Leadership Guide - Special Founders Issue

by Tom Adams, Co-Founding President of TransitionGuides

My wife and I moved recently from a home we thoroughly enjoyed for seven years to a home we hoped would serve us well for many years to come. As settlement and moving day got closer, we realized once again we had under-estimated the time and energy required for packing and planning for the move. As we experienced the move, however, the physical challenge of packing and moving was compounded by the onset of a series of confusing and at times conflicting emotions. Sadness arrived first as we realized we were leaving behind many memories and a place that had served our family well. Doubt arrived next as we wondered if we had made a mistake.

Did we really want all the steps in the new home?
Was that a smart decision?
Why had we decided to move anyway?

Since moving is up there in the top three or four of life's big stresses, you won't be surprised that frustration and anger came next as we looked around for a target for our frustration and found each other. Finally as we got a little settled in our new home and were enjoying the view and other features that attracted us, joy and excitement returned.

Succession and Transition for Founders and Long-Term Executives. My experience reconnected me with the depth of emotions that founders and long-term executives face as they prepare for succession and transition from a position they've loved and thrived in for many years. Like any change, it is not just the founder who experiences the strong feelings. The whole organization (board, staff and stakeholders) have their own emotional experiences of this loss of their leader and colleague.

Too often we look for a scapegoat or someone to blame when we face challenges. The term "founder syndrome" places the burden of leadership transition squarely on the back of the founder or long-term executive. It is not a helpful or useful term, for it colludes with denial about the shared responsibility all leaders of an organization have to navigate together the practical and emotional content of planning for succession and effectively executing a transition.

My experience in working with hundreds of founders and long-term executives planning for and managing executive transition affirms a number of observations. Founders and long-term executives:

Make amazing contributions to our communities and society. What they co-create with their boards and staff is astounding. Our world would be less caring and connected without their efforts.
Transitions are misunderstood. There is a tendency to use statistics to accept the organization will struggle and get weaker for a while no matter what. This is not necessarily true.

There are a lot of reasons and emotions we would all like to avoid, which argue for delay in paying attention to succession and/or denial about inevitable transitions. This trend, when combined with a too cozy relationship between board and executive, results in declining organizational performance and reinforces the belief in the inevitable trauma of founder transitions. Attention to both proven practices in succession planning and transition management, and to the emotional content of transition for the founder and those close to the founder, significantly increases the odds of a successful transition.

Deal or die may seem harsh. Unfortunately, executives who ignore their feelings during transition have difficulties letting go and figuring out what is next. As Kubler Ross explains in her stages of dying, if we ignore the emotions of letting go, they continue to hang on as unfinished business. Similarly, board leaders who, like me during my move, under-estimate what it will take to successfully transition and view search as the single answer put their organization at risk.

Founders and long-term executives are invited to consider attending our upcoming Founder and Long-Term Executive two-day Next Steps workshop on September 13-14, 2010 in Washington DC. For more information go to Next Steps.