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\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\nMy name is Olesia Ulianova<\/strong>, I am the CEO of the IT company Telesens, Ph.D, MBA, and I have answers to the questions: why don’t managers think critically and is it possible to learn this skill?<\/p>\n At a time when business processes are increasingly intertwined in a global network of interdependencies and information circulates at lightning speed, the ability to think critically is becoming one of the key factors in a manager’s success. Nowadays, it is not enough to simply perform the functions of a manager by following established rules.<\/p>\n You need to be able to analyse, question, ask questions and check facts before making decisions. Critical thinking enables you to objectively assess situations, separate the important from the insignificant, create new approaches to solving problems and adapt to changing market conditions.<\/p>\n Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate information from various sources, determine its reliability, structure it logically, and draw conclusions based on real facts rather than emotions or prejudices. It is a process that includes analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and self-reflection. A manager who thinks critically is able to separate the important from the secondary, question conventional wisdom, and form new approaches to solving problems.<\/p>\n Objectivity of decisions. <\/strong>A manager must make decisions that take into account the interests of the business, the team, and the customers. Critical thinking helps to eliminate biases and subjectivity caused by personal experience or emotions.<\/p>\n Adaptability to change.<\/strong> A manager is able to respond quickly to unpredictable situations: crises, market changes, new technologies. They quickly analyse new conditions, discard the unnecessary and focus on the essence of the problem.<\/p>\n Systemic vision.<\/strong> Critical thinking promotes the perception of business processes as a single system. A manager who thoroughly analyses the facts better understands the interrelationships between departments and processes, which increases the effectiveness of strategic planning.<\/p>\n Improved communication. <\/strong>Logic and reasoning facilitate interaction within the team and with partners. Such a manager asks clarifying questions, clearly formulates thoughts and gains a deeper understanding of the problem.<\/p>\n Innovativeness.<\/strong> A manager who thinks critically is not afraid to question outdated methods. They are ready to change them to more modern, inventive ones, which stimulates innovation.<\/p>\n However, in practice, managers do not always think critically. This is often due to lack of time, fear of mistakes, corporate barriers, or excessive trust in authority figures. As a result, important signals can be missed amid the noise of the information environment, mistakes can be repeated, and competitive advantages can be lost. Let’s take a closer look.<\/p>\n Managers are often forced to make decisions \u2018on the fly\u2019 when deadlines are pressing and the volume of tasks exceeds available resources. In such a situation, critical reflection on the facts may take a back seat, as it seems that there is no time for deliberation. Instead of analytics, the manager relies on previous experience, stereotypes, or intuition.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A marketing manager has to determine the budget for an advertising campaign in one day. With a tight deadline, he does not have time to verify the reliability of sources of information about market trends and simply copies last year’s strategic approach, without taking into account current changes in consumer behaviour.<\/p>\n Critical thinking requires a willingness to admit that past decisions may have been wrong. However, some managers are afraid of losing authority, assuming that admitting mistakes is a sign of weakness. This fear prevents them from seeking new alternatives, testing their ideas, and deepening their analysis.<\/p>\n Example: <\/strong>A sales manager notices that a new sales strategy is not working, but does not want to openly admit the mistake, so he continues to move in the chosen direction, wasting the company’s resources.<\/p>\n In some companies, questioning management decisions is discouraged. Hierarchical relationships prevail, where subordinates are afraid to express doubts and managers are afraid to go against established norms. This culture inhibits critical thinking at all levels.<\/p>\n Example: <\/strong>In a large corporation, any attempt to question instructions from \u2018above\u2019 is perceived as disrespectful. Managers carry out orders without checking, even if they know that these actions will not be beneficial.<\/p>\n Sometimes managers blindly trust the opinions of experts, management or \u2018star\u2019 consultants without checking the facts themselves. This trust can lead to the mechanical copying of other people’s decisions, without taking into account the context and real needs of the company.<\/p>\n Example: <\/strong>A development manager takes a report by a well-known analyst as a benchmark, without paying attention to the fact that it was created for a different market and does not contain specific local characteristics.<\/p>\n Critical thinking does not appear on its own \u2014 it needs to be developed. This is possible through systematic training, regular reflection, constructive criticism of ideas, analysis of mistakes, and the use of structured tools and decision-making models. By gradually implementing such approaches, managers can foster a culture of critical thinking within their teams, leading to more effective management, innovation, and sustainable business development.<\/p>\n Broadening one’s worldview helps to see a problem from different angles. By reading books from different fields, studying management cases, and researching economics, psychology, and sociology, managers acquire a breadth of thinking that allows them to systematically analyse information.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> A manager reads a book on behavioural economics and applies the knowledge gained to corporate strategy, revealing hidden factors that influence customer decisions.<\/p>\n The practice of asking \u2018Why?\u2019 helps to get to the root of the problem and not be satisfied with superficial explanations. Doubt is a powerful tool for verifying information that helps you see hidden aspects.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> Before approving the budget, the manager asks \u2018Why?\u2019 five times in a row: why this particular estimate, why this advertising rate, why this channel was chosen, until he finds out the basis for each choice.<\/p>\n Discussing issues in a group of ideologically diverse people allows you to hear alternative points of view. A designated \u2018devil’s advocate\u2019 criticises ideas in order to find their weaknesses. This approach helps to avoid collective complacency.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> At a meeting to launch a new product, one team member deliberately looks for flaws in the chosen marketing channel. This allows the team to see risks they had not noticed before.<\/p>\n After completing a project, it is useful to analyse what worked and what did not. The absence of fear of mistakes and a willingness to learn from failures contribute to the deepening of critical thinking.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> After launching an unsuccessful advertising campaign, the team conducts a \u2018post-mortem\u2019 session to determine which assumptions were wrong and how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.<\/p>\n SWOT analysis, PESTEL, scenario analysis, and \u20185 Whys\u2019 are techniques that help structure information, view problems systematically, and choose the best course of action.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A manager uses SWOT analysis for a new product, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, as well as market opportunities and threats. This allows them to make an informed decision about the promotion strategy.<\/p>\n Critical thinking includes the ability to not only speak but also listen. The ability to listen carefully to others, understand their logic and emotional context allows you to see the problem more deeply and avoid subjective assessments.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: During a meeting, before expressing their opinion, the manager listens carefully to each team member, trying to understand their arguments. After that, they adjust their position based on the new information.<\/p>\n An independent outside perspective allows you to see familiar processes from a different angle. External experts can identify gaps in logical thinking, suggest new methods of analysis, and teach the team to be critical of information.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: The company invites a critical thinking coach who helps managers develop the habit of asking more questions, checking sources of information, and identifying logical errors in arguments.<\/p>\n If a manager does not think critically, this can lead to a number of negative consequences that will affect the company’s performance, the team’s morale, and the bottom line. Here are some possible scenarios:<\/p>\n Without critical thinking, a manager may rely on unfounded assumptions, rumours, subjective impressions, or even emotions.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A marketing manager chooses a new product promotion channel based on a random article on the internet. He does not verify the accuracy of the data or analyse the specifics of the target audience. As a result, the advertising campaign proves ineffective and funds are wasted.<\/p>\n Critical thinking helps to \u2018separate the wheat from the chaff\u2019 and pay attention to key trends, competitors, and customer needs. Without it, a manager may miss changes that will affect the future of the company.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A sales manager ignores the fact that customers are switching to competitors en masse because of lower prices and a wider range of products. Instead of analysing the situation and revising the sales strategy, he continues to follow the old plan. Ultimately, the company loses market share.<\/p>\n Without critically analysing previous experience, a manager can endlessly repeat the same mistakes without learning from them or improving.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: After a failed product launch, the project manager does not conduct a detailed analysis of the mistakes and does not question the initial assumptions. In the next project, he follows the same approaches again, which leads to identical problems and further losses.<\/p>\n Critical thinking requires doubt and verification of data. Without this, a manager may be influenced by stereotypes or emotional reactions, which reduces the objectivity of their judgements.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A human resources manager, guided by the prejudice that \u2018young employees are unreliable,\u2019 ignores candidates with less experience without checking their actual skills. The company loses potentially talented employees, and the department is constantly understaffed.<\/p>\n Critical thinking stimulates the search for new solutions and questions outdated approaches. If a manager does not think critically, they continue to act as usual, losing the opportunity to innovate.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A production manager refuses to test new automated quality control systems, relying on outdated manual inspection methods. Competitors who switch to modern technologies are quicker to identify defects and offer the market a higher quality product.<\/p>\n A team working under a manager who does not think critically may lose initiative, fearing that their suggestions will not be heard or analysed rationally.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: Employees offer new ideas for process optimisation, but the manager refuses to consider them because \u2018it has always been this way and it has always worked.\u2019 Ultimately, employees stop being creative, and the company loses opportunities for improvement.<\/p>\n A strategy built without critical review of assumptions and market analysis will be unstable and risky.<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>: A top manager plans to enter a new market based solely on data about past success in the domestic market. He does not research the cultural characteristics, competitors, and legal norms of the new country. As a result, the initiative fails because the strategy does not correspond to the realities of the new environment.<\/p>\n Critical thinking is a key element of modern management, which determines not only professional skills, but also flexibility of mind and the ability to navigate in conditions of uncertainty. Managers who are able to carefully analyse facts, question established views, ask clarifying questions and evaluate different points of view take their teams and companies to a new level of efficiency and competitiveness.<\/p>\n In the face of changing markets, information overload, and increasingly complex business challenges, a critically thinking manager ensures adaptation to new realities. Such a leader sees mistakes as opportunities for learning, uses logical and analytical tools for decision-making, and creates a supportive atmosphere in which constructive criticism and alternative opinions are valued.<\/p>\n A lack of critical thinking can lead to unfounded decisions, ignoring important market signals, repeating mistakes, stifling innovation, and even losing employee motivation. Ultimately, this harms the company’s strategy, reputation, and long-term development prospects. That is why critical thinking needs to be purposefully developed and cultivated \u2014 both through the manager’s personal self-development and through a corporate culture that encourages analysis, questioning, and the search for truly effective solutions.<\/p>\n In general, the implementation of critical thinking is not an additional option, but a necessary condition for leadership in the modern world. A manager who possesses this skill is able to interact effectively with the team, respond quickly to changes, predict risks, develop innovative approaches and ensure sustainable business development. Under such conditions, the organisation does not simply survive in a highly competitive environment.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My name is Olesia Ulianova, I am the CEO of the IT company Telesens, Ph.D, MBA, and I have answers to the questions: why don’t managers think critically and is it possible to learn this skill? At a time when business processes are increasingly intertwined in a global network of interdependencies and information circulates at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":657457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[24,23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is critical thinking?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Why is critical thinking important for a manager?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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<\/p>\nWhy don’t some managers think critically?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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How to develop critical thinking in management practice?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Consequences of a manager’s lack of critical thinking<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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