The cult of personality can only do so much. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn explores how to build systems, culture, and next-generation leaders who can carry the vision forward.
Rob Artigo: Today, let’s talk about moving beyond founder-centric leadership. How do you build systems, culture, and next generation leaders who can carry on the vision without you around? I mean, it’s something that you had to go through, Ray.
Ray Zinn: Absolutely.
Rob Artigo: So Ray, why do founders fail at this handover even when the company is thriving?
Ray Zinn: A lot of it’s ego. People feel that they are afraid to give out certain secret sauce, and so their company becomes stymied because they’re not willing to develop the upcoming leadership. And if you don’t, there’s no sustainability. And so the key here is don’t be afraid of giving out and up enough information that will help sustain the company.
And I’ve seen that time and time again where the leadership is afraid to pass on the secret sauce. And of course the company, as soon as something happens, so whether it’d be a physical ailment or some other financial issue or a marriage or whatever fails, they get sidetracked and the company can’t run because the secret sauce has not been disseminated.
Rob Artigo: Essentially building a cult of personality instead of self-sustaining organization. I think you touched on it there in that if you hit a bump in the road, there’s nobody there that can pick up the slack.
Ray Zinn: Well, that’s the point I just made.
Rob Artigo: Yeah.
Ray Zinn: I mean, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. You think by you holding onto the secret sauce, your ego gets in the way and you think, “Well, then they don’t need me. If everybody knows what I know, who am I anymore?” I’ve seen that happen with technology companies where the leader of the company who had the technology sauce, just wouldn’t convey all the ingredients as you would. And so, when they became incapacitated, then the company failed because they didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle.
Rob Artigo: The famous story that’s the opposite, of course, is Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Tim Cook was the protege to take over for Steve Jobs at Apple for the longest time, for a very, very long time. And Steve knew that. And you don’t find very many examples of a leader going to that sort of detail to make sure that there was a plan of succession in place.
Ray Zinn: Well, it’s interesting that Tim Cook was not a technical guy. He was more of a financial. And we were concerned that, here, Tim being a financial guy, was taking over running a very technical company. And because of the fact that they were willing to share the sauce as you would, allowed Tim then to bring in the right people to sustain the company.
Rob Artigo: He reflected the culture, I think, of that. I think that was the real sauce was in the culture and style of the company and had the vision that Steve had.
So Ray, you did it successfully, the helm of Micrel. And you had to build into that early on how you were going to, even though you were looking down the road, “I’m going to run this company as long as I can,” that’s what you set out to do right from the beginning. But in that process, you also developed a way that when it came time to hand it off, that you could hand it off. What intentional steps did you take to shift from a founder-centric leadership to a more enduring model?
Ray Zinn: Well, I hoped I didn’t let my ego get in the way. Being the founder and first CEO of the company, I did not let my ego get in the way. I was able to incorporate or include, I mean, all of my respective staff to allow them to do their operation without me micromanaging them and being the key figure at the company. I didn’t look at Micrel as being raised in. I looked at Micrel as being a company of individuals who are capable of performing and becoming the best company that you could be.
Rob Artigo: Something that you’re famous for, and something you preach often in your books, is the idea of servant leadership.
Ray Zinn: Exactly.
Rob Artigo: So being a person who’s working for the benefit of the employees. How does servant leadership combined with disciplined mentoring create the kind of culture that outlasts any single leader?
Ray Zinn: It goes back to your ego. You don’t let your ego get in the way if you’re a servant leader. And so you want to be helpful. Being helpful means you want to let them know the secret sauce. You want to train them on how they can then carry on the torch, as you would, of the company. So that was the key to, I think, the success of Micrel was that a torch was passed on to all the employees and their respective duties.
Rob Artigo: For those CEOs out there, those eventual founders, or even current founders of small companies working to make a great company out of nothing, and then eventually build it into something that could be passed on to another generation. If you’re out there and you’re listening right now and you’re nervous about letting go or feeling that the companies revolves too much around you, the first step you can take, Ray, is what? What can they do? What’s the first thing they can do that get started down the right road to making sure that they’re mentoring the next generation?
Ray Zinn: Ask how can I help? In other words, being willing to pass on the secret sauce, pass on the culture of the company, be the proper example of what you would like the company to look like when you’re gone. And so for the company to reflect the values that you want it to have even when you’re gone, you have to pass on those values deliberately and succinctly to all your employees, not just to the few leaders.
Rob Artigo: Well, our listeners, I would like to let you know that true legacy leadership isn’t about being the center of everything. It’s about building something that thrives without you. So you can identify one area this week where your team or your company is still too dependent on you personally and take one concrete step toward developing someone else to own it. And really, that’s all about feeling secure in yourself to not feel that other people around you are threatening the leadership role.
Ray Zinn: An example is that LeBron James, they built the team around him. And then when he left, then the team suffered. And so when you build it around one individual, then you run the danger, when that person leaves, then the team is no longer able to be effective because you built the team around one individual. And so you don’t want to do that. At Micrel, I did not build the team around me. The company could have succeeded with or without me.
Rob Artigo: I guess naming your company your name is weird because later on down the road you might not be around and then your name won’t be it. A friend of mine sold a business once or wanted to sell his business once, but his name was associated with it. And then after he was gone, it didn’t make any sense anymore. So choosing a name like Oracle is a good name for a company.
Ray, thanks again. I want the listeners to know they should subscribe to this podcast, leave a review, share this episode with a leader who really needs to be thinking about the long game. And we’ll be back soon with another Tough Things First topic. Make sure you check out Ray’s books. There’s more coming up on that in just a moment. Thanks again, Ray. We’ll see them next time. And I guess you have a message for them. Do the tough things first, right?
Ray Zinn: Absolutely. And read our good books.
