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?

“If they answer, ‘king,’ I have learned to not invest in them,” a venture capitalist told me.

By that he meant that founders worth investing in understand and are committed to starting, building and exiting a business with money in their pocket for their next business and are less likely to mess up their company’s success than someone who views and runs their company as a kingdom.

We went on to discuss another entrepreneur he has learned to stay away from, i.e. the “one trick pony” and the Founder Flounder that happens to them. Sound like anyone you know?

1. Had a terrific idea with which they achieved initial success, but haven’t been able to get beyond that or duplicate it.
2. Act out their underlying anxiety at being possibly a “one trick pony” in visionary’s clothing by being frenetic, unfocused and embellishing the heck out of their success to try to attract more business and investors.
3. Keep changing their mind on what the company should focus on so that their people never know what to do from week to week.
4. Take out their anxieties and fear of failing or being discovered as a first act with no second act to follow by continually agitating, spinning and “throwing their people under the bus.”
5. Inwardly do not mean to hurt or upset anyone and do not take delight in doing so, but whose fear of failure is ever present and drives them to act poorly.
6. Instead of setting highly talented people in their organization up to succeed, set them up to fail.
7. Often look for outside saviors/rescuers instead of utilizing the untapped skills and talents of their now dispirited people.
8. Because they can’t stand conflict, delay getting rid of people who aren’t and will never be a good fit for the company.
9. Hire outside consultants and advisors, but rarely follow their advice.
10. Maintaining positive cash flow nearly always keeps them in crisis mode.

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]]> http://markgoulston.com/usable-insight-founder-flounder-coming-soon-to-a-start-up-near-you/feed/ 156 http://markgoulston.com/usable-insight-preventing-founder-flounder/ http://markgoulston.com/usable-insight-preventing-founder-flounder/#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:24:05 +0000 Mark http://markgoulston.com/?p=1835 Great potential — and a company — is a terrible thing to waste

Know any founders who:

1. Had a terrific idea with which they achieved initial success, but haven’t been able to get beyond that or duplicate it?
2. Act out their underlying anxiety at being possibly a “one trick pony” in visionary’s clothing by being frenetic, unfocused, “name dropping” and embellishing the heck out of their success to try to attract more business and investors?
3. Keep changing their mind on what the company should focus on so that their people never know what to do from week to week?
4. Take out their anxieties and fear of failing or being discovered as a first act with no second act to follow by continually agitating, spinning and “throwing their people under the bus?”
5. Instead of setting highly talented people in their organization up to succeed, set them up to fail?
6. Often look for outside saviors/rescuers instead of utilizing the untapped skills and talents of their now dispirited people?
7. Have become lousy listeners?
8. Inwardly do not mean to hurt or upset anyone and do not take delight in doing so, but whose fear of failure is ever present and drives them to act poorly?

If so, what can such a founder do? And what if that founder is you?

1. First, don’t feel panicked or ashamed if you don’t have a new great idea.
2. Sit down with your great inside people (and stop looking to and paying outsiders that you are impressed with to rescue you).
3. With your top people, identify the key stakeholders who buy your products and services, who have invested in your company AND all the people in your company that do the work to build, service, market and sell your products and services.
4. Put yourselves in all your stakeholder’s shoes and articulate from their point of view what would dramatically exceed their expectations with regard to the quality/price/value of your products and services (for your customers and clients); generate a great ROI either near term or longer term with an explanation of the latter (for your investors); be the best work experience of their careers (for your employees).
5. Generate a vision (i.e. way beyond a mere extension of what you’re already doing) of something extraordinary and disruptive and then a doable strategy with the actions for fulfilling it that will enthuse, exceed the expectations and spontaneously enroll all your stakeholders.
6. If you have trouble staying focused on a single task and following through on it; if you keep jumping around from one interesting thing to the next; if you keep interrupting people rather than hearing them out and if instead of being deliberate in your communication and actions you’re all over the place, you might want to consider being evaluated for ADHD by your doctor or a psychiatrist. You needn’t be ashamed if this sounds like you, because you’ll be in the company of many other successful people, who became even more successful once they had this checked out and treated if it was present.
7. If all else fails, get a CEO or COO to manage you and the rest of your company before you manage to run the company into the ground.