This course is designed for professionals who want to enhance their critical thinking and leadership skills. It is suitable for anyone who is involved in or interested in leading themselves or others, such as managers, supervisors, team leaders, project leaders, or aspiring leaders.

• Define critical thinking and leadership and explain their importance and benefits
• Apply various critical thinking techniques to analyse information, generate ideas, and evaluate arguments
• Apply various leadership techniques to influence, inspire, and motivate others
• Identify and avoid the common pitfalls and biases that affect your thinking and leadership
• Use appropriate tools and frameworks to support your thinking and leadership process
• Communicate and collaborate effectively with others to make better decisions

Day One:

Introduction to Critical Thinking and Leadership

• What is critical thinking and why is it important?
• What is leadership and why is it important?
• How are critical thinking and leadership related?
• What are the benefits of critical thinking and leadership for professionals?
• What are the challenges of critical thinking and leadership in today’s business environment?
• What are the common pitfalls and biases that affect critical thinking and leadership?
• How can we overcome them?

Day Two:

Critical Thinking Techniques

• What are the elements of critical thinking?
• How can we use logic, arguments, evidence, and assumptions to analyse information?
• How can we use creative thinking to generate new ideas and perspectives?
• How can we use systems thinking to understand the big picture and the interrelationships among components?
• How can we use root cause analysis to identify the underlying causes of problems?

Day Three:

Leadership Techniques

• What are the elements of leadership?
• How can we use self-awareness to recognise our own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals?
• How can we use self-regulation to manage our own emotions, impulses, and stress?
• How can we use motivation to pursue our own goals with passion, perseverance, and optimism?
• How can we use empathy to understand others’ emotions, needs, and perspectives?
• How can we use social skills to build rapport, trust, and influence with others?

Day Four:

Tools and Frameworks for Critical Thinking and Leadership

• What are some of the tools and frameworks that can help us with critical thinking and leadership?
• How can we use SWOT analysis to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a situation or solution?
• How can we use PESTLE analysis to examine the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors that affect a situation or solution?
• How can we use Porter’s five forces analysis to evaluate the competitive forces in an industry or market?
• How can we use SMART criteria to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives or goals?

Day Five:

Communication and Collaboration for Critical Thinking and Leadership

• Why is communication important for critical thinking and leadership?
• What are the principles of effective communication for critical thinking and leadership?
• How can we communicate clearly, concisely, confidently, convincingly, and courteously with different audiences?
• How can we use various communication methods (e.g., written reports, oral presentations) to convey our findings or proposals?
• How can we use feedback to improve our communication skills?
• Why is collaboration important for critical thinking and leadership?
• How can we work with others to solve complex problems effectively?

To enhance learning and practical application of concepts, the training course will use a combination of interactive lectures, case studies, group discussions, practical exercises, and real-world examples. Participants will also get the chance to collaborate on group projects and create action plans adapted to the needs of their respective organizations.