Last week, right before the Labor Day Weekend break, I wrote a blog post with a focus on helping our readers focus on 5 business acumen skills to survive a recession. I received a lot of positive feedback and even spent several hours working with an executive from one of our client organizations to develop a workshop he wanted to lead taking the learnings from the blog and apply them to their global chemical manufacturing business.

It’s not a matter if, it’s simply a matter of when.  Despite the record-breaking and robust economy,   there will be another recession. It may come before the election of 2020, or it may come after. But it will surely happen. For those who haven’t been through a recession, it’s usually not a fun thing. It requires strong business acumen and enhanced decision-making skills to survive.

Everyone in business has of course heard of the performance conversation where you schedule  regular one-on-ones with direct reports and teammates to give coaching and feedback.  Learning about it, training on it, and practicing it probably accounts for 15-20% of all money spent on leadership development.  There are several great coaching models out there such as Coaching Essentials from The Marcus Buckingham Company (a division of ADP) and the GROW coaching model.

The cohort participating in the Business Acumen for Emerging Leaders learning journey was  paralyzed. They didn’t know where to begin, what to do, or what was going to happen to them. As they read through their materials and analyzed the P&L statements and Market Reports, I heard a voice say, “I never realized how hard it was running a company.”

The email waiting in my inbox on a lazy Sunday morning from one of my close friends from a partner company made my entire weekend.  “Thank you for having the courage to fight for what you believe in and not taking the easy way out by playing ‘not to lose’.  I’m inspired by your desire to play to win and confidence that you can figure out the best solution.”