5 Ways to Find Leaders for Your Franchise
Nov 21, 2023
One of the biggest challenges for franchisees today is to find leaders who can guide and inspire the teams, and manage the units based on the brand and business systems, with a high level of excellence.
- Sadly, there is a leadership crisis in the retail and franchise industries. This is why being able to find leaders for your organization's needs is critical for your daily operation and growth.
Not only that. Having great leaders will allow you the freedom to focus on your responsibilities as a business owner and multi-unit franchisee.
If you are having trouble identifying or recruiting this type of talent for your franchise, here are 5 ways in which you can find those leaders who can make a difference in your business.
1. Become an employer of choice
Your franchisor makes many efforts and marketing investments to create brand awareness and attract new customers. You need to take the same approach when it comes to having excellent employer branding to attract great leaders to your organization.
This is critical because your business reputation in the community and who you are as an employer will make a difference when it comes to hiring employees.
Some ideas to develop your employee profile are:
- Infuse information, visuals, and the message of how you are as an employer whenever you do marketing and advertising on your social media platforms.
- It will be a great idea to Include your employees in those messages!
- Share with the community at large what you do to be a great leader and boss in your organization.
- Work on your reputation among your employees because they will share their working experience with potential applicants.
Branding is critical. You have one even if you don't manage it purposefully. So you should focus on analyzing and constantly improving what employer branding you are conveying to the marketplace, and also, caring for the employee experience your staff has while working for you.
That will tell you a lot about your employer's branding.
Keep reading: What is your employer brand and how to improve it
2. Hire future leaders
Each hire in the front ranks should be looked at as a potential future leader in your organization.
This is especially true if you are in an aggressive growth mode in your business and have a huge development plan to open several units per year because each of those openings will require a leader behind.
My advice is to make sure that anybody who is involved in the hiring process in your company has this mindset. That way, instead of just covering the current positions in your units, they will know that any new employee could be the next leader, and make decisions based on that.
It will also help you ensure a bench for the future and that you have enough time to develop them for that role.
3. Look for rising stars
You can also find the leaders of the future for your organization looking for the rising stars within the existing employees in your ranks.
- I guarantee that in every one of your units you have one, two, three, four, maybe even five people with that potential!
There’s a strong reason to go after them: you are more likely to have success at fulfilling these leadership roles if you promote from within than if you bring them from the outside.
Think about it! You already know them and they know you. They fit with the culture and you are aware of their employee behavior. And the likelihood of success of those frontline hardworking employees in a position of leadership is much higher than if you hire an external.
4. Develop your people into great leaders
Once you have identified who those rising stars are, don’t let them go! Create some sort of system to provide the necessary time, money, and resources to develop and train them, and improve their skills. That way when they do get promoted, they will be ready to go.
The investment is worth it! Even if they don't become future leaders, they still will be better at their jobs every day thanks to the additional guidance.
5. Be a great role model
Being the type of leader people are looking for is another great way to find the leaders for your organization.
You need to work on your leadership skills as you lead in the ranks and your business because if you act as an inspiring leader and demonstrate what you want to find, you are more likely to inspire others to become leaders.
I have two final pieces of advice to cope with the leadership crisis in our industry:
- Spend time on these five activities because they will help you build the leadership bench you need for the future.
- Provide the leaders in your organization with the leadership and management skills they need to be successful unit managers! You can do that with our Manage Program!
This is a unit management certification program where we share the information, tools, knowledge, and resources these men and women need to manage the unit as a business and be successful in every area.
Explore this program and register for free for the next information session where you can learn more about what we can do for you and your team.
Get more leadership franchise tips by following us on all social platforms, including our YouTube channel and podcast.
Reflections:
- Do you know what the community thinks about you as a workplace?
- How many people in your existing team have referred their friends and family to come and work for you?
- What are you doing to develop your rising stars?
- How much are you inspiring others to become leaders?
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