Do Business Well

So, you have selected for talent and you have defined the right outcomes. You have your people, and they have their goals. What should you do now? What should you do to speed each person’s progress toward performance?

Great managers would offer you this advice: Focus on each person’s strengths and manage around his weaknesses. Don’t try to fix the weaknesses. Don’t try to perfect each person. Instead do everything you can to help each person cultivate his talents. Help each person become more of who he already is.

This radical approach is fueled by one simple insight: Each person is different. Each person has a unique set of talents, a unique pattern of behaviors, of passions, of yearnings. Each person’s pattern of talents is enduring, resistant to change. Each person, therefore, has a unique destiny. Continue Reading »

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A healthy partnership is based on one crucial understanding: Neither partner is perfect. If potential partners are afraid to admit their imperfections, or are trying diligently to correct them, or are reluctant to ask for help, neither will be on the lookout for a productive partnership. They will be nervous of confessing to too many faults and suspicious of anyone who offers.

Strangely, most companies actively encourage this kind of behavior. Job descriptions, for even the simplest roles, run to two or three pages, presumably in hopes of capturing every minute task that the perfect incumbent should be able to perform. Training classes and development plans target those few behaviors where you consistently struggle. Everyone talks of the need to “broaden your skill set.” Continue Reading »

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The one thing that every person has in common is the amount of time they have in an hour — sixty minutes. Depending on individual priorities, the manner in which these same periods are spent is infinite in choice. Amazingly though, and despite efficient management of time, the majority of our achievement and happiness takes place in a short space of time. Using the unit of one hour as a reference point, ten minutes is utilised in channelling our energy proactively, while fifty minutes is wasted in using our energy reactively. With the majority of our energy absorbed through involvement with such draining elements, it is no surprise that there is so much fatigue and depression.

Every waking hour takes you either towards fulfilling your particular speciality, or away from it. There is no neutral, only forwards or backwards. Channelling your energy has nothing to do with keeping in balance, which is more to do with restoring energy that has been drained. Continue Reading »

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Draw up the franchisee profile. Franchisee selection is perhaps the most difficult aspect of franchising. Given the nature of the franchise‘ relationship, you and your franchisees will be interdependent, in other words, success as a franchisor is likely to elude you unless the vast majority of your franchisees are successful. When selecting franchisees, guard against the danger of seeking carbon-copy images of yourself. This will not work. The character traits of a successful franchisor differ sharply from those of a successful franchisee. Professional testing is available (see the block “Useful services for franchisors” on page 111) but experience has shown that gut feel continues to play an important part in successful franchisee selection.

Prepare promotional material for the franchise. Most franchisors use a variety of items for this purpose.

A low-cost (sometimes called a confetti-type) brochure which can be distributed freely, for example at exhibitions, and posted out in response to casual enquiries.

To respond to qualified prospects, a glossy folder that has a distinctly upmarket feel to it will be needed. It should contain detailed information about the franchise opportunity and a franchisee questionnaire. Continue Reading »

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