Critical thinkers look at issues with clear eyes and an open mind.  They know which problems to focus on and use a cool, logical head to find the best way to solve them. They also can make good decisions quickly even when faced with ambiguity and paradox.

Critical thinking skills are vital to a company’s success, and companies that test for critical thinking skills are far more likely to succeed than those that don’t.  Here are three reasons why.

Stronger Project Management

Even small-scale projects have a lot of moving pieces, including schedules and budgets, goals and benchmarks, and team members handling important tasks.  The people managing these projects have to look at all these parts as a whole unit.

Critical thinking skills tests help you find people that can take this big-picture view. When you test for critical thinking, you discover who has the capacity to set priorities, keep projects on track, and make sure everyone is working together to meet one common goal.

Better Decision Making

One of the most important skills critical thinkers possess is the ability to secure input from as many sources as possible, analyze the information quickly, consider the options, and then make the right decision. They don’t rush to judgment, but also don’t hesitate to make a decision when it needs to be made. This leads to smarter decisions and better results for your company. Critical thinking skills tests help you identify the people with these decision-making skills.

Greater Long-Term Planning

Because critical thinkers can see the big picture, they can also recognize the long-term impact of their decisions.  When you test for critical thinking skills, you test a person’s ability to look beyond the here and now when they act.

People who can’t look beyond the short term tend to vacillate from one idea to another.  This makes consistent long-term strategies difficult to develop and impossible to execute, leaving the whole company in disarray.  Critical thinkers keep their focus on end goals and take careful steps to reach them.  Their decisions are more thoughtful and have more impact because they’ve taken the short- and long-term views into account.

Strong critical thinking skills are the key to a stable, focused, and organized company. Using critical thinking skills tests will help you find the right people to keep your business on solid ground.