what's english for leverage?

There's an entire vocabulary that i've picked up, and as a result, another that i've probably lost, because a few days ago i had lunch with a long lost anthro friend and i could not recall what word I would have used instead of "leverage" to describe some work thing. is leveraging something you only do in business land? and what about operationalize? and do real people actually prioritize? or risk manage? or have critical success factors? or create strategic alignments? or forecast? or develop decks to update leadership? or rationalize their spend quarter to quarter?