How to manage inflection points in business

Inflection points are something all business leaders experience. They can feel daunting.

 

These tend to be make-or-break moments in our leadership and our lives when something deeply changes in ourselves, our organisation, or in the external environment around us. In these times, we have a chance to futureproof success for ourselves, our organisations, and the people we serve – or to lay the foundations for failure.

 

Not all time is created equal, and these moments provide a special opportunity to transform our future. As the urgency of our lives has sped up, inflection moments take on an ever more outsized importance.

 

In my work helping organisations and leaders to build intentional leadership legacy, I define two types of inflection points: asteroids and starships.

 

Asteroids are external events that shift an organisation’s realities from the outside – a change in market conditions, regulatory environment, or changing generational preferences among customers or a client base. Starships, meanwhile, are inflection points that arise from within: a leadership succession, board changes, or a rising generation of leaders within the organisation now want to take on the reins.

 

What makes leading through inflection moments so difficult is that we can’t afford to keep our starship at a standstill, but neither can we risk crashing into the asteroid.

 

When you face asteroids or starships – or a combination of both – the key is not to treat it like a regular day-to-day decision. We need to recognise the inflection point for what it is, and recognise the need to step back.

 

It’s worth thinking about these points around three time horizons. The first is the Hour Hand: the long-term direction you want to set for your organisation. This requires you as a leader to articulate your perspective on the problem your organisation is addressing – and how it differs from others and from conventional wisdom.

 

The second is the Minute Hand: your unique organisational potential and “secret sauce”. How can you distill it, codify it, and then really build your future around it? An organisation that has a secret sauce for convening people, for example, may want to create a more collaborative business model rooted in partnerships.

 

The third is the Second Hand: your organisational culture. What are the unspoken rules in your company that bind everyone together? What needs to be tweaked or refined in the culture to address the Hour and Minute Hands? For instance, if you are moving towards a direction rooted in partnerships, you may want to think about building a more partner-centred culture that is less about control and more about the ability to work well with different organisational cultures.

 

If you get the three proverbial hands of the watch dial moving in the same direction, the chances are that you will navigate the inflection moment well. The key is to recognise it, step back, and navigate it intentionally.

 

If you can, you are well on your way to building a bold, authentic, and enduring organisational legacy: for now, the years to come, and for future generations.

 

All these are tough asks in our day-to-day world, but inflection moments enable us to reach for what can feel like the impossible – and make it possible. Whether it’s an inflection moment at a personal, organisational, or societal level (or, often, all three at once). 

 

---

 

Sharath Jeevan OBE is the founder of Intrinsic Labs and the author of Inflection: A Roadmap for Leaders at a Crossroads

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and anyaberkut