Over the past year, I have had the pleasure to work with
more than a dozen different clients in my consulting practice, ranging from
small technology and food startups all the way to global biotech leaders. While the work is extremely varied, it has
been fascinating to see a number of “common denominators” that I keep bumping
into regardless of vertical, size of organization, or the specific nature of my
assignment. In many cases I see the
importance and impact of personal leadership, at times as moments of success
& acceleration, and at times as major barriers/impediments for
organizational growth. In many moments I
have seen the importance of taking decisive action in the marketplace, turning
strategies/concepts into “real” tactics and actions to affect the
challenges/opportunities facing the business at the moment. Today, I want to highlight a third “common
denominator” that I am seeing in my consulting work, that being the need to
narrow your focus (focus on fewer things) at the key moments that are
inflection points of an organization and a business.
It has been exciting to be brought in by CEO’s/Founders, or
boards to work on the challenges and opportunities facing the leadership teams
of my clients. Often times, the call to
bring me in is precipitated by a critical event or issue facing a business and
often times those businesses are at critical inflection points:
inflection point
NOUN
· 1Mathematics
A point of a curve at which a change in the direction of curvature occurs.
A point of a curve at which a change in the direction of curvature occurs.
· 2US (in business) a
time of significant change in a situation; a turning point.
At times these might be moments of rapid expansion and
growth for a startup, or in another situation a major pivot for a large
established company; but regardless of the specifics, the moment facing the
business/organization is critical to its future success. Reflecting back on this past year, these
“inflection point” moments abound in my consulting work and I constantly find
myself working with senior execs and leadership teams to narrow their scope and
focus on fewer things.
Often the circumstances surrounding these “inflection point”
moments are filled with complexity, and there is a tendency for senior leaders
to try to focus on all of the moving parts at the same time. While sometimes “do-able,” this scattered
approach typically gives all things a little bit of attention, versus giving a
few VITAL topics complete focus. I am
currently involved in an assignment where a young startup organization is in
the middle of a major marketplace launch of a new product line. While its certainly true that future
innovation, expanded funding sources, team capacity/capability issues, along
with a myriad of other topics are facing the senior team and the CEO, the truth
is that if THIS launch fails, there is a high likelihood that the company will
fail! (A true inflection point for the
company, and a moment that requires complete and maniacal focus on the new
product launch and the work/actions required to insure its success. ) While
this example pertains to a startup company that I am working with currently, the
lesson is one that I continue to touch across my consulting practice and client
base.
As you look at the business situations that you are dealing
with, think about the “inflection points” facing your company/organization
today and push yourself to “narrow your focus”, push aside as much of the “noise”
of extraneous tasks in your day-to-day work life and maniacally “focus” on
turning the “inflection point” that you are facing into a major moment of
success!