“Management is the delusion that you can change people. Leadership is deluding other people instead of deluding yourself.”
— Scott Adams in Dilbert
Since my book “Multi Unit Leadership” was published in 2010, I’ve conducted more than 200 workshops on the topic for foodservice and retail brands across the globe. And one question that routinely comes up is: “What are the common mistakes operators make when they grow from one to many units?”
Presuming that many of our Nation’s Restaurant News readers are involved in the multiunit world as a franchisee, franchisor or multiunit owner, I thought that you, too, might benefit from the answer to that question.
Mistake #1: Assuming it’s not rocket science
In theory, multiunit leadership is as down-to-earth as home plate: Have the fundamentals in place, execute on the basics, hit the quarterly financial targets, have a strong bench backed with a talent pipeline, and make sure that every customer leaves happy. That formula worked in the first unit; let’s just do it more in the other units.
But “more” is both a big word and a complicated action. The fact is that what made you successful at one level may not be enough at the next. Ironically, the skills you acquire by successfully growing one unit actually can be detrimental when trying to operate a second, third or fourth one. Convinced you can do it all, you insist on trying to do it all. But scaling leadership is much more complicated than scaling menus and spreadsheets. Multiunit leadership is a “thinking” job more than a “doing” job. Don’t underestimate the challenge of learning to grow from a hands-on management mind-set to the art of indirect influence.
Mistake #2: Acting like a Lone Ranger
If you own and operate a single restaurant, there’s only one degree of separation between administration and operations: The owner will either hire the GM or be the GM. Either way, the span of control is minimal — one building, one market, one team, one concept, one kitchen, one menu, one set of books.
But open multiple locations, and things get more complex, fast. The reason is the span of control between operator and operations does not increase incrementally, but exponentially. As sales, size, team, markets and geography expand, communication and organization weakens, creating a dire need for better and more efficient administration, bookkeeping, accountability, scalability and sub-levels of management. Delegate or die. Only rookies value micromanaging over empowerment. “Freedom is actually a bigger game than power,” advises Harriet Rubin in Fast Company. “Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.”
Mistake #3: Valuing efficiency over effectiveness
Unproductive behavior is often the result of bad execution coupled with good intent. But doing something unimportant well does not make it important. Don’t confuse being efficient with your time or activities as being effective in your role or responsibilities. If, for instance, you’re able to visit four units in half a day, you’d call yourself efficient. But by spending so little time in each store, can you say you were effective at the stuff that really matters? The focus of all restaurant visits by the multiunit leaders is to develop people, not “inspect” units.
Determine a specific focus area for each unit you visit. Concentrate on measurably improving one thing, not trying to improve all things. Know what you are specifically trying to accomplish. Assess “performance is” versus “performance should be,” and always spread energy, don’t take it away. Want a free High Impact Unit Visit checklist? E-mail me at jim@sullivision.com.
Mistake #4: Being the know-it-all
Multiunit leaders pride themselves on being problem solvers. But the best multiunit leaders are also “problem givers.” That is, they assign stretch goals to their managers, are thoughtfully unreasonable in their expectations and give the manager tools to figure out solutions without telling them what to do at each step. This enables self-discovery and trust while fostering collaboration.
Transferring knowledge within your company is vital to long-term strategic success, but teaching them how versus telling them how is key. Being dependent on one person for all the answers is short-sighted and dangerous. Better still, select talented people, and let them do what you hired them for. “Do what you’re good at, and find other people to fill your competency gaps,” says Jerry Scheer, partner in the multiunit TBonz Restaurant Group in Charleston, S.C.
Mistake #5: Trying to change culture
To realize long-term goals, the best multiunit leaders focus on managing and directing the short-term goals. Always focus first on changing behavior — not directly on changing culture.
The behavioral shift from independence to interdependence is tricky for the single-unit operator evolving into a multiunit leader. It takes equal parts luck, pluck, nerve and knowledge. And you’d do well also to heed the words of author Jim Kouzes: “Leadership is more an affair of the heart than of the head.”
Jim Sullivan’s book “Multi Unit Leadership” is used in over 175,000 businesses. It’s available at Amazon or Sullivision.com. Jim will be speaking at the NRA Show in Chicago May 7.