“The purpose of a business lies outside of itself — that is, in creating and satisfying a customer.”
— Peter Drucker
My book, “Multiunit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building High-Performing Partnerships and Teams,” details the best practices of over 280 high-performing area directors, regional vice presidents and multiunit franchisees. Every September we repeat the research the book is based upon with a new cadre of multiunit leaders, or MULs. Coming out of the Great Recession, this year’s insights and key learnings shed especially keen perspective on the role of the area director and the state of our industry. This month I’d like to share a top-line view of the 2012 research feedback.
MULs are the critical linchpin between the home office, where there are no cash registers, and the restaurant, where the company meets the customer. If you operate a single unit, there’s only one degree of separation between administration and operations. The span of control is minimal: one building, one market, one team, one concept, one kitchen, one menu, one set of books. But open a second location, and things quickly get more complicated — not by a power of two but exponentially.
For instance, to stock a second unit successfully, you can double the amount of dry goods, uniforms, and food and beverage you order, but you can’t double order your leadership savvy or supervisory skills. Effective MULs — who typically ascend from the general manager ranks — must evolve from know-how to know-why, from hands-on control to indirect influence. You won’t find those abilities on a spreadsheet, but mastering the skills is critical. Being a MUL is like wearing a thong swimsuit at the beach — anyone can, but not everyone should. Having an inept manager of managers is a recurring reason why multiunit expansion fails among both independent and chain operators and franchisees. When sales, size and geography expand, the needs for communication, scalability and discipline at the regional-manager level do, as well.
The fact is that effective MULs cannot excel at just one thing. They must be equal parts brand ambassador, talent scout, servant leader, marketing guru, head coach, synergist and goal getter. Those who attempt to supervise by merely being “super GMs” tend to fall hard and fast. The multitude of tasks, priorities and duties that cascade over them daily requires a focus, discipline and skill that even the busiest unit managers never experience. From our recent survey, here are 10 key competencies that high-performing area directors identified as being critical to successfully managing multiple units:
1. Value effectiveness over efficiency. Don’t plan your day based on what’s most efficient for your calendar if it means sacrificing what’s most important for your team’s future. Developing and coaching your unit managers is job one.
2. Be disciplined. “You don’t need more time; you need to decide,” an area coach at Bob Evans told us. “Prioritize two tasks daily: Get the big rocks in place, and teach your managers something new.”
3. Reduce complexity. The best MULs challenge the process and continuously improve key systems like hiring, scheduling, ordering, costs and sales. They never introduce new programs or paperwork to their unit managers with the promise, “This will make your life better,” without simultaneously removing old programs or paperwork that doesn’t live up to that promise.
4. Communicate with strategic clarity. Reinforce the company’s growth strategy often, in both words and deed. Foster collaboration, engage your teams, and inspire a shared vision. MULs don’t build business; they build people. People build business.
5. Prioritize relentless repeatability. All operational systems and processes must be scalable and easily understood.
6. Continuously improve. Identify and share what high-performing unit managers know with the ones who don’t know. Ask yourself why some teams routinely outperform other teams doing the exact same work. Assess the talent and training gaps in every unit, and help the GM improve in both areas. The most effective MULs leave a restaurant better than they found it after every unit visit.
7. Build culture to get results. “Results don’t come from strong systems alone but from the collective experience, belief and actions your managers and teams take,” said Bo Czyz, divisional vice president for Papa John’s International. Results-driven MULs inspire a great working experience for their teams, which influences those teams’ beliefs. Strong beliefs foster strong action, and strong action is what produces results. Author Roger Connors concurs: “The experiences, beliefs and actions of the people in your organization constitute your culture, and your culture produces your results.”
8. Understand that questions are the answers. Effective MULs teach their managers how to think instead of simply what to do. By asking the right questions, they help their unit leaders think through solutions and grow their leadership skills. This eliminates dependency and fosters bigger thinking and self-confidence.
9. Maintain fierce resolve. This idea — first posited by author Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great” — means that the best MULs are passionate, disciplined, accountable and tenacious.
10. Ingrain reciprocal caring. Appreciation, recognition and encouragement must be demonstrated and shared both horizontally and vertically throughout the organization. The best area directors and multiunit franchisees know that leadership is an affair of the heart and not of the head.
Jim Sullivan is a keynote speaker at foodservice and retail conferences worldwide. You can follow him on Twitter @Sullivision or contact him via e-mail at jim@sullivision.com.
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