Title: Founder’s Syndrome: How Organizations Suffer…and Can Recover (Part I) – How Matters
Headings: Founder’s Syndrome: How Organizations Suffer…and Can Recover (Part I)
Founder’s Syndrome: How Organizations Suffer…and Can Recover (Part I)
Author: Jennifer Lentfer

Content: Decisions are made quickly, with little input from others. No one really seems to know what’s going on. In other words, everyone who is NOT the founder is only a support to the founder. Planning is not done collectively and any ideas that do not come from the founder usually don’t go very far. People can even become afraid of the founder. The board is recruited by the founder, rather than by the board itself. Often they are friends of the founder, who may have been there from the beginning. Staff may also have been chosen due to their personal loyalty to the founder. The board’s role is to “support” the founder, rather than to lead the organization. They are often a rubber stamp board, having little understanding of the work the organization does.