Developmentprofessionals when it comes to strengthening leadership development?

Knowing this crucial link between emotional and critical thinkingshould help HR leaders and learning professionals to promote theculture of critical thinking (refer the RED Model) where leadersrecognize assumptions, evaluate arguments and draw conclusionsbased on sound judgment. It is during that stage of evaluation ofarguments that emotional intelligence plays an important role to beable to evaluate arguments without being influenced by ones ownemotions is an important strength in critical thinking.

In order to build a culture of critical thinking, businesses can look atassessing their current leadership competence on critical thinking andassess critical thinking skill when hiring leaders.

It is a first important step in ensuring that leaders in your organizationare not only equipped to make better decisions but are emotionallyintelligent too.

Over to you: Are there other links that you can think of betweencritical thinking and emotional intelligence? Share your insightsthrough comments.

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3 Ways Critical Thinking Improves Emotional Quo...December 19, 2013 at 4:57 am

[] When presenting the case for critical thinking, we often

hear a contrarian view about emotional intelligence that

critical thinking is important but we also n []

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DID YOUKNOW?Empirical researchsuggests that peoplebegin developingcritical thinkingcompetencies at a veryyoung age. Althoughadults often exhibitdeficient reasoning, intheory all people canbe taught to thinkcritically.

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