What is 'Founder's Syndrome'? Do we have it? How do we recover?

Summary:

'Founder's Syndrome' occurs when a nonprofit is shaped by a strong founder and loses track of a more general mission. Transitions can be difficult when the founder moves on, even with good intentions on all sides.

Hildy Gottlieb has a very useful discussion of founder's syndrome from the point of view of a founder on her website at http://www.help4nonprofits.com/NP_Bd_FoundersSyndrome_Art.htm.

Denice Rothman Hinden, Ph.D., President, of
Management Performance Concepts, Inc., wrote 7/30/03:
You might visit our website http://www.transitionguides.com. This is a new site developed with help from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that features a lot of articles and research about founders and their transitions out of nonprofit organizations. Many of the articles about founders talk about the issues you raise about being the face of the organization.

Carter McNamara wrote to ARNOVA-L (see http://www.arnova.org/list_srv.html) on November 6, 2003:
I've written a 'manual' about detecting Founder's Syndrome and
addressing it in corporations (nonprofit or for-profit), including actions to be taken by the Founder, Board and staff. The manual is freely available at http://www.managementhelp.org/misc/founders.htm. It includes:
- What are the traits or symptoms of "Founder's Syndrome"?
- Why are they common in new or small organizations?
- What actions can the board take to recover?
- What actions can the chief executive take?
- What actions can staff take?

See "Following the Leader: A Guide for Planning Founding Director Transition," by Emily Redington and Donn Vickers (2001), a 34-page report available for $9 from The Academy for Leadership and Governance, 65 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215
-- http://www.thejeffersoncenter.org/id47.html