Leadership and problem solving go hand in hand. And practice makes perfect. One way to practice problem solving is by brainstorming. Brainstorming is a very efficient way to get the mind working and discover more about how your brain processes problems. According to Success, “your first ideas are obvious and thus first-level thinking. You need to go deeper than that to find gold. You must go beyond that first-level thinking to discover unseen ideas that truly solve the problem.” Instead of becoming impatient and going with the first few ideas you come up with, it’s important to think deeper and narrow down your ideas afterwards.
Leadership and problem solving go hand in hand. And practice makes perfect. Click To Tweet
According to Fast Company, there are five steps to efficiently improve your critical thinking skills:
- Identify and define each problem
- Narrow it down to a couple solutions
- Focus on moving forward
- Create a step by step plan to tackle problem
- Continue to perfect your solution along the way
More tips to keep in mind when practicing problem solving:
- Give yourself deadlines
- Get a team together to bounce ideas off each other
- Try to approach the problem objectively
- Work on communication skills so ideas can be delivered efficiently
- Stay open minded
Once a proper solution is reached, it’s important to keep track of your results. Entrepreneur explains that finding the solution to a problem is not the last step in becoming a good problem solver — you have to re-visit the solution and make sure it’s operating effectively.
Try applying these problem solving steps to small decisions in your life as practice rounds so you’ll be ready for the larger issues that will come down the line.If you’re curious about how strong your problem solving skills are, you can take this assessment.
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