Franchisees go through 4 distinct developmental phases: infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and seniority. When franchisees first join your system they are like infants requiring a lot of support and training. During this early stage, they need to learn the rules of the game; and in franchising, these boundaries are the franchisor policies and procedures. They also learn the consequences to their choices. For example, if they don’t follow the system, they most likely won’t get the financial rewards they seek from their businesses; they may not get the customers they need or may lose the ones they got.

This is a difficult stage for franchisees because they are totally out of their comfort zone. They not only require knowledge and information; they need franchisors to understand and address their emotional states of mind and how these interfere with their learning and ability to implement. One of the most important elements that forms during this stage is TRUST. During this stage franchisees need consistency of message, they have a hard time dealing with paradoxes and concepts must be broken down into small pieces. During the early days, franchisees are usually more open to learn and appear to be more grateful and appreciative of what the franchisor offers.

After the first year, and in some cases just a few months, franchisees enter the adolescence stage. They get some of the basics of the business down, and begin to believe they know better than the franchisor. They thus start challenging the system in a behavior similar to that of teenagers. In my opinion this is the most difficult and most critical stage franchisees have to go through. They have mastered some parts of the business and fool themselves into thinking they know it all; they cheat themselves from learning all the intricacies of the franchise methodology. This is dangerous because it is at this point when franchisees start deviating from the proven system of the franchisor; deviation that often results in failure. Many franchisors focus most of their training and support effort during the infancy stage relaxing their standards after a few months. However, I believe that it is at the adolescence stage when coaching and training need to intensify. Franchisees must be helped to see that they really do not know everything; but yet, they must also be recognized for what they have mastered. It is a tricky balance. Open and honest communications is the only way to continue to build trust.

As franchisees carry on learning the business after a couple of years they reach their adulthood stage. Now they know how to communicate with the franchisor and how to be part of the team. They also have learned the business basics and have comprehended all the layers of understanding needed for the business to produce results. They also know the value the franchisor contributes to their success. During this stage franchisees seek recognition and inclusion. Franchisors who don’t attend to these needs fail to engage these franchisees and miss out on the contributions they can make to the franchise system. Moreover, if these needs are not met, franchisees may start to disengage from the team.

As time goes on, franchisees become senior members of the team ready and willing to contribute at all times. During this phase franchisees are not only important “validators” of the franchise opportunity, they have valuable experience to offer to the team. Yet, franchisees only get to be contributing and engaged senior members when the franchisor has in place the right communication and support systems to address the needs of franchisees at each of their developmental stages.

The success of the franchise relation is not all about the business concept and the information transferred to the franchisee. Instead, it calls for understanding and addressing the needs of franchisees at each of the different developmental stages.

Related posts:

1. Are Your Franchisees Able to Absorb the Information They Need?
2. What Are the Challenges Faced by Start-up Franchisors?
3. When are franchisees ready to produce results?

Self-confidence primarily refers to having a positive and realistic perception of ourselves and our abilities. All franchisees believe they have what it takes to be successful in the franchise before they buy it; otherwise they wouldn’t go forward with the investment. However, once they make the decision and have to deal with the reality of being a franchisee, lack of self confidence shows up. The degree in which it emerges depends on the level of resilience of each franchisee. What we, franchisees and franchisors, must keep in mind is that lack of self confidence is present in every franchisee and only its magnitude is different from person to person.

So, how do you know if you are feeling lack of confidence :

• Are you feeling of anxious, insecure, or fearful?
• Are you experiencing self-doubt?
• Are you over-caring about what others think or say?
• Are you comparing yourself to others and concluding you come off short?
• Are you reluctant to take risks and to act?
• Are you unusually sensitive to criticism?
• Are you self-justifying or not admitting mistakes?
• Are you not asking for help and/or refusing it when offered?
• Are you over-compensating for your weaknesses with bluff?

Franchisees need to understand that lack of self confidence is part of the process of leaving our comfort zones and growing. In other words, it is OK to feel this way as long as we don’t stay there. When we can recognize our feelings and what they mean, we can move into more positive emotional states.

There two techniques franchisors can use to assist franchisees as they go through this process: communication and effective training.

Communication:

During training openly talk about lack of self-confidence as an element all franchisees need to learn to manage. Talk about how it feels, how it manifests and its consequences. Get your franchisees involved. Ask them questions to help them think of times when they felt insecure and how they overcame those fears and moved forward. Emphasize the following points:

• It is normal to feel this way; everyone does to some degree or another.
• It is important to recognize when lack of self confidence is present so we can manage it. So make sure to learn to know how it usually manifests in you.
• Lack of self confidence is caused by thoughts which lead us to our perceptions. We may not be able to control our circumstances but we have total control of what we think. For example: if you think you are not doing as well as you “should”, and this thought leads you to feel like a failure; change the thought to: “I am exactly where I am meant to be and therefore I am successful.”
• When you are feeling lack of self confidence, make a list of your past accomplishments; it will help getting a more positive perspective.
• Learning to enjoy discomfort as a sign of growth, and thus of movement towards success, is  an important part of this process.
• Focusing on something different usually shifts our feelings of inadequacy.

 Effective Training:

In my experience, the most effective training program is that which breaks down every task and concept into small steps. Small bites are easier to take on, and more so when we are feeling anxious, insecure or inadequate. Conquering a small step allows positive feelings to flow. Don’t expect franchisees to be able to take apart the new concepts you are introducing no matter how simple they seem to you. You know what needs to be done, how the business must be run and each step it takes to be successful, so SPELL IT OUT for them.

Effective training also ensures that we celebrate all small steps taken by the franchisee. Movement is what we want; its size is not relevant. Make sure you help franchisees get in the habit of celebrating their small successes. This is something most of us do not do well. Make it a game and include it in the training program to start creating the shifts that will help franchisees cope with lack of confidence when they are back in their businesses. Make sure to reinforce it often.

Related posts:

1. Is resistance hindering your franchise success?
2. Do the beliefs of franchisees affect their success?
3. When are franchisees ready to produce results?

Franchisees, and sometimes franchisors, get frustrated when (in their view) it takes “too” long for the former to produce the desired results.  They think that attending training and implementing the steps and tasks required “should” produce results at their determined time frame. When results are not forthcoming, many franchisees blame the system and the franchisor, while many franchisors blame the franchisees.

Both are missing the point. It is not about who is to blame, instead it’s about trying to understand what’s really happening. Assuming that the franchisor has a good system and an effective training program the focus then needs to shift to the barriers to learning and to assisting franchisees identify and overcome them. On the franchisee’s side, a refocus to the internal dynamics is needed to be able to discover what may be preventing results.

A franchise business is more than a collection of tasks, job descriptions, concepts and business related activities. What makes it a system is the way in which all of these elements are brought together. A franchise system is a way of thinking. It is here (in the new way of thinking ) that we find the barriers to learning and thus to implementation.

Of the thousands of franchisees I have trained and supported, I can count with one hand those who faced traditional learning difficulties such as ADD or other similar problems. Yet all other franchisees, to one of degree or another, had to face and overcome some sort of barrier. Franchisees are smart people. They have been successful at previous endeavors and are now in new situations that requires them to think and do things differently.

Typical barriers to learning and performance are:

• Lack of confidence
• Propensity to project and transfer the old situations into the new
• Inability to see themselves in a new role
• Perceived sense of urgency and specific time frame for results
• Inability to adapt to new working conditions
• Expectations not based on facts
• Lack of the outwardly set discipline and feedback normally found in a job
• Emotional states
• Fear of failure and fear of change

So, when are franchisees ready to produce results? When they have the ability to implement the system, and that only happens, when they have identified their hurdles to learning and have learn to cope with them.

In future posts I will take each of these barriers and expand on how it affects franchisees and their success. Until then, let me know of other barriers you feel are important to mention here. Thanks!

Related posts:

1. When are franchisees ready to produce results?
2. How does lack of confidence affect the success of franchisees?
3. Are Your Franchisees Suffering from Quantum Leap Syndrome?