Being a successful Founder doesn’t necessarily a successful CEO make.  If after going through multiple vetted, seasoned, executives who come and go, the only thng all of them had in common beside their not working out is the founder.  It is very difficult for many founders to realize this because they are usually incredibly smart and things are incredibly clear at the moment in their heads.  But smart and clear at the moment in their heads although great qualities also do not a CEO make.  Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, offered a great piece of advice when he said to do your job as if you’ll be doing it all your life.  Stay focused, become excellent at what you’re doing now, instead of continuing to jump to something that seems better for the moment.

Here are 10 signs that a Founder is not going to bring in a CEO to run the company while the Founder goes out to be its chief evangelist and strategic deal generator:

1. Poor Say/Do ratio: What they say about bringing in a CEO compared to what they do shows they’re not even close to taking action.
2. “Yes, but” every suggestion: They consistently point out why each possible candidate won’t work and insist the company doesn’t need one and that the problem lies with their team and not them.
3. Don’t initiate discussions about bringing in a CEO: Those who resist bringing in a CEO rarely initiate a discussion about stepping down, much less provide action steps with a time line.
4. People are afraid to bring up bringing in a CEO to them: These Founders are often domineering by nature, which intimidates key executives.  Why in the world would people risk annoying them?
5. Work is their life: They don’t have any hobbies or anything that produces the same adrenaline rush as the power they wield at work.  One Founder told me, “When you go from a somebody (a CEO who is in the game) to an anybody (just another Founder/Evangelist) it’s the same as being nobody. There is no middle ground between being in control or out of control and you know which one I’m sticking with.”
6. Work is their family: They are usually not capable of giving their undivided attention to their children and certainly not their spouse.  Work is their priority.
7. Won’t listen at work: They won’t listen to anyone who brings up need for a change at the top.  They throw the focus back onto the bottom line and challenge people about that and then often change topics and focus frequently.
8. Overcompensated: They are frequently overcompensated for the value they bring to the company.  These Founders often have a fear of losing their perks and their prestige if the company is turned over to others and if their compensation becomes open to scrutiny.
9. Increasingly more irritable: The more they realize that perhaps they aren’t entitled to what they’re paid, the more irritable they become.
10. They have fearful aggression: The more fearful Founders are that their real value will be exposed, the more aggressive they become in order to protect themselves.

Such a person, especially if they are a domineering figure, can put their company at risk in a couple of ways.

First, promising employees will be tempted to go elsewhere.  If that happens, the company will be left with the less than stellar performers.

Second, if the Founder has done a great job of making people believe that the company needs them, others will lose confidence in themselves and in that state of mind be more vulnerable to being “beaten up” by the founder. So what should promising employees, who could be the future of the company, do?

They should confront the Founder with the following:

1. “How committed are you to bringing in an executive team that could make this company a success?”
2. “Please offer a plan of action that takes action on finding a CEO and that assigns role and responsibilities to people already here and a timeline.”
3. “If you are truly committed to finding a CEO, do I have your permission to seek out resources within and outside the firm to find such a person?”

If you are a Founder, what can you to do to make letting go of control more tolerable?

There are some great organizations including YPO, WPO, Vistage, Chief Executives Guild and Renaissance Executive Forums that can provide you with a group of peers who will be committed to you, have your backs and be candid with you.

Also check out: Can Your Company Succeed Once the Founder Leaves?

(and if you can’t stay on, you never get to the last two)

Being cast as a visionary is a drug and when it turns out you are mainly an opportunist or worse, a one trick pony, the paranoia about being exposed can make you murderous to your people (who are not to blame) and suspect to second or third round investors when they discover they’ve been had and you really don’t have the right stuff.

1. Reality Distortion Field* – Steve Jobs got away convincing himself and others of something that wasn’t true in the present later in his life because he delivered the products that backed him up.  By the way, it wasn’t that way before the ipod and itunes.
2. “Next great idea!” addiction – Will switch directions every month or more frequently when the “next great idea” doesn’t deliver, produce or sustain “Wow!” in customers or trust and confidence and more money from investors.
3. Delegate Poorly – They are much clearer in their heads than what they truly communicate and treat their people as stupid or lazy when in fact they have not been clear in their communication and people are afraid to push back.
4. Intimidate their people – They can’t and won’t take “No” for an answer which is usually caused by a “kick the dog” reaction when the investors they want respect and more importantly money from, begin to question their being a good investment or even credible.
5. Unmanageable and Incorrigible – After being told that their company needs professional management or a CEO so the founder can be the company’s chief evangelist and rainmaker, a series of people are brought in who can’t manage the unruly and erratic behavior by the founder.
6. “Your agenda is showing” – Often founders start a company out of love for its mission and what it could be and then get seduced by all the toys that money can buy and then need to sustain it akin to the “Goldman’s Handcuffs.” As a result their creating a product or service that is driven 80%+ by delighting and serving the customer or client becomes corrupted into ROI on everything.  True investors may be the driving force to get something back quickly for their shareholder, but the Founder doesn’t have to buy into that hook, line and sinker.
7. “Would rather be King than Rich” – There are good and bad to each of these.  It’s good to be King if you’re Steve Jobs and have your finger on your customer’s future in terms of what will delight them out of their lives of quiet desperation, be dependable compared to mediocre quality products, be something they can wax poetically and enthusiastically to others about instead of waning and complaining about something that sucks. It’s bad to be a King who is on purely an ego and power trip rather than a quality or any other trip that focuses on anyone else.  It’s also good to want to be rich by both maximizing the value and ROI of how you run your company instead of it seeming like the Keystone Cops without the fun.  It’s bad to be so focused on ROI that quality doesn’t even come second, it comes as doing the least costly thing that won’t tick off your customer or client so much that they leave.

* BTW, as Founder, you don’t have to be a “serial” visionary.  IDEO is an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow. They know that it’s not what you as the visionary see that’s important as going out and plumbing all that is already out there and then drilling down to distill what could be that would delight, satisfy and cause all your customers and clients to tell everyone they know after you build it. To read one of the best books on how to send out your best, brightest and most curious “first class noticers” (to quote Saul Bellow) to find the visions already in life and that are there for the asking, check out: The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley.

So what do you do when logic, reason and overcoming objections may convince others, but they still don’t respond the way you’d like and logic, reason and overcoming objections are most of what you know?

Now more than ever, people seem resistant to being persuaded, convinced or pushed.  You may receive a “Let me think about it more” or “Can you give me a link or resource?” but don’t bet on their changing anytime soon.  What’s happening is that you’re dying for the sins of previous leaders who persuaded, convinced or pushed people and it ended poorly.

This Usable Insight is more of an ask than a tell.  Thanks to the support of so many people, my current book, “Just Listen” Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone has enjoyed great feedback, reviews and success.  It reached #1 at amazon in four categories, #1 in China and Germany and remained in the #1 or #2 spot at getabstract, the world’s largest library of business book summaries, for nearly two months. NPR host and uber career advice giver, Marty Nemko, went on to say that it could be this generation’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Several people have gone so far as to say that it captured the essence of listening and made it implementable by everyday people.

Now here’s the rub.  Many of those people have said to me, “Just Listen helped them get through to others and have others open up, but what’s the next step? In business, much of your success focuses on getting people to respond in the way you’d like, helping both your company and themselves to be more successful.”  In these times when people are so weary and wary of being pushed, even the wonderful work — that you should read — of Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice and Kerry Patterson et al in Influencer:The Power to Change Anything are meeting challenges in getting people to do what you like.  People not only have their heels dug in; they seem to have taken root in the ground resisting nearly every effort to get them to change, even when it’s clearly in their own interest.

For a follow up book and program to “Just Listen,” my partner and co-author, Dr. John Ullmen and I have embarked on discovering the essence of influence and we’re doing so with and open mind and we’re “just listening.”  We’re following the wise and instructive words of famed psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion by “listening without memory or desire” (i.e. without any old or new agenda) to collect stories and insights from leaders’ own experience about what effective influence is and what it isn’t, what facilitates it and obstructs it.  Thus far the wise words of leadership guru, Warren Bennis, appear all too prescient when he said “Listen deeply to people, get where they are coming from and care about them when you’re there, and they’re more likely to let you take them where you’d like them to go.”

To that end, John and I would appreciate it if you would favor us with 15-20 minutes of your time to learn from you what you have learned about persuading and influencing your people, shareholders, customers and clients in these highly resistent times.  As an expression of our appreciation, we will share with you in an exclusive white paper the best practices (including your own) we discover, before the book comes out.  As an additional perk, several of the people we have already spoken to have thanked us after our conversation, because it helped them become clearer and more conscious of the process of influence they already use so that they could do it more effectively and consistently.

Please contact either John Ullmen at: john@ullmen.com or me at: mgoulston@markgoulston.com so we can set up a time to speak.

Don’t ask a “reverse cognitive bias” thinker to come up with “goals.”

Not too long ago I spoke to Frank, the CEO of a $2 billion health products company, “How often do you use the word ‘goals’ in your management meetings?”

He answered with a revealing chuckle, “Always.”

I replied, “I take it from that chuckle that the room doesn’t exactly jump all over it with ‘when do we get started’ enthusiasm.”

“No.  I don’t think any of them have that kind of enthusiasm.  There are even several who have a ‘deer in the headlights’ look when I bring up the topic of goals,” he replied.

I explained: “Frank. You use the word ‘goals’ naturally, because as a successful CEO, your mind has a ‘forward cognitive bias’ that enables you to keep your eye on the horizon and articulate a compelling vision and then translate it into a strategy to get there. Most people in a company, who will never make it to CEO, have a ‘reverse cognitive bias’ in their thinking.  That means that their minds are more comfortable reacting to something after someone else like you has laid it out. It also means that the word ‘goals’ doesn’t compute in these non-forward bias, reactive individuals.”

“That’s very true,” Frank interjected, “in fact I can tell those people with leadership potential by their ability to look forward. And I must admit, we’re challenged right now in having any such individuals.  As you say, nearly all of them listen and then react to what I come up with.  What do I do about that?”

“First, realize that you have a serious succession challenge if you have few if any who can look forward and you will need to address that,” I answered and then continued, “but second, you will probably gather more enthusiastic participation and possibly even innovation if you frame the way you begin a meeting to match their ‘reverse cognitive bias’ minds instead of expecting them to be naturally forward thinkers.

To do that, ask your managers at the beginning of the next meeting: ‘a) Imagine that our meeting to discuss x agenda is over and you’re returning to your desks, your emails and your other work; b) Then imagine your saying to yourself, ‘That was a very productive meeting.  I now clearly understand what our strategic imperatives are and why they’re so important.  Furthermore I have a clear idea of what my department and specifically I need to do to make that happen and I am really pumped up to do those things; c) Can you all imagine having that reaction when you leave this meeting in 90 minutes? (hopefully they will nod in agreement); d) If so, then tell me what happens during this meeting to cause that reaction to happen.’”

“Then use their responses to guide how you lead that meeting,” I concluded.

When you cause your people to imagine that positive end result and then ask them to react to it by detailing what would need to occur to make it happen, you not only tailor your directive communication to their “reverse cognitive bias” mind, you set the stage for them to participate more fully in the meeting.

And as we all know, the more you get a team to participate in defining a desired outcome and strategy, the more inclined they are to participate in its execution.

* The above is adapted from a brief TED-like talk I gave at Big Task Weekend on September 30, 2010.  The essence of  my comments are that to persuade people in these “resistant to being sold times” it’s not enough to “get where people are coming from,” you need to “get into their listening.”  By that I mean not just what they listen to, but also how they listen.

If the above speaks to you, my partner, Dr. John Ullmen from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and I have developed the Persuade Without Pushing program to teach you and your people how to sell your ideas, products and services in a post-selling world.  To find out more about our 2 – 4 hour presentation that will give you a taste as well as many immediately implementable takeaways contact either me at: mgoulston@markgoulston.com or Dr. Ullmen at: john@ullmen.com.
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1. Say/Do ratio stinks – When it comes to what they say about “succession” compared to what they do, they’re not even close to taking action.
2. “Yes but” any and every plan that is suggested to them – They consistently point out why any particular succession plan won’t work, instead of looking for how to make it work.
3. Don’t initiate discussions about succession – Those who resist succession rarely if ever initiate a discussion about succession much less do strategic planning, provide action steps with a time line and assigning role responsibilities to people who will carry it out
4. People are afraid to bring up succession to them – Often a domineering, if not bullying figure, people are already intimidated by them, so why in the world would they take the chance of annoying them?
5. Work is their life – They don’t have any hobbies or anything that produces the same adrenaline rush as the power they wield at work.  As one such CEO told me, “When you go from being somebody to being anybody, it’s the same as being nobody.”  Even though they might write checks, they are not passionately involved in non-profits or charities.
6. Work is their family – They are usually not capable of giving their undivided attention to their children or spouse often causing their family to retaliate for it with drugs and conspicuous consumption, a la home(s) decorating and/or their spouse becoming overly involved with and living through their children.  If they are fortunate, their family has subbed in with hobbies, teachers, coaches and/or parents of friends.
7. Won’t listen at work – They appear exclusively focused on the bottom line and their mantra is don’t bring me a problem unless you bring me a solution.
8. Overcompensated – They are frequently overcompensated for the real value they bring their company (which has long passed since they started the company or built it through its “go go” days, but no one dare says that “the emperor has less value.”  The CEO also often has a fear of losing this plus perks and prestige if they turn over the company to others.
9. Increasingly more irritable – They are not stupid and the more they consciously realize or unconsciously feel they don’t truly deserve what they’re paid (i.e. they certainly wouldn’t pay someone else the same if that other person gave the same value as they are currently giving) the more irritable they are.
10. They have fearful aggression – When high strung show dogs are afraid they growl (remember the movie, “Best in Show?”).  This is a more intense level than 9 above.  The more they are afraid that their real value (which is less than they what they are compensated) will be exposed and that they will be called on the carpet to prove it, the more aggressive they become in hopes that keeping people on defensive will keep them off the scent.

1. “How committed are you to succession?”
2. “Please offer me evidence of your commitment to succession as in strategic planning, action steps with a timeline and assigning role responsibilities to people who will carry it out?”
3. “If you are truly committed to succession, do I have your permission to seek out resources within and outside the firm to make that succession a success and to present them to you?” Then go and find those resources.