This past weekend gave us a unique opportunity to watch some of the most elite athletes in the world perform in their primes in both the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics.

These sporting events have been phenomenal, and it is such a pleasure watching these amazing athletes perform on the world’s stage under unfathomable pressure.

If there is one consistent theme that comes from these high-level performances is the absolute belief that every one of these athletes has reached their pinnacle of performance through practice, training, and coaching. Over and over, you hear them talking about getting in their “reps” (short for repetitions) and how many times they practiced their performances.

So, if the best athletes in the world can get better by practicing, we can’t business people?

In 2022 and beyond they can and more importantly they should!

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In my last blog on 3 Ways of Improving Days Sales Outstanding, I shared thoughts and insight on one of the newer metrics of financial management that many organizations are focusing on. I was fascinated by the response and had several great conversations about it and how the information was helpful in terms of immediate application to the decision-making required to improve the DSO.

One of the conversations I had with a former business acumen workshop participant who is a Supply Chain leader led to an interesting dialogue on another related topic called the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) and this blog will share some interesting content on that emerging concept as well.

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If you are a functional business leader planning and executing your strategy for 2022, things are extremely different than they were just a year ago. As we start this new year, businesses are faced with unprecedented continuous disruptions that are forcing the best companies to be more resilient, focused, and skilled than ever. The COVID pandemic which looks like it will last for years, supply chain issues, inflation, geopolitical issues, and continued globalization are some of the big issues forcing leaders to think differently.

By now, everyone had been working on and building their resilience. The new normal of working has given organizations the opportunity to focus on ways that previously were simply unimaginable. But interestingly enough, skill development, especially in the area of Business Acumen, hasn’t kept up at the same pace.

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Welcome to part two of our Top 5 Business Acumen Predictions for 2022. In part one we reviewed three topics that will affect business and your employees in the upcoming year, global supply chain, global demand, and the VUCAD world. The second part of the post will now focus on two critical topics that your company needs to be prepared for, politics and the political agenda and what the workplace may look like post-pandemic.

4) Politics and the Political Agenda will Impact Business Decision Making

In the United States, the failure of the ruling Democrats to pass two foundational legislative imperatives will spill over into the new year and stay with us through the 2022 mid-year elections. Navigating these waters and predicting outcomes is difficult and the uncertainty will impact business decision making. My predictions are:

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After 18 months of delivering virtual simulation-based Business Acumen programs to more than 5,000 participants, I was astounded by the results and outcomes coming from the High Potential Leader program just completed with a global audience of a specialty equipment manufacturing company.

What astounded me was the level of efficiency from the team of 4 representing four different functions within the business spread out over 3 different continents. When I talk about “efficiency”, I am referring to the ability of this one team of leaders to finish their learning experience, mainly a business simulation exercise where they were running their own business, in about 75% of the time allocated and with spectacular results. Most teams we work with run out of time because they don’t yet have the discipline to avoid analysis paralysis.

In all my years of conducting similar training programs, I have never seen anything like this. After the program was over, I set up an interview with the team to try to discover what made them so special and unique. What they shared are very valuable lessons of leadership development and business strategy execution.

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