Is critical thinking important in coaching?
This is the question I was facing in March, before starting the Udemy course “Critical Thinking Academy: Learn To Think Like A Philosopher” (https://www.udemy.com/course/critical-thinker-academy/), which seemed at the time very challenging, engaging and fit for my development as a coach and as a human being, ultimately.
The course proved to be all of the above, but was neither easy to understand, nor short (I confess I was about to quit a couple of times).
Now, having completed it and garnered all the insights, and understanding what critical thinking is and how to use it, I decided it’s an extremely valuable tool in coaching (and in life in general), as it enables any coach to better understand the client’s thinking and their particular needs, and to explore the client’s stories from a place of curiosity, objective reasoning and lack of judgment.
What does “critical thinking” even mean?
Thinking critically has nothing to do with being critical about a person or a situation, as one might be tempted to believe.
As defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking in 1987, “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.”
In short, critical thinking is about reasoning and evaluating. It provides the tools that enables one to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. “Thinking about one’s thinking”, in other words.
Or, by another definition from Michael Hall’s article “Meta-Coaching and Critical Thinking” from The Coaching Room site, critical thinking is high quality thinking that enables people to make good use of their intelligence. It is thinking that aims for clarity, precision, and accuracy. (https://thecoachingroom.com.au/blog/meta-coaching-and-critical-thinking/).
How does a critically thinking coach help the client through the coaching process?
A coach who is able to think critically makes for a far better “thinking partner” for his client, and it also helps the client develop his own critical thinking abilities.
To enable the client to think critically about their own thinking (i.e., to look at their thinking with a dose of “healthy skepticism”), the coach must be himself able to do so.
A coach able to think critically will reason better about how to challenge the client’s own thinking. He will better guide the client along the process through questions designed to help him see different perspectives, alternative approaches, new possibilities. By using critical thinking, the coach will be able to prevent the client from jumping into problem-solving before defining the real problem.
Critical thinking also helps the coach identify the client’s biases, patterns of thinking, limiting beliefs, assumptions and logic breaches, and challenge them through powerful questions, mirroring, reflection or other coaching tools.
As for the client, if helped and encouraged to engage in critical thinking, he will gain clarity, the most important “fruit” of the coaching process, clarity about himself, about his goals, needs, solutions, choices and actions.
Why is critical thinking important for decision-making?
One of the common topics in coaching conversations is decision making. Clients often aim either to make a specific decision or to be better decision-makers.
Critical thinking enhances the quality of decision-making by promoting rationality, objectivity and a deeper understanding of complex situations.
Critical thinkers are more likely to make good decisions, because they’re able to:
- better evaluate and analyze a variety of possibilities and potential challenges;
- identify and avoid biases;
- make more use of logic and reasoning;
- produce more ideas and alternative solutions;
- better assess and minimise potential risks;
- think outside the box;
- reflect on past decisions, learn from their experiences, and apply these learnings to future decision-making;
- take into consideration the long-term consequences of their decisions, rather than just immediate gains or losses;
- identify the best course of action.