Over the next month or so, I am going to be focusing on the concept of ‘Business Transitions’.
There are six such Transitions, and they are all worth understanding so you can identify whether your business is calling for a Transition of its own.
- A Pivot (a new direction entirely)
- An Elevation (new ambition, desire for greater sophistication)
- A Contraction (a necessary downsizing)
- An Expansion (rapid growth or scaling)
- A Merger (two entities becoming one)
- A Renewal (a plateaued business seeking a brighter future)
When I work with clients, being able to name their transition is very helpful because it shows them the big picture – the long arc of their businesses’ change process, which allows them to orient themselves toward this journey and to lead it better.
A Pivot requires swift action and decisiveness, but an Elevation requires something completely different when it comes to leadership: willingness to stretch, curiosity, bravery, sitting in the grey areas, creativity, etc.
It is unlikely that your business is not going through a Transition of some kind, and your choice is whether or not to pay attention to these Transitions.
Those who do pay attention to them are generally highly attuned to their business, are organisationally orientated as a leader (i.e. they recognise that their organisation is a living, dynamic thing that needs leading and shaping) and are attracted to the performance upside that being organisationally aware offers.
Those who don’t pay attention to Transitions are generally gritty and scientific by nature and more attracted to the immediate challenges that a business presents, rather than the more nuanced leadership approaches that are now available.
Here’s the thing about Transitions that’s worth paying attention to: these moments of change offer a ‘fork-in-the-road’ opportunity to rewrite the future ‘story’ of your business that doesn’t come around very often. An opportunity to rewrite the rules, reset your standards, jack up your ambitions and put yourself and your business on a more rewarding path.
This is the true value of a Transition: not merely to change, but to change for the better.
‘Transition to Transcend’ is a nice way to think about this topic, and in the coming weeks, I’m going to unpack each Transition in depth. Transitions, when done well, are incredibly rewarding and performance-enhancing, so rather than having these Transitions happen of their own volition. In dark corners, you might be well-served by putting some energy into understanding these potentially profound processes.