It’s been another long but incredibly productive week working with clients to help their managers build stronger business acumen. One theme kept coming up again and again, in every program, every debrief, every reflection: developing a General Manager mindset.

More and more business leaders are turning to their HR Business Partners, looking for development solutions that go beyond teaching people how to “do their jobs.” They want their new and emerging managers to think like owners—to make decisions that balance short-term execution with long-term enterprise value.

That’s not easy. It doesn’t happen through a workshop or a checklist. It takes time, practice, and the right tools. But when done well, it changes everything.

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Some of you read that headline and thought, “That would never happen here.” Others read it and immediately thought of an example from your own organization where it happens every day, and know exactly what I am talking about. Unfortunately, the second group is right; this dynamic is more common than leaders care to admit.

A few years ago, I worked with a global manufacturing company where two managers took very different paths. One, a brilliant but insecure leader, quietly undermined one of his top-performing direct reports, assigning impossible deadlines, blocking access to resources, and even taking credit for her ideas. Eventually, her performance slipped, and he seemed vindicated: “See? She wasn’t as good as people thought.” But she left the company, joined a competitor, and within two years was leading a major business unit, directly against her old employer. He, meanwhile, fizzled out and will be remembered more for the talent he chased away than the results he delivered.

The other manager in the same company did the opposite. He actively built up his direct reports, gave them stretch assignments, and advocated for their success. Within five years, three of his protégés had moved into senior leadership roles across the enterprise. His reward? He was promoted to an executive vice president level not just for his results, but for the leadership legacy he created.

That contrast captures the issue perfectly. Over the past several months, as I’ve been conducting dozens of executive interviews while designing and delivering business simulations, I’ve heard an unsettling theme emerge: senior leaders are seeing managers who actually want their direct reports to fail.

Why? The motivations are rarely stated out loud, but they are painfully human:

• Fear that a talented direct report could “take their job.”
• Anxiety that a strong performer will raise the bar and force others to work harder.
• Discomfort with disruptive ideas that challenge the status quo.

Whatever the root cause, the outcome is the same: subtle sabotage, withheld support, and a toxic culture where high-potential talent is stifled rather than developed. Left unchecked, this behavior doesn’t just hurt individuals; it corrodes trust, slows innovation, and ultimately weakens the organization’s ability to compete.

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As a kid, pumpkins were basic: round, orange, and typically medium to small in size. Finding a big pumpkin felt like winning the lottery, until you tried to cram it into the back of your  VW Bug. There were really only two options for pumpkins back then: carve them into a jack-o’-lantern for Halloween or bake them into my brother’s famous pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving. That was it. End of story. End of pumpkin.

But somewhere along the line, the pumpkin went "primetime." Maybe Charlie Brown was the catalyst, but who knows? Today, we’ve got elegant white pumpkins for modern décor, "knucklehead" pumpkins with warts for novelty, mini multi-colored pumpkins for city apartments, and massive “Forklift Specials”  for front porches. And of course, what pumpkin post would be complete without the greatest innovation of our age, pumpkin spice,  now turning up in everything from coffee and creamers to beers, cookies, donuts, ice cream, cereals, protein bars, candles, and even dog treats?

So, what happened here? The humble life of an orange pumpkin became a case study in innovative thinking.

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Last week, we conducted an intensive business acumen program for a group of new hires. The goal
was simple but powerful: build a foundation in strategic thinking and financial management so they can deliver more value to their clients and accelerate their own careers.

At the center of the learning journey was a customized business simulation. In small teams of five, participants ran their own simulated companies, literally walking a mile in their clients' shoes. Over three “years” of running their businesses, they faced the same real-world challenges leaders confront every day: pricing pressures, cost decisions, investments in innovation, and the constant balancing act between short-term wins and long-term sustainability.

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Sometimes the best blog ideas emerge during the process of designing and developing new business simulations. Earlier today, I was interviewing a senior finance subject matter expert as part of the process of designing a new business simulation, and I asked him about the single biggest business skills challenge he thinks the organization faces. Before I even finished asking the question, he blurted out...“Without a doubt, forecasting! It is our Achilles heel, and if you can help our company develop better forecasting skills, that would be amazing. Think of it this way. If we were just 1% better in forecasting, we would create over $50 million of free cash flow every quarter. That’s a significant number.”

We had a great 10-minute conversation about it, which prompted me to do some research and review years of notes I’ve accumulated on forecasting skills. Based on that work, here are five quick skills that make business forecasting more effective:

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