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Critical Thinking - what are you doing to evolve it in the AI era?

In this rapidly evolving AI era, Critical thinking is exponentially accelerating as one of, if not the most important leadership skills. What are you doing to keep up?

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Simon Smith 14 October 2026 · 2 min read
Critical Thinking - what are you doing to evolve it in the AI era?

T.O.A.D. Coaching Model

Critical thinking is exponentially accelerating as one of, if not the most important leadership skill – and that includes your personal leadership (how you lead yourself), which is the key foundation in any leadership journey – you are a leader at any and every level.

With increasing use of AI, critical thinking is more important now than ever. Critical thinking will be the key skill that differentiates successful leaders (at all levels) in the future – and the present!

Unfortunately, increasing amounts of research demonstrate that many of the ways we use AI are degrading our critical thinking skills* - at all levels of the organisation – so we clearly need to integrate practical ways of critical thinking into our daily workplace and leadership habits. 

This applies not just to leaders of people, but also to how we lead ourselves. We ALL need to improve our personal critical thinking skills to get the best outcomes for us - in workplaces and outside and at home. 

Always, the key question is how do we do that in practice - in our real-world workplaces (and at home)?

Our T.O.A.D.™ Coaching Leadership Model is a proven, super-practical critical thinking tool that can be applied every day, at every level from executives, middle managers to front-line staff.

Practical critical thinking that happens every day as part of your personal, team or organisational leadership and culture. 

As an example, it achieved over 30% increase in productivity** when we rolled out our T.O.A.D.™ Coaching Leadership Model to the Asia Pacific region of a global German-Listed company - and turned them around from 11th out of 12 regions globally to Region of the Year 2 years running. 

And the beauty and simplicity of the T.O.A.D.™ Coaching Leadership Model is that you can use it as an individual, within a team, across the organisation and everything in between.  

And managing up – yes, you can T.O.A.D.™ Coach your boss!

Accredited with the International Coach Federation for 8 CCUEs (Continuing Coach Education Units), undertaking our T.O.A.D.™ Coaching Leadership program may also count to CPD credits (check with your provider).

We’ve proven it works for leaders and self-leadership at all levels: frontline staff, new managers, middle managers to senior Executives and C-suite execs.

If you or your team want to learn what we see is probably today’s most effective practical, real-world, every-day critical thinking and decision-making tool, click here for more information or get in touch below 👇

Click here to get in touch or use the button below.

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Of course, if you want to talk to someone, call us direct:

📱📞 +61 (0)2 7901 5618 7901

Published by

Simon Smith CEO, Southern Cross Coaching & Development

About our partner

Southern Cross Coaching & Development

2025 Best Training & Development Program award, Defence and National Security Workforce Awards Australia; 2025 Mentor of the Year, Gold Titan International Awards; Finalist Training & Mentoring Program of the Year, Australian Defence Industry Awards (national).NEUROSCIENCE-based.Leadership and People Development training, Executive Coaching (also with 360-degree assessments), Emotional Intelligence, Change Management and Resilience, and more. Job Application and Interview Skills training. Panel Recruitment Skills Training.Highly practical, extremely down to earth, individualised. ALL of our programs translate directly into real life action and results.30% INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY: that's what our clients tell us our innovative, but super-simple TOAD (TM) Coaching Leadership tool has achieved! Ask us about it, we’re happy to come & talk to you to discuss it. 26% INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY: That's what Gartner told us our Giving and Receiving Feedback program produced for a large NSW Government department.We deliver solutions from a single training or coaching program to multi-site, multi-team programs across Australia and the Asia Pacific Japan region.SES & Executives, Middle Managers, Managers through to Front Line Staff.📨: [email protected] 📱📞 +61 2 7901 5618 🌐www.southerncrosscoaching.com.au For our Coaching Assignments, we have our unique Coach/Coachee Matching Matrix. We've never got a coach/ coachee match wrong since we started using our unique Coach/Coachee Matching Matrix in 2007!We are specialists in neuroscience-based Coaching Culture Leadership. Our clients tell us our innovative but super-simple TOAD (TM) Coaching Leadership tool is revolutionary and makes a real difference in the workplace (and at home!).Full Qualification Status - NSW Government Pre-qualification Scheme SCM-0005: Performance & Management Services. Supplier for Department of Defence (DLB and DSTG across the ADF, APS/ EL1-2 and SES). 

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