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Founder's Syndrome

Started by Paracelsus, March 06, 2008, 07:56:54 AM

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Paracelsus

Yesterday I've read an interesting article on the called "Founder's Syndrome" and I thought that the same logic applies many times to Forum Communities... who among Administrators have never gone through at least a bit of this syndrome? ;)


I will transcript just a part of it, but it is a well-deserved reading I recommend it to every forum admin when starting and building 'their' community:

Quote from: http://www.managementhelp.org/misc/founders.htmFounders' Syndrome: During Tenure of Founder



A Typical Problem Among Small Organizations
· To continue to meet the needs of their customers, organizations must evolve through a particular life-cycle change.
· This change is from typically entrepreneurial, seat-of-the-pants growth to well-planned and managed development.
· However, this development cannot occur without first establishing a stable administrative infrastructure.
· Developing this infrastructure often requires a change in the nature of the founder's leadership from that of a highly reactive, individualistic style to a more proactive, consensus-oriented style.
· Many founders cannot make this transition. As a result, the organization remains managed, not in a manner that provides reliable services to customers, but according to the personality of the founder.
· Often, the organization experiences the same problems over and over again. For example, plans are not implemented. Money keeps running out. Board and staff members quickly come and go. The organization struggles from one crisis to another. No one really seems to know what's going on. People become afraid of the founder.
· Founders Syndrome is no one's fault -- no founder sets out to damage their organization. Besides, the syndrome rarely takes hold without numerous members of the Board and staff exhibiting symptoms of the syndrome.
· Eventually, stakeholders confront the founder about the organization's recurring problems (if the organization is a nonprofit, funders often will confront the chief executive or board). Often, the founder becomes increasingly anxious and defensive, and soon resorts to blaming Board members and staff (nonprofits also blame funders). Without ongoing coaching and support, it's likely that the founder will be replaced, or even worse, the organization will fold.
· There are actions that founders and Board members can take to avoid these tragic outcomes. Start simple, but start.

Some Troublesome Traits Among Founders
Founders are dynamic, driven, and decisive. They carry clear vision of what their organization can be. They know their customer's needs and are passionate about meeting those needs. Often these traits are strong assets for getting the new organization off the ground. However, other traits of founders too often become major liabilities. For example, founders often:
· Are highly skeptical about planning, policies, and procedures. They claim "they're overhead and just bog me down". They often believe they've found a new way to get things done.
· Make reactive, crisis-driven decisions with little input from others. React to most problems with the lament "if only I had more money."
· In the case of nonprofits, executive directors attend mostly to fundraising and generating new ideas for services.
· Hand-pick their Board members and staff. See these people as working for the founder as much as working for the organization's mission.
· Attract Board members through founder's dynamic, often charismatic personality -- not through focus on organization's mission.
· Count on whomever seems most loyal and accessible, and motivate by fear and guilt, often without realizing it.
· Hold occasional staff meetings to report crises and rally the troops.
· In the case of nonprofits, executive directors usually see their Boards mostly as a source for fundraising, and work to remove Board members who disagrees with founder.
· Have a very difficult time letting go of the strategies that worked to quickly grow the organization, despite evidence that the organization can no longer absorb this rapid growth without major changes.
· Ultimately, Founders Syndrome sets in because the organization becomes dependent, not on the systems and structures of the organization, but on the unique style of the leader -- whether the leader is consistently decisive or consistently indecisive.

(...)

Actions Founders Must Take
· The major actions below are intended to help the organization become more stable and proactive. Each organization follows the practices according to its own needs and nature. They are not developed overnight and are never done perfectly. Start simple, but start!
1. Accept a mentor outside the organization and an advocate within. Founder's syndrome comes from doing what's natural for you. Changing your leadership approach may be rather unnatural. Seek and accept help.
2. Ensure a customer-driven organization. Always focus on customers. Regularly ask customers what they need and how the organization can meet their needs. Establish straightforward and realistic means to evaluate services. Start with basic questionnaires to gather customers' impressions. Interview some customers to get their "story".
3. Set direction through planning. Support the Board to carry out strategic planning. Ensure staff input as well. Conduct regular staff meetings to hear staff input. Cultivate strong finance (and in the case of nonprofits, fundraising committees), and help them to fully understand the organization's finances and fundraising plans.
4. Organize resources to meet goals. Develop job descriptions with staff input to ensure mutual understanding of responsibilities. Develop staff-driven procedures for routine, but critical tasks.
5. Motivate leadership and staff to meet goals. Delegate to staff members by helping them understand the purpose of tasks. Get their input as to how the tasks can be completed. Give them the authority to complete the tasks. In regular staff meetings, celebrate successes! Bring in customers to tell staff how the organization helped meet their needs. Conduct regular performance reviews with staff to ensure organizational and staff needs are being met. In regular staff meetings, share status information and conduct day-to-day planning.
6. Guide resources to meet goals. Share management challenges with the Board and ask for policies to guide management. Work from the strategic plan and develop an associated budget to earmark funds.
7. Think transition! Help the Board to regularly undertake contingency planning, including thinking about what the organization will do if/when you're gone. Have the Board pretend that, for some unknown reason, you were suddenly gone. What would they do? How?

lordtron

Thanks for posting that. It was a good read and good advice for any type of company to use.

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