In an era marked by volatility, digital disruption, demographic change, and continuous organisational transformation, the ability of firms to compete increasingly depends on the quality of their human capability. While leadership scholarship has long recognised the importance of higher-order cognition, human resource management has given comparatively less explicit attention to thinking competence as a strategic capability that can be cultivated through talent systems, learning architectures, performance processes, and organisational culture. This paper argues that expert, critical, strategic, and systems thinking should be understood not merely as desirable individual traits, but as strategic human resource capabilities that enable organisations to attract, develop, deploy, and renew talent in ways that support sustained adaptability and performance. Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, organisational learning, and leadership research, the paper develops a framework for embedding thinking capability within HR strategy and practice. The paper shows how higher-order thinking can be advanced through recruitment and selection, leadership development, succession planning, performance management, employee voice, diversity and inclusion, and HR (Human Resource) information systems. In doing so, it repositions HR not as an administrative support function, but as a central architect of organisational adaptability, change readiness, and long-term capability development. The paper contributes to strategic HRM (Human Resource Management) by conceptualising thinking competence as a developable and institutionalisable dimension of workforce and leadership capability, with implications for talent management, organisational resilience, and competitive advantage.