I’ve chatted with three entrepreneurs in the last two weeks who shared their problems with what I’ll broadly bucket as productivity. How they initially described them varied, and they manifested in various ways. But they’re clearly impacting their business and personal lives negatively. As we peeled back the layers, we uncovered the likely root cause: their approach to work. How they work used to be sufficient, but as their companies and responsibilities have grown, it hasn’t kept up. Said differently, they’ve outgrown their working style.

These aren’t slackers by any means. They’re successful and have been entrepreneurs for several years. But these conversations highlighted for me that most people are never taught how to work. They’re taught skills for particular jobs, but no one sits them down and shows them how to execute by applying those skills day to day.

The more I think about this, the more I suspect that this issue afflicts a large swath of entrepreneurs and likely causes an operating inflection point. How they work stops being good enough for leading a growth company. So, one of two things likely happens: growth stalls (or worse, a decline begins) or the entrepreneur adapts by implementing a new approach to work that allows them to continue working efficiently as the demands on them as a leader grow and evolve. Often, the inflection point leads to their adapting a work style that’s less brute force and more sustainable in the long term.

I wonder what the trigger is for the inflection point? Is it revenue, number of employees, number of customers, or something else? Or a combination of things?