Leaders who win don’t react—they anticipate.

Most leaders get caught off guard by revenue drops, hiring stalls, or marketing inefficiencies. But these issues don’t come out of nowhere. The best companies set up early warning systems to catch problems before they become crises.

Now is the time to do it, and here’s how:

Find the Last Crisis You Didn’t See Coming. Ask your team:

• Where did we lose money, time, or momentum last year?

• What was the first sign of trouble?

• Who spotted it first—and why didn’t we act sooner?

Every major business issue leaves clues. The goal is to identify the signals you ignored and track them moving forward.

Lock in a Single Leading Indicator

Great leaders don’t drown in data—they track the right metric.

• Sales stalled? → Were pipeline conversations slowing before revenue dropped?

• Hiring bottleneck? → Did offer acceptance rates decline before positions stayed open?

• Marketing wasted spend? → Was cost per lead rising while engagement dropped?

One powerful metric, surfaced early, can change everything.

Assign Ownership - Not Just An Email

Most warning systems fail because no one owns them. Fix that today. Decide:

• Who is responsible for watching this metric?

• How often will they flag issues?

• What’s the protocol when a warning sign appears?

Instead of just emailing your data team, make this a standing agenda item for your leadership team.

Final Step: Tell Your Team to Set This Up

You can’t prevent every problem. But you can stop being surprised by them.

Let’s make the back half of 2025 a masterclass in foresight.