How Charismatic Leaders Develop Breakout Discoveries Through Critical Thinking

Charismatic leaders are viewed as visionaries who create ideas and innovative products and services through pure imagination. However, there is something else going on in the minds of these leaders. They have a preternatural love for information and an uncanny way of fusing disparate ideas together. Through effective critical thinking, you can begin doing the same thing; creating great discoveries that are transformational. 

Begin reading essays, articles, or books on subjects you normally would not read about to begin connecting seemingly unrelated ideas to enhance your critical thinking skills. After some time, you will establish a daily diet of information that leads to new and insightful ideas, connections, and trends.  This is an example of using outside stimuli as a means to jumpstart your critical thinking.

Fall in Love with Information

Reading a magazine, newspaper, or periodical is fairly simple when you are interested in a wide array of subjects that allow you to understand human beings better. Get a magazine, a highlighter, and perhaps some paper or your journal.  Then begin reading.  Skim over the things that you may have a limited interest in and really read the stories that build on your focal point. Read everything.  Read the articles AND any supplemental material.  And while you are reading, ask yourself things like…

                What does this remind me of?

                Who was this article written for?

                What did they do that I can do?

                What does this say about the coming trends?

                What gaps were left that my creativity can fill?

These certainly aren’t the only questions you can ask, but they are enough to get you started.  You can go into this critical thinking process with a very specific challenge or problem in mind, or you can just do it to see what imaginative ideas you generate – either way is fine!

How to Build on Your Insights

Shakespeare reportedly said that he made new words out of old words. In other words, Shakespeare didn’t create a new language of sorts, but took what he observed in human nature and created a legacy of work behind it. What’s new about love, betrayal, and vengeance? If you’re looking to build a body of work through your critical thinking, nothing is out of bounds. If there is news of a man eating the face of a homeless man in Florida, become outraged at first by the barbarism of the act itself, but also become curious about what the act means as a message about the state of the world.  Every act, news account, or latest fashion communicates a message about where people are or where they are going. As you begin seeing patterns, not only will you understand human nature better, but you can create products and services that solve problems created or perpetuated by human beings.

Charismatic leaders may do common things in an uncommon way and so can you. Start becoming your own social scientist by sharpening your critical thinking skills.  You might just engineer the next breakout idea, service, or product that the world has been looking for, but didn’t know it.

To improve your critical thinking skills, go to: Charisma

How Charismatic Leaders Solve Problems by Using “What If…?”

Charismatic leaders are often believed to create new organizations, ideas, and religions from thin air. Contrarily, these leaders spend a great deal of time imagining the possibilities from the vast reading they accomplish.  After they have done the research and analysis to a problem, charismatic leaders formulate solutions by asking themselves “What if…?” 

For the most creative solutions you need to get your mind looking in new directions for solving problems. One of the most systematic ways to do this is with a list of words, primarily adjectives, to create "what if?" scenarios. The process starts with the question, "what if it was..." and then you insert a word from the list.  "It" in the question is the problem you're working on, or the current solution or situation.

Let's explain the process with two examples.

Example one: You have is an unpleasant co-worker. You aren't sure how to deal with him, so you ask about the problem, "What if it was..." and insert from the list "smaller." How could you make the problem smaller? Spend less time with that person? Get reassigned?  "What if it was...  fun?" makes you wonder if being annoying yourself might keep the other person away from you. "Closer" makes you wonder if this person might be nicer to you if they knew you better. You continue down the list and work with each word a bit to get new ideas, which you will look at more analytically later.

Example two: Your house is too crowded because you're running your business from it. You ask, "What if it was..." and insert from the word list, "smaller." Your house is already too small, but could the business be smaller? The word "divided" might give you the idea to keep the business in just one part of the house.  Since most words on the list won't help, you can go through the irrelevant ones quickly. But don't automatically dismiss them without a few seconds consideration. "What if it was hopeless?" may seem like a useless question, or it may make you realize that you just can't keep the business in the house any longer. Moving into a rented office might be the most profitable of your creative solutions.

Feel free to create your own list of words. You'll want to use adjectives, descriptive phrases, and any words that can change your perspective. Here is a short list to get you started:

What if it was... larger, smaller, farther away, closer, sooner, later, easier, more difficult, higher, fat, rich, short, black, certain, hopeless, newer, boring, casual, subtracted from, cheaper, common, divided, more interesting, extravagant, subtle, or fun?

Just as with most problem solving techniques, it's important to allow the ideas to flow without judging them initially. You don't want to stifle the creative process. Take notes and evaluate your ideas later, when you have a page full of creative solutions.

Great organizations have been built with charismatic leaders staring at the ceiling weighing the possibilities of “What if?” If you want to effectively solve problems within your company, department, or even family,  begin asking “What if? 

For more information on developing effective leadership and communication skills, visit: Charisma