Why Does Founder’s Syndrome Occur?:

• Most entrepreneurs are technically adept individuals with great ideas and great vision. They typically have not had the time (nor the inclination) to hone the skills necessary to lead and manage people.
• It is difficult for most entrepreneurs to believe that the quality of their idea alone does not guarantee sustainable business results (i.e., success requires the integration of a good idea, a good product, and developed leadership skills).
• There is a fear in the minds of entrepreneurs that if they don’t keep their hands in every aspect of the business, something will go wrong. It’s very difficult to let go of control.
• Most entrepreneurs will say that they look forward to the day when they don’t have to do everything anymore. In reality, though, rather than delegating tasks to newly hired staff, they end up micromanaging and alienating capable, talented employees.
• Most entrepreneurs are unaware of how important good leadership and great managers are to the success and growth of a business, because in the start-up phase, this is rarely the focus. An assumption takes hold that causes many businesses to fail: “We got this far without paying attention to human resources issues, so why should we start worrying about it now?”

The Hard Numbers on the Soft Stuff:

The costs of Founder’s Syndrome are many:

• Unwanted turnover of both new and old employees.
• Cost of recruiting replacements.
• Loss of knowledge capital (often to your competitor).
• Production down-time while recruiting new hires.
• Training costs for new employees.
• Lowered morale.
• Disruption of relationships with customers and suppliers.
• Lowered productivity when an owner micromanages.
• Too little attention paid to growing the business because the founder is too busy participating in all aspects of the day to day operations.

A study by the research firm, Walker Information, Inc., shows that replacement costs for a knowledge worker who leaves the company are typically 100-150% of that professional’s salary. Other sources estimate that those costs are as high as three times the professional’s salary (Wall Street Journal 10/24/00).

Can your company really afford these costs?

What is the Profile of a Successful Executive?

We now actually understand a great deal about what differentiates the successful leader from the under-performing one. Successful leaders are aggressive learners. They are individuals who:

• Constantly seek feedback and are extremely analytical about their successes and failures.
• Possess a finely tuned capacity for self-reflection and self-awareness.
• Seek a wide variety of experiences, out of both a sense of curiosity and the sense that experience is the best medium for self-discovery.
• Constantly strive to learn something new and different by searching for comparisons, contrasts, and insights.
• Find ways to apply new learning to new situations.
• Use strengths to modify weaknesses.

The bad news is that only about 10% of us are by nature active learners. The good news is that much of what it takes to be an aggressive learner is coachable.

So, What Does It Take?

Much of what our executive coaching model focuses on is building a set of skills that helps the candidate become a more agile learner. We focus on four different areas, each having a marked influence on a person’s learning curve and performance as a leader.

1. Mental Agility. The candidate discovers ways to more consistently:
• embrace complexity.
• confront ambiguity.
• expand their interests and perspectives.
• pursue complexity out of heightened curiosity.
• view penetrating questions as more important than answers.
2. Interpersonal Finesse. The candidate develops more techniques with which to:
• self-reflect and augment self-awareness.
• catch their own counter-productive behavior and modify it.
• vary their role and style to the situation.
• embrace conflict and harness it for creative ends.
3. Change Mastery. The candidate’s executive repertoire is broadened when s/he:
• learns how to behave as strategically as possible.
• employs hypothetical modeling in her/his thinking and problem-solving.
• embrace the underlying spirit of continuous improvement.
• come to understand how critical tenacity is in any change initiative. I
4. Goal Orientation. The candidate hones a high-impact results orientation by adding or refining the following capabilities:
   • inspire others by consistently acting “on purpose” (i.e., acting strategically).
   • address his/her own performance and others’ in a systematic, developmental, and strategic way.
   • differentiate among the various levels of priorities and act accordingly (i.e., the two-by-two matrix of Urgent x Important).
   • deliver on promises and expectations.

Final Thoughts:

Every business requires a good leader in order to be successful. Entrepreneurs typically possess the skills necessary to start a business – not those necessary to grow and sustain it. Entrepreneurs can avoid the pitfalls of Founder’s Syndrome by:

• recognizing their blind spots.
• accentuating their strengths.
• recognizing the strengths of their employees.
• adding new skills, behaviors and attitudes to their repertoire.

This requires self-reflection, self-awareness, and the ability to hear feedback about one’s strengths and skill gaps. Finger Consulting helps start-ups and fast growing companies to become more competitive and profitable by coaching the founder and senior executives on how to successfully make the transition from business creators, to business leaders.

Read more on this topic in our article titled: Is Your Business Suffering From Founder’s Syndrome?