A few years ago, prepping for a firm anniversary, I had the chance to interview one of the founders. I’d met him only briefly when he’d popped into the office, but I hadn’t worked with him—he’d retired years before I joined.
Before chatting with him, though, I had a curious request from one of the principals.
“If he asks how the firm is doing, just say we’re doing okay.”
At the time, we were on pace for the best annual revenue in firm history and had been on a hiring spree that kicked us over the 50-employee threshold—the largest the firm had ever been.
“And if he asks for more detail?”
“Well, tell him, of course. But we don’t want to come out with and make him feel bad.”
As in: Look what we did without you.
As in: You left the firm and four years later, look where we are!
I’ve thought a lot about this odd exchange and realized why it made me uncomfortable. It was that the default view was the founder presence was a burden and his absence an opportunity. Look what we did without you.
But that’s obviously not the only view. What about:
Look what we did with your leadership and vision.
I’m reminded of a lurking fear about delegation. (After all, what is leaving behind the firm you founded other than the highest level of delegation?)
When we talk about delegation, we tend to focus on its challenges. Delegation is hard! But we don’t really talk about the outcomes of successful delegation.
What happens when the student outshines the teacher?
You would hope this would be a cause for celebration, but successful delegation may be limned by a sense of uselessness. In the same way, we were concerned that the founder might feel put off by the firm’s success in his absence, even if he was partly (or largely!) to thank.
Taylor Coe 