Leadership Skills And Critical Decision example essay topic

The purpose of critical thinking for any individual is to be a well-informed person. To be able to analyze and evaluate questions that is interrelated in order to make the proper decision or judgment of any given topic. This paper will attempt to summarize, and discuss certain aspects of a previously read article, "Keys to critical thinking; How to differentiate top business leaders and organizations of tomorrow", by Rick Helliwell. The discussion paper will include how the author of the mentioned article dealt with the following elements: Perception, assumption, emotion, language, argument, fallacy, logic, and issue / problem resolutions though not in this order. In his opening, Mr. Helliwell suggest that, "making the right recruitment decision over a critical senior executive appointment can be very difficult. The wrong decision in today's dynamic market can very quickly lead to drop in business performance through unwise capital investments".

The article mentions other negatives along with selecting the wrong person for the job. Although, I would agree with the logic of such an appointment, I think the fallacy of this statement is that in today's business the success or failure of an entire organization does not rest solely on the shoulders on one person. Allow me to coin a phase, "One monkey surely does not stop a show". The author argues that", Without exception, leadership skills and critical decision making abilities are two of the core competencies which distinguish the truly successful business leaders". These assumption sounds good, but there are many successful business leaders, and I doubt that they all have the ability to think critically. Time and chance happens to us all.

If a person is in the right place at the right time, making a decision to start a business or not, the success of that business could still fail even if the leader has very good critical thinking skills. The author makes a perception that is very good when it comes to the term 'loyalty'. In todays ever changing business world it is difficult to remain with the same company until one retires. There are always layoff, even among top executives, through they may receive a hefty some of cash, stock, and bond when departing one organization to another. The author makes a logical statement of, "making the right decision to capitalize on an opportunity today may not be the right decision tomorrow". If leaders are asking the right questions at the appropriate times, then critical thinking logic suggest that such a leader might make the right decision at the right time.

Therefore, the issue and result as suggested by the author is, that for most business managers the ability to make critical decisions and thinking skills are essential to a company's success, as research has shown. The author feels very strongly about the way to select leaders should be to thoroughly assess their skills. Making decisions quickly and to influence the decision making abilities of their team. In the selection, one must gain as much information about the leader and their leadership style to make an organization successful in today's business world. In conclusion, the article makes very good points about the seriousness of selecting and retaining top executives that possess critical decision making skills. However, the article does not give any examples of any successful leaders, or the decision made to succeed, or even how to think critically to make the right decision at the right time.

The article made for very interesting reading, but failed to persuade me to believe that critical decision making is the key to succeed in the business world. I still to some degree hold my opinion of it is more whom you know than what you know to attain many top-level managerial positions.