Premium Perk: Building Critical Thinkers

A Leader’s Guide to Developing Your Team’s Critical Thinking Skills

Image from 16personalities.com

TL;DR: Paying subscribers now have access to our new Building Critical Thinkers Guide – a workbook to help you lead a team that thinks independently and questions thoughtfully. Scroll to the bottom of this article to download your copy now.

The Soft Skill That’s Missing From Most Teams

When Springboard surveyed over 1,000 corporate professionals in 2024, a staggering 70% of leaders said a skills gap is negatively impacting their organization – and more than half (57%) said strategic/critical thinking was the top soft skill needed at their company right now.

Many teams are struggling to reach their potential because team members lack the ability to analyze information, question assumptions, or approach problems from different angles. The result? Poor decisions, reactive work habits, communication breakdowns, and stalled innovation.

In fact, 35% of leaders in the same survey said the soft skills gap was directly limiting innovation and growth, while others reported reduced productivity, increased turnover, and even revenue losses.

As workplace challenges become more complex, so does the need for critical thinkers – people who can pause, evaluate, and choose thoughtful actions instead of defaulting to what’s familiar or fast. Without these skills, even experienced teams can get stuck repeating mistakes or failing to adapt to change.

Luckily, we have just the thing to help. Read on!

Introducing: Building Critical Thinkers

With the right guidance and practice (that’s where you come in), team members can develop the ability to think critically.

We created the Building Critical Thinkers workbook to help you in this journey, so you understand exactly how to coach your team toward deeper thinking, stronger reasoning, and more independent problem-solving.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Coaching prompts to help team members articulate their thinking and identify blind spots

• Simple conversation tools to help you challenge assumptions and dig past surface-level problems

• Techniques to build psychological safety – so team members feel safe sharing messy, unfinished ideas

• Examples that show what good critical thinking sounds like in action

This isn’t a one-and-done fix. But over time, you’ll start to see the shift: fewer decisions that need reworking, more thoughtful contributions, and a team that’s prepared to lead – not just follow.

Scroll to the bottom of this article to download your copy now.

And that’s not all we have for you! This month, we’ll be launching into a complete Mindset Audit series. Expect to go deep into:

• The beliefs, biases, and blind spots quietly driving your leadership

• The internal habits and patterns that subconsciously shape how you work

• How personality shapes thinking styles

• How to help people with different personalities audit and strengthen their own critical thinking muscles

The 5-day Mindset Audit kicks off on Monday, July 7th. See you then!

For now, we hope this guide becomes a helpful resource as you coach your team to think more clearly and confidently.

P.S. Still a free subscriber? Unlock this guide (and all of our premium leadership content) by upgrading today. You can still take advantage of our special birthday discount to save on a monthly or annual subscription. But act fast – it ends on July 8th.

Download Building Critical Thinkers Now 👇