But perhaps the most compelling reason not to leave, Pringle argues, is her own history and the history of her company. "It's like walking away from a game before the end of the ninth inning."
No one can say for sure what will happen to Pringle. Come back in five years and she might have sold PDP and be happily building a travel-guide company. Or equally plausible, PDP will have risen out of the doldrums, with Pringle leading the way, and she will be a heroine for licking the odds.
You might even read about the latter scenario in the pages of Inc. Why? All the right ingredients are there: A hero who goes it alone, who, despite the odds, conquers, trampling the naysayers. The doubts. The fatigue. In this quest there is no place for a discussion of limits, of persistence gone too far, of haunting doubts unheeded. There is only the adulation for dogged determination.
In all of this, though, perhaps there is a failure to recognize the more complex story -- how easy it is to slip from determination to destruction, from persistence to possession, from conquering to crashing. Many of the milestones of success can, with the glass half empty, be indicators of a leader out of sync. The owner who builds a company by "swimming against the tide" only to later miss a critical industry shift. Or the founder who is so fully engaged in the building of his company that he fails to see that he has swerved dangerously far from his original vision.
Knowing when those indicators move from points of pride to points of peril is difficult. Often, the company builder is the last to know when the line has been crossed. That is particularly true in a privately held company, in which none of the usual checks and balances are in place to rein in the wayward founder. Who dares approach him or her with the news? A friend, a partner, a trusted employee?
Around Jan Pringle a company culture has grown, as it has around most company builders facing this question. It's a culture built on and sustained by a leader who "shoots for the stars," not one who defines the limits.
Pringle has spent years building a reputation as a hard-charging, energy-filled leader. It's allowed her to build a business she values. "I've always been the kind of person to go 90 miles per hour until I hit a brick wall," she says. But does she want to put her company in jeopardy of hitting that wall with her? "Absolutely not," she insists. "Of course not, that's my concern.
"It's a real switching of gears," she confesses. "In the beginning I plowed past my weaknesses just to get the job done; now I'm supposed to stop and wonder if my strengths have become my weaknesses?" When building PDP with Jim, she says, "I never thought about my limitations. What would have been the use?
"So how will I know when it's time to move on?" she finally asks. "I'm not sure. It's a big question mark.
"Ask me tomorrow."
* * *
For examples of people who've made a graceful exit, see "Walking Away," page 6.
REMIND YOU OF ANYONE?
A self-audit for the CEO who wonders whether or not it's time to let go
No quick and easy blood test tells a leader whether or not it's time to move on. It shouldn't take a physical breakdown like the one Jan Pringle of Pringle Dixon Pringle suffered to make a founder examine these questions. But who is there to talk to? Admitting that you're even thinking of leaving can send shudders through the company and cause customers to ask tough questions. Is it time to go? The first step toward knowing, experts agree, is to note the warning signs that betray a leader who's losing his or her grip -- the signs that put you at high risk for an unheroic farewell.
1. The Hero Complex
The hero complex stems from isolation -- isolation from colleagues, isolation from family, isolation from subordinates. In a culture bent on lionizing individuals rather than groups, the stars who build companies are often whispered about at parties and treated as a breed apart. "The risk is huge that these people will see themselves as the fuel rather than part of the engine," warns Steven Berglas, management psychologist and author of The Success Syndrome. That mentality makes it almost impossible for leaders to step back and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
2. Reward-Based Rather Than Interest-Based Motivation
The inspiration to launch a company is rarely the mounds of money that might follow. More times than not, it's the heated pursuit of an interest -- a fascination with fashion, a theory about thermodynamics -- that spurs an idea and then a company. But if all goes well, the interest yields rewards: money, recognition, and bigger, brighter things. The danger, says Berglas, is that without knowing it, a leader can easily get hooked on the rewards.
It's not just that "acquiring successes" is a transient business, Berglas insists. More important, the interest-oriented leader is usually inner directed and able to call on vast reserves of creativity, whereas the reward-driven one is externally oriented and less creative, preferring to protect all that's been acquired.
3. Industry Headed North; CEO Headed South
Where's the industry headed? Are you on the same track? Is the industry speeding up as you want to slow down? Is it maturing as you want to diversify? Beware if the industry is bearing right and you're about to go careering left: it could mean trouble.
