Joel Libava
(Guest Post On Leadership Skills And Franchising)
Managing a successful franchise business is not without a great leader. After all, studies consistently show that employees keep their job not because they enjoy the work itself–they stay in a company because they have great managers.
This article drills down the most critical leadership skills you need to run a successful franchise business. These skills will cover essential traits that will help you keep loyal employees in the company or surpass unprecedented challenges.
6 Key Leadership Skills for a Successful Franchise Business
Financial Management
The financial aspects of any business are paramount, as a solid financial management plan can mean the difference between success and failure. A solid business plan will allow your company to understand both its short-term liabilities and its long-term assets.
Good leaders are not only financially educated but also have excellent bookkeeping skills. Financial management will help to align your long-term goals with your short-term actions, as well as help to build your business’ credit. As a result, if you have any debt, your business has an excellent shot at building an effective cash flow.
While these benefits certainly apply to leaders of any size or industry, they are crucial for small businesses. The small business owner is often the most vulnerable in a down economy. A solid financial management plan will enable you to run your business more efficiently and effectively, which will lead to higher profits and fewer expenses.
Empathy
You know what they say: people don’t leave companies. They leave their managers. That couldn’t be truer. But, unfortunately, some employees are compelled to leave their dream jobs because they have to spend their time and energy dealing with the fallout of bad bosses.
This is why, if you want to keep hard working employees in your company, you need to show empathy. Empathy means that you are well aware of another person’s feelings so you may understand them better. It also means that you can relate to them on a deeper, more personal level.
Employees need supportive managers daily. They need someone who takes the time to understand their needs and supports them in their endeavors. Showing empathy will give your team a sense of trust that they are confident that you are there for them no matter what adversity comes their way.
Deep Focus
As a leader, you are responsible for directing attention. You are expected to delegate the right job to the right people and determine which tasks need to be prioritized first. But if you fail to cultivate focus in your everyday work, it would be impossible to finish projects on time.
To run your franchise business more effectively, you must improve your capacity to establish deep focus. Having prolonged periods of uninterrupted time to finish one task at a time not only allows you to accomplish more; it’s also less prone to error.
There can be many distractions, especially when you have a lot of things on your plate. From meeting with suppliers to addressing customer concerns to hiring the best people, you may say that staying focused is challenging. However, learning to focus will help you stay on track as you grow your business.
Eye for Detail
Having strong attention to detail means that you can easily guarantee the accuracy, thoroughness, and correctness of every task or document that goes through you.
To grow and operate successfully, it must know more about its customers than they do themselves. This is because businesses rely on their customer base to provide them with a continual stream of new sales. Without the use of customer analytics, any company would essentially be working blind. This means that your business would have no way of determining what types of purchases it should make and which customers are its best prospects.
Many managers are not detail-oriented, which could be detrimental for the whole team and the organization. How?
Imagine this: what if you hired a financial manager who mismanaged the processing of payments or failed to record accurate financial transactions? What about a marketing manager who consistently publishes content with a lot of typos? How about an inventory manager who forgot to re-order or re-stock on raw materials?
Suppose you continue working with managers who don’t see important details from a granular and big-picture perspective. In that case, you risk your franchise business’s reputation. In some cases, the inability to spot errors could even lead to a legal battle.
Developing a solid eye for detail not only makes you more effective at work. It also makes you more credible and trustworthy, knowing that you reviewed all documents first before it goes out to the public.
Adaptability
How quick are you when adapting to change? We’ve seen many small businesses that had to shut down during the pandemic because they failed to quickly permanently. However, you know that their leaders can adapt to new circumstances for those who are still here.
Leaders who show adaptability see change not as an obstacle but as an opportunity to grow. They can be relied upon during company transitions such as mergers and acquisitions. They have very flexible ways of thinking, planning during a crisis, or anticipating risks that may affect the entire business.
Change is inevitable, so you’ll find it easier to assess risks and opportunities in current and future situations if you carry this key leadership behavior.
Resilience
Leaders are barraged every day with roadblocks and failed attempts at success. But if you are resilient, you find it easy to stand up no matter how many times you stumble.
Resilient leaders display all the best leadership behaviors any manager should have, including the top four aforementioned skills. In addition, they show incredible emotional strength, boldness, and determination, especially during times of distress.
Imagine a leader who’s quickly taken aback by difficult situations. Employees will feel discouraged to push forward, knowing that their leader has chosen to give up.
Remember that your team needs a solid and reliable leader and focused on their goals…
They won’t take criticisms personally and accept them constructively. Instead, they need a leader who could stand up for the team no matter how hard the situation gets.
Winning franchise businesses need skilled leaders to grow.
This leadership skills list is meant to help you lead your team better, especially during the most challenging times. Other crucial traits will bring the best value to your business–such as trustworthiness, initiative, and accountability. The important thing is you identify the most important deals, traits, and characteristics essential to your long-term growth as an organization.
(JV Calabon, Outreach Manager, likes to explore what works and what doesn’t, rather than working with conventional guidelines. And JV loves building relationships.)
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