New Leadership: Taking Over from the Founder
Inspired by the webinar, What’s it like taking over from the founder? Hosted by the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs
Moving on from your organisation as a Founder takes courage, openness, and time to grieve. Actioning this decision can be more challenging; preparing your organisation for change, seeking out your support network, and deciding where to invest your limited time. Being the successor can be equally testing; building your own legacy whilst maintaining respect for what has been built. Learning from Molly Melching (Founder of Tostan) and her successor, Elena Bonometti, we explore the experiences of the person leaving and the person taking over, giving you a double-sided perspective on transitions.
Leaving the leadership role
Balancing the organisation’s stability while venturing into new territory
Organisations are often born from passion and commitment to a mission, with a defined process and structure coming later. In the search for sustainable growth, mistakes might be made when trying to find the right funding, HR, and a trusted Board, therefore, the organisation is likely to go through periods of trial and error as values are established and strategies are developed. This means, when the founder reaches the point of retirement or a natural time to leave, they might feel that the organisation has only just begun to solidify its foundations and its operational processes. It can then be challenging for the Founder as they feel the pull to stay so they can further embed the strategies they worked so hard to refine.
As a social entrepreneur, it can help to ask yourself if your organisation’s values are strong enough to support your successor in developing the processes you’ve built. Reflecting openly with your Board can help you acknowledge the organisation’s position.
Where you want to invest your energy
The management of fundraising, operations, and HR is fundamental to the success and sustainability of the organisation, but can take the Founder away from the passion that birthed their project. Deciding to leave can be daunting as development of the succession plan and its implementation will take time away from focussing on mission delivery. This is where good internal communication, a well thought out step-by-step process and trusting your team comes in.
Crucially, Molly recognised that far from wanting to leave Tostan, she wanted to invest more passion into projects whilst letting go of the CEO responsibilities. Molly’s Board supported her decision, recognising that Tostan would benefit from the transition.
Then the challenge begins - finding the next CEO. This process could start with writing a job description and waiting for applications to flood in, but being unsure of the desired personality traits of a successor can make this overwhelming as you are inundated by a sea of people with vast and varying experiences. It is inevitable that there will be some trial and error here - as you gain an understanding of what applicants can offer, as well as a clearer understanding of what you want.
Seeking out your support system
Being a social entrepreneur, it’s unlikely that you have peers in similar scenarios. Therefore, researching the experiences of others who have passed through this, positively or negatively, is invaluable, giving you lessons, reassurance and emotional validation. Molly attended the Skoll World Forum and found listening to ten Founder’s experiences crucial to her own transition. Reading articles, listening to webinars (exploring the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs Wisdom Bank), attending conferences and reaching out to others could help propel you forward in unsure waters and create a community of support. Board members and key stakeholders that care about and respect what you’ve built can become your advisors in finding someone new to lead your mission.
This process can be a project in itself that is led by you and people within the organisation, collaborating and making a well-rounded decision together, whilst supporting the organisation’s emotional well-being and yours.
Organisation first, successor second
It can feel claustrophobic when many applicants are trying to sell their individuality and how they would continue to prosper your organisation in a multitude of ways. Whilst the imagined possibilities can be a luxury, the myriad of options could cloud your judgement, pulling you in different directions.
Molly found it useful to gather perspectives from prospective applicants, but then take a step back to think about the organisation’s future, rather than the future leader first. By visualising the organisation, it’s future in five to ten years, its goals, and then dreaming up a persona who would be standing beside the organisation she developed a list of values, experiences, and mission statements to look for within a successor.
Here are some key takeaways from Molly and Elena’s conversation on taking over the leadership role:
1. Starting with respect, sensitivity, and knowledge
Being curious about transition experiences is key to a successor’s success. Similar to the Founder, it’s unlikely that a successor will find many people around them that can give them tangible advice based on first hand experience. However, researching successions and reading about other people’s experiences can. Whilst it can be useful to research transitions from organisations with similar missions to the one you’re entering, profitable corporations, NGOs, and family businesses can also provide knowledge on different aspects of the process.
Whilst taking on the role of successor can be a pressurised time, acknowledging the respect and sensitivity you need to have towards the organisation and the Founder is fundamental and will help you build relationships.
2. Same destination, different path
Being the successor and a lengthy handover with the Founder can make the process of finding your feet even more difficult. However, it’s time to be curious, because it’s the moment where you have knowledge, experience and institutional memory at your fingertips. It’s also a time for confidence; it can be hard to fully embrace your role as leader and be your authentic self with the Founder still in the organisation, as you may feel that you’re stepping on their toes, but remember that you were chosen for a reason.
Above all, it’s crucial to be aware of potential tension, conflict, and resistance to your choices from the Founder, the Board, or stakeholders; everyone naturally has aversions to change. Elena said that when these moments arose, through maintaining respect and sensitivity, she and Molly built a method to combat this. They would take space away from the discussion, reconvene at a more settled time, and both state what their goal was for that issue - ultimately, the goal was for Tostan, not Molly or Elena.
Ultimately, this method gives both parties the chance to release their grip on ‘their way,’ and readjust their focus back to their agreed mission.
3. Creating your own legacy
Needing to make your mark as a successor can feel confusing; you’re aware of how bold you need to be whilst lacking some of the knowledge.
One of the biggest challenges is not about ‘being accepted,’ it’s about intervening in the natural systems of the organisation. The Board, stakeholders, and staff will have often looked to the Founder for decisions. Elena observed that it was a turning point in her transition when Molly said to the organisation that she was now only there to support the project and Elena in decision-making.
Clear, vocal support from the Founder is a foundation to building success; together, you draw a line between the end of one leadership, and the beginning of another. No one at the organisation wants ambiguity, and so transparency and intentionality are the essence of a smooth process.
How long will it take to establish your own leadership identity? It’s important to proceed with patience. Whilst the organisation will be expecting it, they won’t know how you’ll change the organisation, how you’ll approach decision-making, or even how they’ll approach you. Elena mentioned that she went into this process knowing it could take three to five years to be fully embedded as Tostan’s leader; needing to gain the respect of and create relationships with staff, the Board, and stakeholders, learn from Molly, and hire for new roles to be able to implement her own processes.
Empathy, respect, and open conversations can lead to successful transitions. As a Founder, by accounting for what has been achieved and investing time in polishing the project that has been built, whilst surrounded by a support network, you’ll be in a good place to begin transitioning confidently. As a successor, entering with an awareness of all that has come before you and being confident in your own approaches, whilst respecting the values that you will continue to nurture, will smooth your path as you create your legacy as the new leader.
Author: Rebecca Thackery
Editor: Chris Underhill and Katelynne Kirk