One of my clients, an accomplished CFO involved with global M&A responsibilities, wanted to make sure that his new finance hires could really use all the brainpower they had been blessed with, so he incorporated a critical thinking test as part of the interview process. He was pleased with the results, seeing an increase in the problem solving abilities of his new team members. However, when he decided to take the instrument himself, there was a different reaction …

“I don’t understand why I only scored in the fiftieth percentile!” he thundered.

I pointed out that that is well within the norm for senior managers. “There must be something wrong with the test,” he continued.

“You and I examined the reliability and validity coefficients together,” I said.

“I wasn’t as focused as I should have been when I took it,” he implored.

“Would you like to take the instrument again?” I offered.

(after a long pause) he said, “Well, no, I guess not. It really is a bugger, isn’t it?”

“A lot of folks say that,” I said. “And, remember, you now have people working for you whose processors can scream at warp speed.”

He smiled.

The #1 Sought After Skill

Critical thinking has been rated the #1 desired skill in key contributors and senior level leaders, according to surveys conducted by organizations such as SHRM and AMA. And, as Socrates understood, although it can be learned, organizations today don’t have the luxury of teaching this skill. They need people already adept at: keep reading…