It hit me a few days ago, when I was in our den, buried in some work. I overheard my wife in another room, speaking oddly, considering we were the only people in the house, and I knew she wasn’t on the phone, in an unusually structured tone for a Saturday.

Her voice was soft and deliberate,  almost deferential. I asked who she was talking to. “ChatGPT,” she said, and after a beat or two, we burst out laughing. It was the first time I’d heard her speak aloud to a non-human natural-language model, and because I do it too.

Some quick, informal research suggested that many of us do this as well. As our laughter gave way to a more serious discussion, we realized we needed a name for the phenomenon. My wife went back to ChatGPT to create one: "botcourting.”

The need for business leaders at all levels to have business acumen skills is growing and has never been more needed than today. At the same time, these same business leaders, who are struggling with their business acumen, are embracing the power of Artificial Intelligence and the support it can provide in making critical business decisions that execute strategy and deliver value to customers and shareholders.

These two things are not mutually exclusive; you can’t simply use AI to make business decisions without possessing the necessary business acumen skills to understand the situation, challenges, and opportunities.

I recently had a discussion with one of our clients who was wondering how we can integrate more AI into our simulation workshops in a way that helps participants learn about the AI tools they can use to increase their efficiency and make better decisions.

If you haven’t heard the news, the U.S. government is phasing out the penny, which has been part of the U.S. economy for over 200 years. The Treasury Department recently announced that it will stop circulating new pennies by early next year. Afterward, there will not be enough pennies for everyday cash transactions, and businesses will need to start rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

This move is the culmination of a long bipartisan effort to eliminate the lowest-denomination unit of American currency, which has quietly become obsolete (it costs nearly three cents to produce a coin worth one cent!

While this may seem like a minor, almost comical issue, from a business acumen perspective, there are powerful lessons embedded in the decision. Here are five that every business leader should consider:

In today's rapidly evolving workplace, managers are encountering scenarios that require a new set of coaching conversations, ones they haven't faced or trained for before. The shift to hybrid work models, the integration of AI, and changing employee expectations have introduced complexities that traditional management training often doesn't cover and doesn’t develop skills for.

This week, I have been working with a group of high-tech leaders struggling with many complex business and coaching challenges. We are working with them to build dynamic training to help them be more confident and effective.

I have turned our work from the workshops into this blog by sharing three “common” new scenarios for this blog post. I’ve summarized the situation, the future coaching conversation needed, and the best practice action plans required to get there.

This week, I had the pleasure of attending the ATD training industry event in Washington, DC. Visiting DC is always an interesting experience, as being in the heart of the nation’s capital reminds you of the importance of policy and policy-making to businesses.

Over the past few weeks, I have shared some insights into the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and, most recently, the Presidential Order on pharmaceutical drug pricing.

Having the opportunity to meet with and learn from some of the best lobbyists, I thought it would be a nice idea to take a moment to highlight a few key points that business leaders can learn from lobbyists.