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Author: Evan Hackel

A dynamic, innovative, thoughtful and inspiring leader with 30 years of experience in franchising, distributed networks and cooperatives. Successful history of: (i) turning around a $700 million distressed franchise system into a $2.0 billion revenue business in four years, (ii) reviving and re-energizing a $3.5 billion revenue franchisor and (iii) founding three franchise systems. Experienced corporate board member.

Currently, a consultant to some of the largest franchise systems in North America. A franchise industry leader, widely published, keynote speaker, member of the New England Franchise Association Board, and Co-chair of the International Franchise Associations Knowledge Share Task Force.|A dynamic, innovative, thoughtful and inspiring leader with 30 years of experience in franchising, distributed networks and cooperatives. Successful history of: (i) turning around a $700 million distressed franchise system into a $2.0 billion revenue business in four years, (ii) reviving and re-energizing a $3.5 billion revenue franchisor and (iii) founding three franchise systems. Experienced corporate board member.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Create an Individual Career Plan for Each of Your Long-Term Younger Generation Employees

This article is adapted from my new book Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generation. Order your copy HERE.

by Evan Hackel

When I was starting out in my career, I was comfortable with the idea that I would get promoted after “learning the ropes,” making mistakes, and moving upward gradually. Most often, I would get feedback about my performance only when I went into a job review session with my boss.

In those sessions, I would get news that I was handling some aspects of my job well, and others less so. Some of my supervisors—the better ones—would outline a series of action steps and objectives for me to tackle, and then when it was time for me to have another review, I would get a little more feedback on how I was doing, and possibly some new goals to pursue.

It has been my experience that with that kind of hit-or-miss approach, giving feedback doesn’t work well with younger employees for some very specific reasons. They don’t like the idea of learning through trial and error; they like the sense that they are making a difference and contributing confidently to the success of your organization. Perhaps more importantly, they like to understand how they can move up and make a long-term contribution. It is best if you begin to talk about advancement and career planning with younger generation employees as soon as they arrive on the job. One good approach is to have career planning meetings with younger employees during their initial training period as new employees.

The most effective approach is to create an individual career plan for each of your younger generation employees. (Note that I am writing about employees who you can expect to remain with your organization for the long term, not temporary or seasonal employees who are in positions that will be short-lived. If you employ younger students who are only going to work for you for a short time, for example, you will not need to create individual career plans for each of them.)

Here are some steps to follow:

  • Ask younger employees about their personal ambitions and interests, and work with them to create a plan that lets them live out those dreams as they work for you.
  • Explain the behaviors and activities that are most valued in your organization. You can say, for example, “If you can grow repeat sales in your department, we will make every effort to reward and value your contribution.”
  • Explain how advancement works in your company, and how it could work for your younger generation workers. If they are starting out as a salesperson in one territory, for example, they can work toward taking over a new territory after a year of hitting sales quotas and bringing in a certain number of new accounts.
  • Talk about your company’s values and mission and invite younger workers to tell you how they can be part of them.
  • Explain management training and other development programs and lay out specifics about how younger associates can take part.
  • Establish specific benchmarks and expectations for your younger generation employees to attain. Build in timelines and due dates to keep the process specific.
  • Schedule future check-in meetings at regular intervals to assess how the career plan is working. Members of younger generations like plenty of other employees, do not like to work in a vacuum. So, every month or three months, meet with them to assess how well the employee is doing with his or her career plan. At those sessions, keep the tone encouraging, and ask whether you or the company can help or provide resources. 

Action Step

Meet with your top executive team and representatives of your training and HR departments to plan ways to create individual development plans for as many of your employees as possible.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Advice for Company Leaders on Reversing the Cycle of Disengagement at Every Level 

Ingaged leadership is a new way of leading, founded on the belief that if leaders create an organization where everyone works together in open partnership, that organization becomes vastly more successful.  

Instead of telling people what to do, Ingaged leaders unlock the power of people’s minds, creativity and emotions. Some of the key skills of Ingaged leaders include: 

  • Asking for help, because doing so is a sign of strength, not weakness.  
  • Listening constantly and actively for nuggets of high value in what other people are saying and supporting the best of them.  
  • Setting aside personal opinions about what will work and letting people try their most prized ideas.  

How Can You Apply Ingaged Leadership throughout Your Organization? 

Leading and supervising are two very different things. In fact, there are opportunities to practice Ingaged leadership at every level. 

Ingaging with Trustees 

When boards convene, many organizational leaders give them a report of company finances, introduce a few new hires, talk about new products – and that’s about it. Those practices represent disingagement, not Ingagement. Remember that members of your board were appointed because of extensive leadership experience, so invite them to share in open-ended discussions about long-term mission, marketplace trends, competitive issues, and more.  One way to start that discussion is to talk openly about the long-term issues you and your company is facing. The more you share openly, the more you encourage board members to do the same.   

Ingaging with Your Top Executive Team 

To be honest, I have observed that top leadership teams in many companies are hindered by internal fissures and factions that are never discovered until someone quits or a major problem arises. Those problems often happen because executives have ambitions and plans that are being stifled by the company leaders, or because the rejection of their ideas in the past has caused them to self-censor.  

The solution is to build a top management team that is positively disruptive. That means resisting the temptation to surround yourself with “yes people,” “people who are just like me” and people who prefer “group think” to shaking things up. Also, have the courage to recruit people who are genuinely better than you at doing certain things, and let them. Their efforts will free you and results will soar.  

Ingaging with Middle Managers 

The leaders of many organizations overlook the fact that middle managers possess the kind of reality-based, realistic and valuable intelligence that cannot be found anywhere else in house. Instead of hearing directly from middle managers, those company leaders hear about them from divisional heads or other upper-tier executives. That kind of filtering is a crippling mistake. In contrast, Ingaged leaders interact directly with members of middle management. Even in very large organizations like franchises, they create – and visit – advisory boards made up of mid-level managers, leadership councils and other forums where managers can speak and be heard. 

Ingaging with Front-Line and Entry-Level Staff 

Too many companies seem to apply classic “mushroom management” to employees at this level. (“Keep them in the dark and hope they grow.”) What a loss, since front-line employees have critical knowledge and ideas that should be captured and reinforced. In smaller organizations, instituting an open-door policy or visiting hours can help. In larger companies, virtual suggestion boxes on the company intranet have worked well. So have general meetings where employees brainstorm and suggest ideas that can be captured, responded to, and utilized.  

Remember too that your company’s training programs offer a setting to invite and acknowledge new ideas from front-line staff. If you encourage your trainers to explore bigger company issues and invite ideas, you can begin to build high levels of Ingagement, literally from the bottom up.  

Ingaging with Your Sales Team 

Your salespeople know more than anyone else does about customers’ concerns, motivations to buy, opinions of your products, and much more. Yet many companies focus only on sales quotas and incentives, never soliciting salespeople’s insights. To tap this critical intelligence, invite salespeople to attend your top management meetings, listen actively to what they say, and then implement their solutions and new ideas. Another solution is to conduct brainstorming sessions during larger sales meetings, invite people to offer their best ideas, and then let them try them in the real world.  

Still More Opportunities to Benefit from Ingagement 

Ingaged leadership can be used to build more beneficial relationships with job applicants, clients, vendors, top executives at other companies, and many more people. The more you Ingage at every level, the greater you and your organization will become.  

 

Categories
Growth Personal Development

Are You Aligning Your Training Goals with Your Business Goals? 

Note from Evan Hackel: Today I am pleased to share this article from my partner and colleague Cordell Riley, Founder and President of Tortal Training.

Are You Aligning Your Training Goals with Your Business Goals? 

Four Keys to Establish Congruency  

 

By Cordell Riley 

 

There are really two types of training. The first and most basic centers on teaching employees to improve their performance of required skills and tasks. The second type does that too, but produces far more transformational results, because it also teaches skills and behaviors that align with larger company initiatives and goals.  

A way to illustrate this point is to envision a golf caddy as a trainer. That caddy can walk the course and hand his golfer one club at a time and say, “This is the best club for this shot.” That might improve the golfer’s game. But what if the caddy added a higher level of information by giving perspective on the overall layout of the hole, the potential hazards in the path, and even a strategy for playing the entire course?  

Similar lessons apply in many settings. Do you want your son or daughter’s piano teacher to only teach the mechanics of pushing down a key, or to give an overview of a piece of music? If you are hiring a landscaper for your yard, do you want to discuss only one plant, or do you want to collaborate on an overall, transformational plan? 

Given choices like those, of course, you prefer the bigger picture. But how do you do that in planning your company’s training process? Here are four important steps to take.

Define and Keep Your Most Important Objectives in Mind

 Are you striving to create a company known for delivering superlative customer satisfaction? That is a great objective, but reaching it means defining specifics that can get you there—what you would like your training to achieve.  

 For example, you could plan to train your phone reps to resolve 90% of all complaints during customers’ first calls. Or you could focus on training those reps to deliver the kind of care that gets 90% of callers to report that they are “extremely satisfied” on post-call surveys. When you define goals, you can design training that achieves them.   

 Another way of stating this principle is, “begin with the end in mind.” That means understanding the bigger vision of what you would like your organization to become, then defining specific training steps that can get you there.  

 Break Down the Silo Walls

 Trainers are often brought into different company sectors and encouraged to stay in them. They might teach only skills for servicing or installing products, providing customer service, preparing food, or selling on the retail floor. But what if your trainers thought outside the silos and delivered valuable things that result in improvements across your entire organization?  

 One way to reach this objective is to initiate discussions between your training team and the people who create marketing and advertising, manage your supply chain, oversee your online presence, and more. The more disciplines you invite into the process, the more likely your training team will find ways to make the training process more encompassing and effective.  

 Don’t Create Training in a Vacuum

 Whether your training team works in–house or you use an outside training development company, make sure to engage them in conversations regarding company collateral. This should include everything from company quarterly reports, relevant trade publications, news stories about your organization, press releases, and all other pertinent documents you can provide. Do all those materials suggest any untapped opportunities to align your training specifics with larger trends, goals and initiatives? 

Tie Your Training to Measurable Metrics 

It is essential to develop a set of clear metrics to measure before and after training. It is the only way to understand what your training has accomplished and how much closer you are to meeting your goals.  

Here are some suggestions for developing metrics that don’t just gather data, but reveal deeper progress: 

  • If your vision is to become a leader in customer service and retention, you can survey customers before and after your employees have gone through the training program. You should ask them about their overall satisfaction with their last purchase, the likelihood they will recommend you to other customers, and other factors.  

 

  • If you want to gain maximum value from a limited–time offer and offer training to support that goal, your goal could be a certain percentage of sales improvement among employees who took the training.  Measure and report on those results after the training has been delivered. 

 

  • If you are implementing HR training in an effort to increase employee retention and become an “employer of choice” for job-seekers, you can measure retention rates before and after training and survey employees on metrics like, “I see a clear career path if I remain employed here” or, “I understand the criteria that my supervisor and company use to evaluate my performance and progress in the company.” 

 In Conclusion . . .  

If you ask a group of businesspeople to define what training is, chances are that most of them will say something like, “Training is a process that teaches people the skills they need to do their jobs better.” Of course, that is true. But if you then go on to ask a series of deeper questions like, “Wouldn’t you like your training to build a workforce that builds your brand . . . helps your company achieve its mission . . . and communicates what you stand for to the world?”, I believe that all those business people will enthusiastically reply, “Yes, we would!” 

As you launch new training initiatives or refine those you already have, I urge you to keep those larger issues in mind. The better you can align training with them, the more successful you can become.  

 About the Author 

 Cordell Riley is the founder and president of Tortal Training, a leading provider of training solutions in the franchise industry. Cordell is a 20-year franchise veteran and a Certified Franchise Executive. Before joining Tortal, Cordell was with Driven Brands in various Operations and Training roles with increasing levels of responsibility.  He currently serves on the Educational Foundation for the International Franchise Association. For more information on Cordell Riley, please visit www.Tortal.net.  

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

“If It Ain’t Broke” . . . How to Fight Complacency in Your Work and Your Organization 

Complacency is like a slow-acting poison that can destroy any organization. Is it damaging yours? 

Complacency, which often takes hold a little at a time, is often difficult to notice. But you can hear it at work in statements like these:   

  • “Business is so good, we don’t need to improve anything.” 
  • “I’m afraid that if I start monkeying around, things will only get worse.” 
  • “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 
  • “We can’t make it any better.”  
  • “I’m just happy with the way things are.” 

 Good Is the Enemy of Great  

 To achieve great things, it is often necessary to risk doing damage to processes that are working well enough – that are merely good. But it is a risk that you need to take. If you are not consistently challenging what is good and seeking excellence, you are risking extinction. 

 General Motors is one historical example. At the dawn of the 1960s, GM was still the world’s largest carmaker. Then Japanese car companies entered the U.S. market.  Japanese cars were better made than GM’s, but GM remained stuck in complacency. GM had another 40 years to change but didn’t. What was once unimaginable happened. GM went bankrupt in the Great Recession.  

So we can see that standing still is really falling back. If you’re not improving, you’re losing. Change and innovation are facts of life today, and the speed of innovation is only getting faster. 

 Turn the Lens on Your Own Company 

 Look at your company. Are you seeking excellence? Are you always promoting innovation, improvement, and reinvention?  If not, start! 

 If you are not sure whether complacency has set in, here are some questions to ask: 

  • “Are we experiencing slow or no growth?” If you are, you’re standing still. 
  • “Are any increases in profits coming from operational efficiency, not from growth?”
  • “Are our best and brightest people leaving us?” 
  • “If I were to open a business today to do what we do, what would it look like?”
  • “If I were going to open a business today to put ours out of business, what would it look like?”  
  • “Am I continually improving our team?”
  • “Am I investing in training to improve our team and operations?”
  • “Am I cultivating a climate of positive dissent?” You want people to feel encouraged to contribute dissenting opinions and suggestions, as long as they are positive and directed toward making progress. 
  • “Have I surrounded myself with yes people who only rubber-stamp everything I want to do?” 
  • “Have I built a team of executives who have a variety of different skills and experiences?”
  • “Do I cultivate the outlook of a macro-manager?” That means you stay focused on the big picture. Remember, micromanagers kill innovation. 
  • “Have I learned to put up with negative people and their outlooks?” New ideas and outlooks can only thrive in organizations where positivity is valued and rewarded. 
  • “Do I have a defined process of innovation in place?” One good approach is to pick a time every year where you re-think your business and involve the whole company in that process.
  • “Am I working in the business . . . or on the business?” Senior management needs to keep its eye on the big picture. 

Are you complacent . . .   

Think about everything I covered in this article and apply it to yourself. Are you improving and innovating?  How are you making yourself better? 

When to start…. 

Yesterday! 

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Create an Individual Career Plan for Each Long-Term Younger Generation Employee

An excerpt from my new book Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generation, just published by Authors Place Press

 By Evan Hackel

 When I was starting out in my career, I was comfortable with the idea that I would get promoted after “learning the ropes,” making mistakes, and moving upward gradually. Most often, I would get feedback about my performance only when I went into a job review session with my boss.

In those sessions, I would get the news that I was handling some aspects of my job well, and others less so. Some of my supervisors–the better ones–would outline a series of action steps and objectives for me to tackle, and then when it was time for me to have another review, I would get a little more feedback on how I was doing, and possibly some new goals to pursue.

It has been my experience that with that kind of hit-or-miss approach, giving feedback doesn’t work well with younger generations for some very specific reasons. Younger generations don’t like the idea of learning through trial and error; they like the sense that they are making a difference and contributing confidently to the success of your organization. Perhaps more importantly, they like to understand how they can move up and make a long-term contribution. It is best if you begin to talk about advancement and career planning with younger generation employees as soon as they arrive on the job. One good approach is to have career planning meetings with younger generations during their initial training period as new employees.

The most effective approach is to create an individual career plan for each of your younger generation employees. (Note that I am writing about employees who you can expect to remain with your organization for the long term, not temporary or seasonal employees who are in positions that will be short-lived. If you employ younger students who are only going to work for you for a short time, for example, you will not need to create individual career plans for each of them.)

Here are some steps to follow:

  • Ask younger generations about their personal ambitions and interests, and work with them to create a plan that lets them live out those dreams as they work for you.
  • Explain the behaviors and activities that are most valued in your organization. You can say, for example, “If you can grow repeat sales in your department, we will make every effort to reward and value your contribution.”
  • Explain how advancement works in your company, and how it could work for your younger generation workers. If they are starting out as a salesperson in one territory, for example, they can work toward taking over a new territory after a year of hitting sales quotas and bringing in a certain number of new accounts.
  • Talk about your company’s values and mission and invite younger generations to tell you how they can be part of them.
  • Explain management training and other development programs and layout specifics about how younger generations can take part.
  • Establish specific benchmarks and expectations for your younger generation employees to attain. Build-in timelines and due dates to keep the process specific.
  • Schedule future check-in meetings at regular intervals to assess how the career plan is working. Members of younger generations, like plenty of other employees, do not like to work in a vacuum. So, every month or three months, meet with them to assess how well the employee is doing with his or her career plan. At those sessions, keep the tone encouraging, and ask whether you or the company can help or provide resources.

 About the Author

Evan Hackel has helped start over 20 businesses, turned around a bankrupt $700 million franchise business, and grown it to $2 billion in four years. He was part of the team that grew CCA Global Partners to $10 billion in system-wide sales in 20 years. Evan is considered an expert in Franchising, Cooperatives, business startups, and general management. He is CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company, and Principal and Founder of Ingage Consulting. Evan is the host of Training Unleashed and the author of Ingaging Leadership. Evan speaks on Seeking Excellence, Better Together, Ingaging Leadership, and Attitude is Everything. To engage Evan as a speaker, visit EvanHackelSpeaks.com

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Leaders and Managers Are Not the Same . . . Which Are You?

 

To succeed, your company needs both great leaders and great managers.

That’s confusing to think about, isn’t it? Aren’t great leaders and great managers pretty much the same? No, they aren’t. Leading and managing are two separate and distinct skills, each with different central functions.

What Leaders Do . . .

  • Have a vision for what an organization can be.
  • Communicate that vision with such determination and passion that others want to take part in it and make it become real.
  • Inspire people to want to discover their strengths and develop them by being part of a shared enterprise.
  • Create a positive organizational culture where people want to belong.

Those are only a few of the things that superior leaders do. And by doing them, they accomplish a tremendous amount for their organizations.

What Managers Do . . .

  • Understand and oversee how an organization runs and operates.
  • Identify and hit key performance indicators.
  • Make sure that the company has the right staff to get the right things done.
  • Watch the financial statements and know what to do to prevent problems before they occur.
  • Hire employees, manage their performance, and make sure operations run steadily.

Those are key responsibilities that good managers contribute. Even if your company has the most inspiring leaders, it will fail unless great managers are present too.

Why Understanding the Differences Is Important

When you compare those skills, you immediately see that there are fundamental differences. Understanding those differences matters, for several reasons.

One is that good business doesn’t need either great leaders or great managers. A good business needs both. Does yours have them?

In some rare cases, you can find one person who is both a great leader and a great manager. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, a successful enterprise needs people who have two different sets of skills. That explains why many highly successful organizations have a strong CEO (a leader) who is paired with a strong COO (a manager). In those organizations, the CEO is spending time developing a vision to move the business forward and inspiring people to take part. At the same time, the COO is providing a structure and procedures that make that vision become real.

Turning the Mirror on Yourself

Now here is a tougher question . . .

Have you stopped to consider whether you are a manager or a leader?

As you have probably noticed, a lot of companies get into trouble when top executives fail to ask that question. For example, we have all seen companies where the founders were good functional managers, but not leaders with the vision to imagine what their companies could become. We have also seen companies led by visionary leaders who couldn’t manage the many processes it takes to make their businesses operate.

And what about you? Remember, there is no blame if you can’t handle everything – if you cannot both lead and manage. So, are you a manager, or are you a leader?

After you consider and answer that question, the next step is to rather selflessly define what your role should be in your company. In many ways, the goal should be to do all the things that come naturally for you, and not to worry about the things that don’t. If you’re a stronger leader than a manager, then you might need to modestly surround yourself with skilled managers who can handle the nuts and bolts. And if you’re a better manager than a leader, you need to do the opposite. Even if you started your company, bringing in an inspiring leader can be the key to success. Setting aside your ego is a selfless thing to do.

Remember, one of the biggest mistakes both leaders and managers make is assuming that it’s easy to learn the other skill. Most people can achieve much more if they focus on what they do well and do as much of that as possible. That means doing what you love to do, and also bringing in great people to do what you don’t enjoy doing.

Leader or Manager?

So, which are you? And once you know, what are you going to do about it? Having the courage to ask and answer those questions can be the secret to reaching the highest levels of success.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

How to Reverse the Cycle of Disengagement at Every Level

Ingaged leadership is a new way of leading, founded on the belief that when leaders create an organization where everyone works together in open partnership, that organization becomes vastly more successful. Instead of telling people what to do, Ingaged leaders unlock the full potential of people’s minds, creativity, and emotions.

Key skills of Ingaged leaders include:

  • Setting aside personal opinions about what will work and letting people try their most prized ideas.
  • Listening constantly and actively for nuggets of high value in what other people are saying and supporting the best of them.
  • Asking for help, because doing so is a sign of strength, not weakness.

How Can You Apply Ingaged Leadership throughout Your Organization?

Ingaging with Trustees

When boards convene, many organizational leaders give them a report of company finances, introduce a few new hires, talk about new products – and that’s about it. Those practices represent disengagement, not Ingagement. Remember that members of your board were appointed because of extensive leadership experience, so invite them to share in open-ended discussions about the long-term mission, marketplace trends, competitive issues, and more. One way to start that discussion is to talk openly about the long-term issues your company is facing.

Ingaging with Your Top Executive Team

To be honest, I have observed that top leadership teams in many companies are hindered by internal fissures and factions that are never discovered until someone quits or a major problem arises. These problems often happen because top executives have ambitions and plans that are being stifled by company leaders or because the rejection of their ideas has caused them to self-censor.

The solution is to build a top management team that is positively disruptive. That means resisting the temptation to surround yourself with “yes people,” “people who are just like me” and people who prefer “group think” to shaking things up. Also, have the courage to recruit people who are genuinely better than you at doing certain things, and let them. Their efforts will free you and results will soar.

Ingaging with Middle Managers

The leaders of many organizations overlook the fact that middle managers possess the kind of reality-based, realistic and valuable intelligence that cannot be found anywhere else in-house. Instead of hearing directly from middle managers, they hear about them from divisional heads or other upper-tier executives. That kind of filtering is a crippling mistake. In contrast, Ingaged leaders interact directly with members of middle management. Even in very large organizations like franchises, they create – and visit – advisory boards made up of mid-level managers, leadership councils and other forums where managers can speak and be heard.

Ingaging with Front-Line and Entry-Level Staff

Too many companies seem to apply classic “mushroom management” to employees at this level. (“Keep them in the dark and hope they grow.”) What a loss, since front-line employees have critical knowledge and ideas that should be captured and reinforced. In smaller organizations, instituting an open-door policy or visiting hours can help. In larger companies, virtual suggestion boxes on the company intranet have worked well. So have general meetings where employees brainstorm and suggest ideas that are captured, responded to, and utilized.

Remember too that your company’s training programs offer a setting to invite and acknowledge new ideas from front-line staff. If you encourage your trainers to explore bigger company issues and invite ideas, you can begin to build high levels of Ingagement, literally from the bottom up.

Ingaging with Your Sales Team

Your salespeople know more than anyone else does about customers’ concerns, motivations to buy, opinions of your products, and much more. Yet many companies focus only on sales quotas and incentives, never soliciting salespeople’s insights. To tap this critical intelligence, invite salespeople to attend your top management meetings, listen actively to what you hear, and then implement new ideas. Another solution is to conduct brainstorming sessions during larger sales meetings, invite people to offer their best ideas, and then let them try them in the real world.

Still More Opportunities to Benefit from Ingagement

Ingaged leadership can be used to build more beneficial relationships with job applicants, clients, vendors, top executives at other companies, and many more people. The more you Ingage at every level, the greater you can become.

Categories
Growth Human Resources Management Personal Development

Younger Generation Leadership Strategy: Create an Individual Career Plan for Each Long-Term Employee

Today’s article is an excerpt from my new book Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generations, soon to be released by Authors Place Press. Details and ordering information will appear soon on the Ingage Consulting website. Please stay tuned!

 When I was starting out in my career, I was comfortable with the idea that I would get promoted after “learning the ropes,” making mistakes, and moving upward gradually. Most often, I would get feedback about my performance only when I went into a job review session with my boss.

In those sessions, I would get news that I was handling some aspects of my job well, and others less so. Some of my supervisors—the better ones—would outline a series of action steps and objectives for me to tackle, and then when it was time for me to have another review, I would get a little more feedback on how I was doing, and possibly some new goals to pursue.

It has been my experience that with that kind of hit-or-miss approach, giving feedback doesn’t work well with younger generations for some very specific reasons. Younger generations don’t like the idea of learning through trial and error; they like the sense that they are making a difference and contributing confidently to the success of your organization. Perhaps more importantly, they like to understand how they can move up and make a long-term contribution. It is best if you begin to talk about advancement and career planning with younger generation employees as soon as they arrive on the job. One good approach is to have career planning meetings with younger generations during their initial training period as new employees.

The most effective approach is to create an individual career plan for each of your younger generation employees. (Note that I am writing about employees who you can expect to remain with your organization for the long term, not temporary or seasonal employees who are in positions that will be short-lived. If you employ younger students who are only going to work for you for a short time, for example, you will not need to create individual career plans for each of them.)

Here are some steps to follow:

  • Ask younger generations about their personal ambitions and interests, and work with them to create a plan that lets them live out those dreams as they work for you.
  • Explain the behaviors and activities that are most valued in your organization. You can say, for example, “If you can grow repeat sales in your department, we will make every effort to reward and value your contribution.”
  • Explain how advancement works in your company, and how it could work for your younger generation workers. If they are starting out as a salesperson in one territory, for example, they can work toward taking over a new territory after a year of hitting sales quotas and bringing in a certain number of new accounts.
  • Talk about your company’s values and mission and invite younger generations to tell you how they can be part of them.
  • Explain management training and other development programs and layout specifics about how younger generations can take part.
  • Establish specific benchmarks and expectations for your younger generation employees to attain. Build-in timelines and due dates to keep the process specific.
  • Schedule future check-in meetings at regular intervals to assess how the career plan is working. Members of younger generations, like plenty of other employees, do not like to work in a vacuum. So, every month or three months, meet with them to assess how well the employee is doing with his or her career plan. At those sessions, keep the tone encouraging, and ask whether you or the company can help or provide resources.
Categories
Growth Personal Development

An Insider’s Practical Advice on Buying a Franchise

You’re speeding along toward buying a franchise. Perhaps a franchise is the ideal business for you at this stage of your life, or a particular franchise has caught your eye because there is no competition for it in the area where you live.

It could be a great opportunity. Franchises offer predictable results, ready-to-go marketing systems and the support of a parent company that you can investigate before you buy. But there are some critical questions to ask that can eliminate costly mistakes and increase the likelihood of buying the right franchise.

Is the Franchise Really the Right One for You?

If you were starting your own dream business from scratch, what would it be? If the franchise you are considering is a lot different from that vision, step back and look for another that “speaks” to your emotions as well as your ambition to succeed. Because chances are you will be getting up every morning and going to that business, make it one that truly excites you.

Have You Studied Enough to Make a Wise Buying Decision?

Franchising companies hold sales meetings for prospective buyers. You should not base a buying decision on what happens in those meetings. They are very motivational, but sometimes do not tell you the full story. And if you feel excessive pressure to buy, move on. Be sure to:

  • Read the franchise agreement from the first sentence to the last and make sure you understand every word of it. Take it to an attorney who has expertise in businesses and franchise purchases and go over everything. The cost is minor in comparison to the risk you are taking.
  • Study at least five or six franchise agreements from different franchising companies and compare them to the agreement from the company you are considering. You will quickly understand what makes the franchise better than others – or worse.

How Much Leeway Will You Have to Run Your Business the Way You Want?

This is a balancing act. You want the leeway to control your business. But on the other hand, the franchise company’s rules protect you from the activities of other franchisees that can hurt the brand. Strong brands are built on consistency.

However, make sure the system is very engaged with owners and asks franchisees for input. Good things can only happen when good ideas from the field get filtered up to senior management.

Is there Competition Near Your Location?

When selecting a location, disasters can happen. While it is never possible to prevent all mishaps, you can turn the odds in your favor by talking to local business owners, who should know what new businesses are coming into the area. Another piece of due diligence is to visit the town hall and review building permits that have been filed in the area.

How Many Current Owners of the Franchise Have You Talked to?

Get to know current owners of the franchise you are considering. Take these steps:

  • Ask about doing business with the parent company. Have there been unexpected expenses and unpleasant surprises?
  • Ask about what is good and bad, it’s a simple question that can tell you a lot.
  • Understand the system culture, how the franchisor and franchisees interact, whether franchisees help each other and whether the franchisor listens.
  • Spend time in current locations and observe what is going on.
  • Ask if you can review their financial statements. This might not be a comfortable question to ask, but those documents can reveal critical information.

Remember, the willingness of franchise owners to help you tells you a lot about the system. And another thing. Always talk to franchisees who weren’t recommended as contacts by the parent company.

How many should you talk to? The simple answer to that question is that you should keep talking to them until you feel comfortable that you are making a good choice. That number could be as few as five franchisees or as many as 20.

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is a 35-year franchising veteran as both a franchisor and franchisee. He is CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company, and principal of Ingage Consulting. He is a speaker, hosts “Training Unleashed,” a podcast covering training for business, and author of Ingaging Leadership. To hire Evan as a speaker, visit evanspeaksfranchising.com. Follow @ehackel or call 704-452-7368. Why not have Evan Hackel address your group about franchising success?

 

 

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Why Strong Leaders Are Never Afraid to Ask for Help

For some company leaders, the experience of saying the words, “Could you give me some help on this” feels as uncomfortable and unfamiliar as putting on a new pair of shoes. Some leaders are too shy to ask for help. But the bigger issue for many company leaders is that they fear that they will appear incapable, unintelligent or even helpless. One company leader expressed her reservations to me this way, “People expect me to know all the answers. If I ask for help or even suggestions, people are going to think that I don’t know how to make the best decisions for our company.”

I have led a number of organizations and I have a totally different take on this issue. I am convinced that people feel validated and appreciated when I ask them for help. I also believe that people typically enjoy giving help, because we all naturally feel good about helping others.

But there are many other benefits too, including these:

  • You discover strengths and abilities in other people that you might have missed in the past.
  • You cultivate a stronger, braver and more balanced team.
  • You enable people to do more of what they do best, which makes them happier on the job, reduces turnover, improves productivity and pays other unexpected benefits.
  • You establish a healthy atmosphere of give-and-take. When someone helps you, they sense that you “owe” them a favor and are more like to ask for one in return.
  • You show that you do not think you are perfect, which shows that you are a confident leader, not an arrogant one.
  • You free more of your time to manage top-level responsibilities like long-range planning, defining your company’s vision and mission, cultivating new business, and just plain thinking about the biggest issues and opportunities that lie before you. This could be the biggest benefit of all.

Asking for Help Builds Healthy Give-and-Take

After I have asked for help, I often go on to say, “Please feel free to ask me for help if you ever need anything.” Even if I don’t say that, people know they can ask me, because I have established a pattern of being helpful. And I think my efforts have helped build deeper relationships and greater organizational success.

An Experiment for You to Try . . .

Over the next few days, consciously take time to ask people for more help. Consider their reactions. And over time, evaluate how your relationships with those people have improved.

I’m not suggesting you ask for help just for the sake of asking for help, or just to make people feel good. When you do need help, however, don’t shy away from asking. People will appreciate you more. When you ask people for assistance, you demonstrate that you respect their expertise and effort. That will help create a stronger bond between you and those around you and build a much stronger organization.

About the Author

Evan Hackel, the creator of the concept of Ingaged Leadership, is a recognized franchising expert and consultant and successful businessman. Evan is also a professional speaker and author.

Evan is Principal and Founder of Ingage Consulting, a consulting firm headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts. A leader in the field of training as well, Evan serves as CEO of Tortal Training, a Charlotte North Carolina-based firm that specializes in developing and implementing interactive training solutions for companies in all sectors. To learn more about Inage Consulting and Evan’s book Ingaging Leadership, visit Ingage.net