Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2013 | Page 20
Grow Market Lead
Human
resources
By Bill Wagner
Stressed Out?
It could be time to reassess your direct reports
H
ow many direct reports do
you have? Consider these
four scenarios.
1) All of your direct
reports have just submitted their
resignations. You can either accept
their resignations or keep them on.
Based purely on their performance,
how many of your direct reports are
absolute keepers? If it’s not 100 percent, you may have issues.
2) Imagine you’ve just started at
a new position in the same industry,
just a short distance away. You have
no moral, legal, or ethical obligations
and you can take as many of your direct
reports with you to the new company as
you want, occupying the same positions.
How many will you take? Again, if not
100 percent, you have issues.
3) As a franchisor, imagine you
have a “do-over” and can re-select
your franchisee base. How many of
your franchisees would you keep? We
already know the answer to this one.
4) As a franchisee, think about your
staff. How many of them are absolute
keepers? This should be a no-brainer,
since your customer retention is determined by employees earning the least
amount of money—and it’s your frontfacing employees who have the greatest
impact on your customers.
The first two questions should be
asked periodically about your direct
reports. Whenever you get to the point
where you are willing to accept a resignation or not take someone to your
new opportunity, you need to address
this. If they are no longer the right person for that seat on your bus, you need
to provide them with the necessary or
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Franchiseupdate Iss u e IV, 2 0 1 3
additional skills, cognitive coaching,
or possibly move them to a different
position.
I’ve asked these questions to thousands of CEOs, and I’m always amazed
at how few of their direct reports are
keepers. That’s right! Sometimes the
answers are plausible, such as the direct
report is too new in their position to
know, and sometimes they are too old,
You can
always change
employees, but
with franchisees
you’ll have to
live with your
choices for 10
years or more.
meaning they are planning on retiring
in the next several years. Regardless,
when anything less than 100 percent
of your direct reports are keepers, the
responsibility falls on your shoulders
and you need to take action.
Over-stretched?
Consider this question: How many days
a week when you go home are you emotionally or mentally tired? The more
days a week you are drained indicates
that 1) you are doing things that either
go against your natural grain, or 2) you
are compensating for things your direct
reports are unable or unwilling to do.
In the first case, you are likely stretching your personality to compensate
for what is not your natural style. For
example, imagine that you have a relaxed, methodical, calm, and patient
style. “Stretching” would involve being more driving, putting more pressure on yourself and others, and being
forced to make snap decisions and move
things along more quickly than you’d
do naturally. This requires a high level
of energy. Energy is a consumable, and
when you’re out of energy you slow
down, become drained, and eventually
may become sick. Another example is
having an accommodating, agreeable
nature—which is great for a team member, but holding others more accountable and pushing for results requires a
great deal of energy. When you’re out
of energy, it leaves you exhausted.
So there actually are two messages
here. The first is about employee selection. When you have the right people
in the right seats on the proverbial bus,
you get the right results. However, when
you’ve selected or promoted the wrong
person, their failure causes you to pick
up the slack, and this is exhausting. It’s
important to know that this exhaustion is normal for what you are going
through. It becomes pathological only
when you don’t understand the cause.
The second message is about franchisee selection. This is far more critical—and more difficult—than dealing
with employees. You can always change
employees, but with franchisees you’ll
have to live with your choices for 10
years or more. Since my introduction
to franchising som HMHYX\