Overcoming Founder’s Syndrome

It’s the thing that hijacks your company’s ability to scale.  It sends your valuable employees looking for greener pastures.  It’s the single-largest reason your business isn’t transferrable or will sell for much less than you’d hoped for…
It’s called Founder’s Syndrome, and it’s a significant contributor to the challenges faced by both large and small companies. If your company deals with any of the following (Insert CEO if you are an executive), read on. This is curable!
Too Much Control: The founder holds onto too much decision-making authority, creating a bottleneck for the company’s growth.
  • Resistance to Change: The founder may resist new ideas, approaches, or a shift in the organization’s strategic direction, limiting innovation.
  • Emotional Attachment: Deep emotional ties to the business make it difficult for the founder to let go or make objective, logic-driven decisions.
  • Stuck or Lackluster Growth: The company’s culture, productivity, and sustainability suffer because the founder is too intertwined with every critical function.
How to Overcome Founder’s Syndrome
Delegate and Empower: This is easy to say, but much more difficult if you’ve been in charge of the major decision-making for a long time.
  1. Start Small: Begin by delegating non-critical tasks or projects to team members to build trust and test their capabilities.
  2. Shift from Control to Collaboration: Empower your team by giving them the authority and input to complete tasks. This will foster accountability, ownership, and confidence in you and them. Plan for Succession:
    • Identify Potential Leaders: Recognize and develop employees who are ready to step into more senior positions. Employees leave companies for two reasons: (1) they are reporting to bad managers, and (2) they don’t see a future with you. Succession plans let them see their career roadmap.
    • Create Contingency Plans: Proactively document succession plans and strategies to ensure the business can continue to thrive when the founder steps back.
    • Establish Formal Processes:
      • Implement Checks and Balances: Put formal systems and processes in place to guide decision-making and ensure checks and balances are present.
      • Document and Standardize: Develop standardized procedures for routine tasks and ensure clear job descriptions are in place.
  2. Shift Your Mindset:
    • Transition to a Strategic Role: Move from a hands-on, tactical role to a broader strategic leadership position focused on the organization’s future.
    • Be Radically Honest: Acknowledge that you are probably the bottleneck and commit to letting go of control for the benefit of the business.
  3. Focus on Professional Development:
    • Invest in Your Team: Support the professional development and growth of your employees, recognizing that they are key to the company’s ability to scale and transfer.
    • Invest in Yourself: What do you need to learn so that you can begin to step back and make your business transferable?  Join Coach Amy on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 10 am CST via Zoom to learn what you need to do to have a business that can scale or transition to the next set of leaders.  These sessions are free and require you to grab your spot!  https://www.makemoreworklesswi.com/summer-breakthrough-seriesed0efb9f
Best regards,
Susan
Susan Thomson
CEO, Licensed Coach
ActionCOACH Business & Executive Coaching
Proud Member of TEMPO Madison
Direct: 608-441-5374
Cell: 847-687-4519
MakeMoreWorkLessWI.com
 
P.S. Want to simplify your business and make it less dependent on you having to be there all the time?  Get it “sell ready?”  Develop leaders on your team?  Whenever you’re ready, here are 2 easy ways to get there fast:
  1. Schedule a complimentary 20 minute strategy call. We’ll ask you a few questions about your business and where you want to take it long term.  You’ll get clarity on your next step.
  2. Work with our team privately: If you’d like to work with our team to take you from 7 to 10 figures… just reply to this message and put PRIVATE in the subject line.  Tell us a little about your business and what you’d like to talk through, and we’ll start there.