The SCORE 2015 Issue 4 | Page 35
Let’s take a closer look at these
challenges:
Paperwork is overtaking people
work. One thing we’ve heard over and
over again is that multiunit managers feel
that they have less and less time to spend
in the stores they supervise because of
paperwork and administrative overload.
The more time they spend out of the
stores at meetings and on paperwork,
the less growth, guidance and support
the store managers get. Hence, both the
internal and external customer’s experience is lessened. Why does this happen?
Time out? It doesn’t surprise me
that area directors complain about the
time they have available to spend in their
stores. Do the math: There’s only 365
days in a year. When you subtract days
off, holidays, travel days and meeting
days, you’re left with about one or two
days day a month that’s realistically available to area directors to do their most
important job: meaningful store visits to
individual units that help develop the
skill sets of your general managers. So
here’s the question of the month: are
multiunit leaders so busy doing their job
(paper and reports) that they can’t do
their job (people and profits)?
Meaningful store visits. What are
the characteristics of an effective restaurant/store visit by a multiunit manager?
“Every store visit by a district manager
(DM) should first have a defined
purpose, whether it’s people, service,
operations, simply reviewing previous
period numbers, or some combination
of the above,”says Deb Jones, a vice
president in the foodservice industry.
“Each store manager’s experience, needs
and operations are different, so each
DM visit should be pre-planned with
the necessary focus in mind.” I couldn’t
agree more, and once you’ve defined
the purpose of the visit, our research
suggests that meaningful store visits
involve the following abilities and skill
sets from multiunit managers:
• Know the characteristics of your top
performing stores and also your bottom
performing stores.
• Determine the focus of the visit:
Training? Observation? Administration?
Safety and security? Follow up.
• See what’s there or what’s not there
in terms of operations and standards.
• Assess the customer’s experience.
• Understanding the store’s system,
people, potential, style and realistically
projecting the outcome.
• Suggest, and detail in writing, what
adjustments need to be made. Then
clearly communicate it to the store’s
management team.
• Set clear expectations, an action plan
and timeframes.
• Leave the store with energy and
positivity; don’t take it with you.
Note to vice presidents, franchise
owners and CEOs: What you do about
helping area managers and area directors
get to the next level is up to you.You can
do something or you can do nothing.You
could invest in their education, relieve
their paperwork, help them work smarter,
incite their passion and make their work a
cause — not a“job.”But please, do something. Not to choose is to lose. S
JIM SULLIVAN is the author of the
Amazon best-selling book, Fundamentals and a sought-after speaker at
leadership conferences worldwide. You
can follow him on Twitter @Sullivision
and get his training product catalog at
Sullivision.com
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SCORE | 2015 Issue 4
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