Unpicking yourself from your business: managing founder syndrome and creating a legacy that outlives you
In this interview with Connie Henry, founder of charity Track Academy, we explore the signs it’s time to start ‘unpicking’ yourself from your business. Connie discusses the four stages of unpicking her role in the team, her relationship with the Board of Trustees and key stakeholders, redefining her role and establishing a strategy to guide the business into the future.
Track Academy is a Brent-based charity supporting young people to find direction and purpose for their future, through athletics, education, and mentoring.
After thirteen years, Connie recognised that her charity was at risk of Founder Syndrome if she remained the beating heart of the organisation and that to thrive, it now needed a sustainable mode of operation.
Connie’s journey of strategically unpicking herself from the organisation, provides a roadmap for other founders of ‘for purpose’ businesses facing similar challenges.
Founder Syndrome
A Founder maintains disproportionate power and influence once the company is established. Their passion and charisma, originally a source of productivity and creativity, become limiting factors so that their business cannot function without them, hindering its ability to grow and fulfil its potential.
How a project became a business
Track Academy’s mission came about by accident. Initially, Connie had no grand plan and no expectation of turning it into anything ‘remotely well organised’. As a former international athlete, she simply wanted to create a space in Brent for young people to train in athletics.
It was only when student athletes presented with complex social and educational issues, that Track Academy’s charitable purpose evolved, dictating a movement into schools, into homes and into mentoring.
Connie quickly built up a team and Board around her to meet the young Athletes’ needs. As the Founder, she became a strong and powerful presence as the organisation’s sole ‘solution finder’ responding to funding deficits, staffing issues and day-to-day operational challenges that arose over the first few years. Connie says,
“Track Academy started organically. Every inch of its growth was reactionary to needs presented. I was at the forefront of reacting to every need and solving every problem.”
Strategic unpicking: a process of culture change
As Track Academy grew, Connie realised she couldn’t do it all. Functioning reactively over a long period was unsustainable, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
Connie’s personal circumstances changed, she married and had a baby. On one occasion when Connie had to prioritise a family crisis, she recognised the benefits of her suddenly being unavailable.
Allowing herself to step back gave Connie the space to create a vision for what Track Academy could be without her.
1. Unpicking herself from the team
The first step was to reset her relationship with her staff.
Connie first realised the impact of her being ever present when she couldn’t make the keynote speech at an annual event. A Board Member stepped in to make the speech and team members filled her role. Connie says,
‘We all realised that it wasn’t just me who could speak for the business and I saw my team step up to fill the space created by my absence.’
Connie recognised that to facilitate this change, she had to visibly remove herself from the business. Physical absence enabled the team to step in and take ownership in a way they had never done before, giving them development opportunities, they otherwise wouldn’t have had. Connie says,
‘I realised I was doing my organisation a disservice by turning up to it. Something about my presence, didn’t allow others to grow.’
Unpicking herself from operational decision making has given Connie the space to become a more powerful CEO, to focus her attention on high-level networking and developing corporate partnerships, something she’d never had the capacity to do.
2. Unpicking herself from the Board of Trustees
Connie’s next realisation was that to best serve Track Academy, she needed to empower her Board to replace her in the role of CEO, if that was best for the business.
An injection of fresh blood into the membership is an effective way of empowering a Board. Long-standing members are loyal, they’ve worked with the founder since the early stages. New Board members see the business as it is today, and what needs to happen for it to grow.
‘As a Founder, it’s your responsibility to remove your ego from the situation, give everyone within the organisation the tools and the power to function without you, and to accept that it might just happen.’
3. Accepting your business is separate from you
Acknowledging and accepting that your organisation might function without you will require time and energy to process. Connie says,
‘There needs to be a lot of support for the founder to trust in the Board and the strategy and remove their ego from the process. One of the ways you can do this is to get some executive coaching. It allows you to step back and grow and let your “baby” grow up.’
Founder coaching offers a safe and confidential space, away from staff and colleagues to process your experiences in the business and gain clarity of thought — easing the burden of accepting your business as a separate entity, a process of distinguishing between your needs and the needs of your business. Connie says,
‘Unpicking yourself from your business is a transition from people in the organisation supporting the Founder, to supporting the intention behind the organisation.’
4. Setting a course for unification
The final phase is to articulate the business’ purpose and embed it in the organisation’s culture. Once the ‘why’ is understood at all levels, the business is unified in a strategic purpose that can survive the founder.
‘My greatest desire is to stand in the same sports centre ten years from now, to see the staff supporting the student athletes, lives being changed, fulfilling the need I identified, and for no one to know who I am. What an incredible feeling and legacy to leave behind, to have no one know who you are.’
Reflection: knowing when to start unpicking yourself
Connie’s experience sums up the start-up process for most entrepreneurs. At the start, closeness to the customer is essential to building a valuable product or service, and exactly where the founder needs to be.
However, there comes a point, usually after significant growth, when this hands-on leadership approach becomes unsustainable. Reluctance to hand over control of functions results in a founder becoming so entangled in their business, it cannot function without them.
Common symptoms of founder syndrome include:
- Reluctance and refusal to delegate
- Micromanagement
- Frequent resignations of talented recruits
- Disengaged staff
- Mission drift and diversion of resource into pet projects
Recognising founder syndrome as a potential risk is a vital step in your leadership journey from Founder to CEO — and especially challenging to see in yourself.
Is my business at risk of Founder Syndrome?
When caught up in day-to-day operations, it’s difficult to get enough distance to know when it’s time to start unpicking and liberate yourself in your business.
If you recognise parts of Connie’s story, then Aata’s Founder to CEO Day is a good place to start reflecting on your role in the business.
Book a complimentary chemistry call with Aata’s Founder Coach,
Jennifer Clamp to learn more.
