Founder’s Syndrome: How Organizations Suffer…and Can Recover (Part II)

(See Part I here.)

The actions for the founder, board members, and staff described below are intended to help an organization or team become more stable and proactive, thereby overcoming founder’s syndrome. Even when actions are taken, each team or organization adapts according to its own needs and nature.

Just remember, major changes don’t happen overnight and are never done perfectly. Start simple, but start!

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What can founders do to avoid founder’s syndrome?

First, if you are the founder of a brand new organization or team and you are just starting out, build it right. Build it to sustain for the future. Build it from the beginning as if you won’t be there to see it through its life.

1. Acknowledge that some day, you will leave the organization or team. The only way to ensure that your legacy is to acknowledge, right now, that you cannot be there forever. Take that to heart and be conscious of it as you plan for your organization’s future. You will then be more likely put the needed tools in place.
2. Formalize the vision and values that are at the heart of the organization. Create a working mission statement and strategic plan that will guide both the board’s future decisions and those made by the staff.  There is nothing to say that these won’t change over time. But the core of what is important will remain, and will be another part of your legacy.
3. Find and accept a mentor outside the organization to help you change your style of leadership. Founder’s syndrome comes from doing what’s natural for you. Changing your leadership approach may seem rather unnatural. Seek and accept help from someone who can help you work out these personal aspects of your eventual separation from the organization.
4. Set direction through joint planning activities. Support the board and staff to carry out strategic planning. Ensure mutual understanding of the organization’s goals and strategies.
5. Delegate, delegate, and delegate! This can motivate staff and volunteers to meet the organization’s goals. Get their input as to how the tasks can be completed. Give them the decision-making authority to complete the tasks. Celebrate their successes!
6. Conduct regular meetings to hear input from staff and volunteers—and make sure you’re not the only person talking. Develop staff-driven procedures for routine, but important tasks.
7. Guide resources to meet goals. Share management challenges with the board or leadership and ask for supportive policies to guide management.
8. If you are thinking about leaving, create a succession plan that proactively deals with all the things you (or the board) is scared might happen when you leave, such as:

• Ensuring the link to the community,
• Preserving the public image of the organization,
• Documenting the institutional memory of the organization that resides inside your head, or
• Continuing fundraising and external relationships.

As part of your succession plan, train and mentor someone now who could replace you, even temporarily, in the event something happens to you. This doesn’t mean you are going anywhere soon. You may not be leaving for the next 10 years! But find someone with whom you can share your institutional knowledge. Train them to share the load now, while you still can.

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What can the board do?

Making a change in leadership style is often confusing, lonely, and stressful for the founder. The board can be the founder’s greatest help.

1. Understand and take full responsibility for the role of board member. Insist on focused board training to review the roles and responsibilities of a governing board. Undertake a yearly self-evaluation of the board to ensure it is operating effectively.
2. Once a year, conduct a key exercise: pretend the founder suddenly left the organization. Who will/can quickly step in? Are you sure? What activities are the staff really doing to carry out programs? In the case of non-profits, what grants does the organization have to perform against and report on when? What is the cash flow situation? What stakeholders must be contacted? Where are the files/records?
3. Strategic planning is one of the best ways to engage the board and take stock of the organization. Conduct regular and realistic strategic planning with the board and staff. Focus on the top three or four issues facing the organization or team. Although most organizations scope plans to the coming three years, focus careful planning on the next 12 months. Establish clear goals, strategies, objectives, and timelines.
4. Develop a highly participatory finance committee. Too often, boards can be reluctant to face the founder by getting involved in finances. However, troubles with a director’s performance are often revealed in financial problems. If a director struggles or leaves, finances are usually the first to become major problems. Therefore, closely review regular cash flow, income and balance statements.
5. Don’t be part of the problem! Don’t take on the traits of the crisis-driven founder and staff, or worse yet, just ignore the issue. Meet consistently and make decisions based on mission, planning, and affordability, not on urgency. Avoid the notion of any quick fixes, such as hiring a deputy director with “people skills.” This doesn’t address the problem and may make things even worse.
6. Help board members and staff to keep up their hopes through regular communication. Remind each other that the recurring problems are the result of the organization’s success and that current changes are to best serve the needs of its customers. Note that staff members’ morale will improve as they perceive stability, security, and progress.
7. Support the founder with ongoing encouragement and affirmation. The founder will change to the extent that he or she feels safe, understands the reasons for change, and accepts help along the way.
8. Carefully and consistently monitor implementation plans and deviations from those plans. Don’t hold the founder to always doing what’s in the plan or budget, but do hold him or her to always explaining deviations and how they can be afforded.
9. Implement regular performance plans and review for the founder. Include his or her input. Evaluate the founder according to meeting strategic objectives and to his or her job description.
10. Consider policies to carefully solicit feedback from staff to board. Establish a grievance procedure where staff can approach board about concerns if they can prove they have tried to work with the founder or director to resolve these issues.

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What can staff do?

Founder’s syndrome can be quite stressful for staff. They can lose motivation amidst the continued confusion and anxiety in the workplace. If they’ve been in the organization long enough, they, too, can become part of the problem.

Staff can also play a major role in helping the organization to recover from founder’s syndrome. However, staff may be in somewhat of a high-risk situation because the founder (who often values loyalty at least as much as effectiveness) may perceive staff actions as hurting the organization or team, rather than helping it.

1. If you are trying to help the founder, organization or team to recover or improve, use the organization’s structure. That is, communicate your concerns (and better yet suggestions) with colleagues, whether that is the founder or not. Give them a chance to address your concerns. Promptly go to the board only if symptoms of the problem result in discrimination or harassment of you.
2. Don’t personalize your descriptions of concerns by blaming them on someone. Always accept your own responsibility in the health of the organization or team. If you communicate concerns, be respectful and tactful.
3. Monitor whether the organization or team is recovering or not. Has the organization made substantial changes and the symptoms have decreased? Or, do you see the same symptoms over and over again? Have you given enough time to address concerns?

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What can everyone do?

Eventually, most founders realize they must change the way they operate. Many go on to develop their leadership skills. To do this, they realize that change will come from within themselves, and they need all the support they can get.

If you find yourself in a situation characterized by founder’s syndrome, here’s some advice to ensure you get the support you need:

• Understand that the problems are not all your fault—you’re doing the best you can.
• Be willing to ask for and accept help.
• Communicate often and honestly. (Be prepared that this is sometimes difficult for crisis-driven, “heroic” leaders.)
• Engage in stress management.
• Be patient with yourself, your leader, your board, and staff.
• Regularly take time to reflect and learn, particularly about your value in service to others.

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This two-part post is from a Firelight Newsflash that was originally shared with grassroots organizations working with children, families, and communities in southern and east Africa.  It was adapted from managementhelp.org.