Five Issues Leaders Must Anticipate in the Next 3 Months

With Q3 nearly behind us, business leaders face a dual challenge: closing 2025 strongly while preparing for 2026. That’s never easy, and in today’s environment, it’s even harder. At Advantexe, we’re always scanning ahead. Here are five issues leaders must anticipate in the next three months, with their potential impact and actions to consider.

1) The Jobs Picture

Impact: While the unemployment numbers remain relatively stable, early warning signs suggest potential shifts in the labor market. Rising layoffs in certain sectors can quickly impact consumer confidence and spending, directly affecting demand for products and services. If that happens, your budgets are going to come under extreme pressure. Get ready for it.

Actions:

• Monitor consumer sentiment data alongside employment reports.
• Stress-test revenue forecasts under different employment scenarios.
• Stay close to customers as changes in their workforce will ripple into your business.

Impact: After years of volatility, borrowing costs remain stubbornly high. The Federal Reserve has indicated that this is not going to change despite the intense political pressure from the administration. This slows capital investment, dampens housing and durable goods demand, and pressures margins for companies with significant debt.

Actions:

• Reassess 2026 budgets with conservative assumptions on borrowing costs.
• Explore refinancing or restructuring options before conditions potentially worsen.
• Push teams to identify efficiency gains that offset financing headwinds.

3) Work Realities

Impact: Hybrid and flexible work models are no longer “trends”; they are business realities. The way employees engage, collaborate, and innovate continues to evolve, reshaping culture, productivity, and retention. Recent data shows that the youth unemployment rate (ages 16-24) in the U.S. is about 10.5%, up from ~9.7–10.0% earlier in 2025,  and the employment-population ratio for that group has dropped year over year. At the same time, many leaders believe that the lack of regular in-office collaboration has stunted the growth of early-career employees. Some evidence (especially in tech) also suggests that under-30 workers are seeing sharper increases in jobless spells and layoffs than adults with more established roles.

While those trends haven’t been uniformly quantified across all sectors, they raise a serious risk: early-career talents may fall behind on skills, network building, and on-the-job learning,  gaps that are harder to close once established.

Actions:

• Revisit policies to ensure they balance flexibility with accountability.
• Invest in tools and training that improve cross-functional collaboration.
• Reinforce culture intentionally; don’t let it erode passively.

Impact: Top performers have options, and disengagement among high-potential employees is costly. At the same time, many organizations face skill gaps in digital, financial, and leadership capabilities. It is a huge, somewhat silent problem that will play out in a loss of revenue and customers.

Actions:

• Prioritize learning journeys that build critical capabilities aligned to strategy.
• Create visible pathways for advancement and growth.
• Use the end of the year as a time to recognize and reward contributions meaningfully.

Impact: In tough markets, competitors often slash prices to capture share and maintain cash flow. This tactic may win short-term volume but erodes industry profitability and pressures everyone’s margins.

Actions:

• Strengthen your value propositions, as competing on price alone is a race to the bottom.
• Arm customer-facing teams with data and stories that prove value beyond cost.
• Track competitor moves carefully but avoid knee-jerk reactions

Summary Thoughts

The final months of the year often separate the companies that survive from those that thrive. By proactively addressing these five issues, leaders can position their organizations not only for a strong Q4 but also for sustainable momentum heading into 2026.