Critical thinking is essential for problem solving. Your future is based off of the decisions you make today. When you apply critical thinking towards a business problem, you should find a problem solving process that will work for any situation that arises. Critical thinking is a set of thinking skills. Critical thinking and creativity can go hand in hand. Critical thinking lets you look objectively at a problem or issue, while taking in consideration of the entire picture. Creativity enable you to take that entire picture and look at it in a new way. While some may think of critical thinking as more of a scientific approach and creativity as more abstract, they are actually more alike than different. The reasoning process of critical thinking shows imagination to proceed to the next level. When you think critically, you judge or sort through the ideas you have created. When you think creatively, you produce ideas. One of the most important skills of leaders is the ability to solve problems. Success is the ability to solve problems and these are learnable skills. There are many critical thinking characteristics you can possess. Being well-informed, trustful of reason, flexible, clear about issues, and willing to reconsider are a few characteristics. There many different processes out there to solve problems. Depending on your type of business, depends on which process works best. The first step is the same in pretty much every problem solving steps, formulate the question. Know what you are looking for, which is not always as straight-forward as it sounds. You should approach the problem with a clear view of what it actually is. The next step is to gather your information. There is lots of it out there, so having a clear idea of the question will help you determine what is relevant. Gathering information helps you weigh different options. The third step could be applying that information and brainstorm solutions. This is when you think of all the possible ways to solve the issue. The fourth step is to implement the solution that you see is best. It is important to understand any outside risks for this solution. You don’t want to cause further problems while trying to solve one. The last step would be to monitor the solution. Sometimes the solution you think is best really isn’t. It is always a good thing to have a back up plan.