“A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted. “You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

We are so eager to teach our franchisees all we believe they need to know to successfully run the franchise business that we rarely consider that their minds may be like the cup in the previous story: already filled. So, we keep pouring information into the franchisee’s mind not realizing that nothing we are sharing with them is going in.

It is critical we help franchisees adopt a Beginner’s Mind as they start their training on your franchise opportunity (to borrow another Zen concept). It’s only from this mental position that true learning can take place. A Beginner’s Mind is an empty mind, one that allows new concepts to come in.

For example, if we have never seen or heard about a bicycle and are being trained to ride one, our minds would be empty of pre-conceptions and we would be able to truly listen to any instructions given to us. Our minds would be teeming with questions and requests such as: “What is this? What do I do with it? How do I do it? Show me. Help me.” However, if we are familiar with the concept of bicycles, even if we haven’t ridden one in years, most likely we would attempt to get on the bike right away and try it on our own. The questions of the Beginner’s Mind would leave us replaced with statements such as: “I hope I don’t fall; this bike is not as good as the one I used to ride; and so on.” In other words, fear and judgment take the place of curiosity.

The facts are simple:

• We cannot learn anything if we think we already know it.
• Our preconceived ideas and judgments influence our understanding of the new, preventing us from true learning.
• If we are always thinking about how we can do it better, we can’t possibly learn the way it is being taught; which is the new way and could be much better.

Because new franchisees go through massive change when they first join a franchise system, they feel vulnerable and their tendency is to seek safety in what they already know. This natural response to the emotional upheaval they experience challenges true learning.

It’s important you help your franchisees deal with these emotional states; help them empty their cup before trying to pour in more information; help them embrace a Beginner’s Mind. Ask yourself: “Are my franchisees ready and able to absorb the information they need to learn?” and “How can I help them create the mindset that will allow learning to take place?”

If you want to learn more about what makes franchisees successful, keep reading this blog, you’ll be able to find similar posts under the Franchisees tab. Also, consider reading my book Franchise Succcess: The New Formula.

Related posts:

1. Do the beliefs of franchisees affect their success?
2. Is Your Training Program Geared to Create "Franchisees of the Year"?
3. When are franchisees ready to produce results?

The Quantum Leap Syndrome symptoms or signs include:

• Under performance
• Inability to learn and implement the franchise system
• Frustration
• Anger
• Sadness
• Mood swings
• Procrastination
• Blaming others
• Conflict
• Resistance

The most important questions to ask are:

WHY are your franchisees not able to implement the system? Is it because you lack the tools to help them learn; or, is it because they are suffering from a Quantum Leap Syndrome?

If the answer is the latter, no business tools or business skills training will produce different results. So, how do you find out what the answer is? First, make absolutely sure that your systems and training programs are up to part. Next, accept the fact that change is NOT easy for most of your franchisees and that you need to support them through it. Don’t run away thinking that feelings and emotions are for sissies. Times have changed and you need to get with it. If the success of your franchisees is your objective, you need to accept that emotional wellbeing is paramount to success. It takes courage to accept and deal with emotions. In today’s world not dealing with them is what really makes you a sissy.

In order to gauge the magnitude of the change your franchisees are really going through, get to know them.

• What did they do before they became a franchisee?
• Did they have a staff of people to help them?
• What was required of them day in and day out?
• What was their work environment like?
• What was the educational and socioeconomic level of the people they related to in their previous life?
• Does the family support their change? How has it affected the family members?

Competent franchise sales people would have covered these questions with them, but usually operations and training personnel do not get a true understanding of this information. You do not have to be a psychologist or a counselor to support your franchisees through the initial phase. You just have to accept that there is a lot that’s going on and you just have to care.  The next step is to simply help them gain awareness of what they are going through and how it is affecting them. Let them know that what they feel is natural; and that it is NOT insurmountable.

In helping your franchisees understand what they are going through, keep in mind that every franchisee needs a slightly different support system. Some are willing to talk about their feelings and emotions while others will not. Your approach cannot be a one size fits all. The only elements that will always be required of you include:

• Show you care.
• Ask questions.
• Listen as hard as you can.
• Don’t judge.
• Don’t direct.
• Be patient.

Once franchisees become aware of their internal conflicts, they will be able to start handling it. Through awareness they will be learn how to let go of the past and fully engage in the present.

What do you think? What has been your experience?

Related posts:

1. Franchisees –Do You Need to Change Your Lenses?
2. When are franchisees ready to produce results?
3. What makes a franchisee successful?

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?

• Is the franchise concept viable?
• Is the success of the business replicable?
• Are the financial results of the business sustainable or is the business just a fad?
• Is the business capable of producing profits commensurable with the investment required.
• Does the franchisor provide an effective training program?
• Does the franchisor offer a solid support system with efficient and effectual tools?
• Does the franchisor focus on innovation?
• Does the franchisor invest in the system continuously?
• Is there sufficient demand for the business products and/or services?

Traditionally franchise experts have focused on these outer elements as the keys to franchisee success. Yet, if these factors were enough to produce successful franchisees then no franchise systems with these components would ever experience franchisee failure. Unfortunately this is not the case.

Franchisee success depends on much more than outer circumstances and conditions. It depends on the inner character of each franchisee, specifically around the following factors:

• How well do franchisees know what they want to achieve from the business; that is, what the business will do for them? How engaged with their dreams are they?
• Do they hold beliefs that support their success or are they still hanging on to beliefs that work against them?
• How ready are they to accept all of the conditions that are brought about by their potential success?

Franchisees who don’t do well in a franchise where others are thriving tend to look outwards for the causes of their personal lack of success. Typical comments from these individuals include:

• Had the franchisor been honest with me I would not have bought into this franchise.
• Only those franchisees who have this or that innate skill can succeed at this business.
• If we only had this or that tool then I could succeed.

I know this may sound stern but to me these are rationalizations from franchisees who are not ready to take responsibility for their success. There may be some truth to their statements and feelings, but when they use them  to justify their results without examination these statements are unreliable.

Successful franchisees know what they want and go for it. They hold the beliefs that support their success and dismiss those that don’t. And, they are willing to do whatever it takes to get ready to achieve the success they seek.

Franchise Success = Dreams + Beliefs + Readiness

Related posts:

1. Franchise Success = Dreams + Beliefs + Readiness
2. 5 Beliefs Successful and Unsuccessful Franchisors Hold
3. Do the beliefs of franchisees affect their success?

Successful franchisees know what they want. They dare to dream. They clarify their dreams to the point when they transform them into their vision. They allow these dreams to propel them through life towards their achievement. They are so sure about what they want that they see it, touch it, taste it, smell it, and live it in their minds until it becomes the reality they live day in and day out.

Successful franchisees have a belief system that supports the achievement of their dreams. They know they can win; they know they can achieve what they are seeking, and they know they can learn to do whatever they need to do to make their dreams come true. They believe that the franchise in which they invested will produce the results they seek. They believe in the franchisor, in the franchise system, and in the fact that they can implement the business model successfully. Whatever doubts pop into their minds they are quickly dissipated by strength of their supportive beliefs.

Successful franchisees are simply ready to be successful. They have worked through the issues and beliefs that could impede their success and are no longer in a state of resistance. They embrace their possibilities and their future but also they accept the present as the path towards what they desire understanding that there are steps that must be gone through on the way to their dreams.

Franchisees can create the conditions they need to manifest the success they seek. Likewise, franchisors can provide a supportive environment and a systematic approach for franchisees to reach the results they expect.

Do you know your dreams? Do you know if you have the supportive beliefs needed to assure your success? Are you ready?

Related posts:

1. Do the beliefs of franchisees affect their success?
2. Franchise Success: Are you too old or too much of an achiever to dream?
3. What makes a franchisee successful?