As the calendar turns and summer is over, business leaders realize things get much more serious.
There is one month left in the third quarter and precious little time to make a major impact on the fourth quarter. And then, before we know it, Q1 2027 will be here.
On top of all that pressure, we are living and working in unprecedented times. Economic uncertainty, rapidly changing technology, geopolitical issues, shifting customer expectations, and AI are creating challenges and opportunities at a pace most organizations have never experienced.
It is why I continue to hear business leaders say some version of the same thing:
“There is no playbook for what we are experiencing right now.”
And they are right. But not having a playbook doesn't mean leaders shouldn't have the skills to make great decisions.
In fact, it means those business skills matter more than ever.
With that as a backdrop, every business leader needs to be proactive rather than reactive. Being reactive in this environment will almost certainly lead to even more challenges.
Being proactive means assessing the situation, understanding the issues and opportunities, anticipating what might happen next, and aggressively making the decisions that will guide teams and businesses toward successfully executing the strategy and achieving financial results.
As someone who spends most of his time designing and delivering sophisticated, business simulation-centric business leadership learning journeys, I get a unique opportunity to watch thousands of leaders make business decisions under pressure.
Some decisions are great. Some aren't.
And that is exactly where the learning happens.
Based on those experiences, here are five critical business skills I believe leaders need as we hurdle toward the end of the year and beyond.
1. Understanding the Business System
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is viewing a decision through the lens of their own function.
Sales want more inventory. Operations wants stability. Finance wants cash. Marketing wants investment. HR wants capabilities. Customers want everything.
The business needs leaders who understand the entire system.
Before making an important year-end decision, ask: What happens downstream if we do this? What other functions are affected? What happens to customers? What happens to cash? What happens three months from now?
Great business leaders understand that very few important decisions happen in isolation.
2. Making the Trade-Off
This may be the most important skill on the list.
Leadership would be relatively easy if we had unlimited money, unlimited people, unlimited capacity, and unlimited time.
We don't. Every significant business decision involves a trade-off.
Do we invest in growth or protect margin? Build inventory or preserve cash? Add people or increase productivity? Chase incremental Q4 revenue or protect the customer experience? Make the number this quarter or invest in something that makes the business stronger next year?
The goal isn't to eliminate trade-offs. The goal is to become better at making them.
That requires understanding both the immediate financial impact and the second- and third-order consequences of the decision.
3. Knowing Which Numbers Matter
At year-end, organizations can become obsessed with numbers.
Revenue. Margin. EBITDA. Cash flow. Working capital. Backlog. Market share. Customer satisfaction. Productivity. Headcount.
All are important. But they aren't equally important in every situation. Strong leaders understand which metrics are actually driving business performance and, more importantly, understand the relationships between them.
A decision that increases revenue but destroys margin isn't necessarily a good decision. A cost reduction that improves this quarter's earnings but damages future capacity may be even worse.
Business acumen isn't knowing the definition of EBITDA.
It's understanding how your decisions move EBITDA—and everything else around it.
4. Escalating Earlier
This is an increasingly important leadership skill. Problems rarely become catastrophic overnight. Usually, there were warning signs.
Someone knew. Someone was concerned. Someone hoped the problem would resolve itself. And nobody escalated it.
As organizations become more complex, matrixed, and geographically dispersed, leaders need to develop the judgment to know when an issue has moved beyond something their team should solve independently.
Escalation isn't failure.
Done correctly, escalation is a business skill. It creates visibility, brings additional resources to the problem, and gives the organization more time and more options.
Bad news doesn't get better with age.
5. Developing Scenario Thinking
Perhaps the most dangerous question a leader can ask right now is:
“What do we think is going to happen?”
A better question is:
“What could happen, and what will we do if it does?”
That is scenario thinking…
- What if demand drops 10%?
- What if it increases 20%?
- What if a critical supplier misses a delivery?
- What if a competitor cuts the price?
- What if an important employee leaves?
- What if the customer delays the project?
- What if the AI initiative actually works faster than expected?
The objective isn't to predict the future perfectly. Nobody can.
The objective is to think through plausible futures before they happen so the organization isn't starting from zero when something changes.
This is also why I remain such a believer in business simulations. A great simulation gives leaders the opportunity to practice making these decisions before the decisions are real. They can test assumptions, experience trade-offs, see unintended consequences, and even fail—without putting millions of dollars, important customers, or people's careers at risk.
In Summary, There Is No Playbook. That's the Point.
As we enter the final months of the year, there will be tremendous pressure to execute, deliver the numbers, solve problems, and prepare for 2027.
There will also be surprises. Some will be good. Some won't.
The organizations that perform best won't necessarily be the ones with the best forecasts or the most detailed plans.
They will be the organizations with leaders who understand the business system, make intelligent trade-offs, know which numbers matter, escalate issues early, and think through multiple scenarios before they are forced to react.
Because when there is no playbook, the quality of the decisions becomes the playbook.
And that may be the most important business skill of all.
