Critical Thinking
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Many years ago as a young, single professional, I got this idea that I should put down roots. Although I was a carpet bagging television reporter moving from city to city every two or three years, I found a condo in Tampa that I loved and couldn’t afford. Though I was likely to leave town before a year or two was out, I really wanted to buy it.
My dad happened to be coming for a visit so I took him to see the place. As we strolled around in the light filled rooms, admiring the gleaming hardwood floors, high ceilings, granite counter tops and palladium windows, I hoped he would get the hint and come out of pocket with the down payment, which of course I didn’t have. Nothing in our history as father and adult child would have suggested he would do this. Dad had wisely given me the hearty-good-luck-handshake after college, with no promise to supplement my income. He never wavered.
“What do you think, Dad?”

“Beautiful. How are you going to pay for it?” he replied.

“I don’t know, I guess…” my voice trailed off.

“You know you should probably be flexible, not get tied down; you could get a job in a bigger TV market,” he said.

“Yea…”

“It’s a lot of money to have tied up in real estate right now,” he added.

You get the drift.

I was thinking about this story after a conversation with one of our consultants about a client presentation he was working on. Our client was going in to the CEO to propose the company get into a new line of business. Promising idea, but as our coach peeled back the onion there were significant risks. None of that was mentioned in the first version of the presentation. Not a shred of tough analysis that would indicate he’d thought that through.
Since we know this CEO, we knew this wouldn’t fly. He’s a sharp guy, and not particularly patient. He wouldn’t wait 90 seconds before interrupting with legitimate questions. After all, that’s what a CEO is supposed to do. If our client had gone in there without having spelled out the risk benefit analysis, it would have been dead in the water. If he couldn’t answer “why not” just as well as “why,” he would be lucky if they told him to come back when he’d thought it through.

When preparing a presentation for your boss or senior leaders, get that risk/benefit analysis right up near the front. This is one of the golden rules of influential communication with decision makers. They get paid to look with a critical eye. They wake up in the morning analyzing risk. You look smart and increase your chances of success if you show them you’ve at least tried to walk a mile in their shoes.

Impress them by doing the critical thinking. You can advocate while at the same time demonstrating that you are thoughtful, strategic leader. If you miss on this part, you’ll find yourself wandering around the condo like I did, admiring the floors and dreaming about daddy giving you a big check. It won’t happen. Your proposal will have about the same chance of success as mine did.

I still dream about those palladium windows.