Best Practices

Along with the existence of positive and constructive team roles, negative and destructive agendas can emerge that undermine the ability of individual teams to function and perform adequately.
Negative and destructive roles emerge for a variety of reasons, including personal agendas, resistance to change, immaturity, and lack of motivation and/or team leadership and management.
One of a leader's major roles is to observe individual team members and watch for destructive and negative behaviors. When problems surface, they need to encourage the team to collectively recognize and handle them within the team environment. If this fails, it is up to leaders to take specific action with the offending individuals.
Leaders need to be watchful for the following negative roles and behaviors within their individual teams:

Aggressor
The aggressor criticizes everything said within the team environment, and is in effect an active naysayer...

Sunita Sagar got her first shot at franchising in 2007, when she was given the chance to buy an underperforming Denny's in Campbell, Calif.
"That restaurant was going downhill," she recalls, "and we turned that restaurant upside down. We turned the people around, we turned the operation around, and we turned the sales around. We started staffing the restaurant with the right people, and then we had an opportunity to purchase more. So we bought three stores in Fresno in 2008."
Sagar stepped in on each, where she could see for herself what needed to change. "We took over those three stores and managed those stores for a few weeks," she says. "We made some staffing changes, found people right for the business, and took a few months to bring those stores around...

Since national health care reform was signed into law in March 2010, it has generated strong reaction from multi-unit franchisees and small-business owners across the nation. Among its provisions, the law ("Obamacare" to its opponents and critics) requires employers with more than 50 full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees to provide healthcare insurance or face harsh penalties. However, when it comes to the actual impact of the law, the sentiments of many franchisees can be summed up as, "There's still more that we don't know than we do."
Misty Chally, deputy executive director of the Coalition of Franchisee Associations, agrees there's still much to be learned about the law. "But as of today, in 2014 there will be a mandate for all employers with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees to provide health insurance coverage," she says...

When we talk about customer service, we usually think about how we deal with the people who walk through our doors--both physical and virtual--to purchase our products and services. What we often fail to realize, however, is that we also have customers within our organizations; those customers are our coworkers. 
Customer service means being responsive to a customer's needs and being resourceful in meeting those needs. Customer service is many things: knowledge, communication, skill, attitude, efficiency, integrity, reliability, knowledge, and helpfulness.
How you interact with coworkers and supervisors has a huge impact on the effectiveness of the team. When Dan asks for your help, do you tell him that it's not your responsibility, or do you eagerly offer to do whatever you can to help him meet his deadline? When Bethany points out an error, do you get defensive, or do you view her comment as constructive and vow to improve your performance?
When you treat coworkers with respect, when you help them solve their problems and meet or exceed the demands of the job, your value increases dramatically...

Effective leadership is based on ongoing input and feedback. Where 20 years ago managers rarely asked for input, today effective leaders are regularly seeking and receiving employee feedback. Leaders elicit cooperation from employees and other individuals when they listen to them. To move employees forward, leaders first identify their needs by asking for their feedback. Identifying employee needs through feedback allows leaders to modify their behavior to serve the best interests of their employees and unit.
Feedback is an effective communication mechanism that enhances productivity and motivation. Leaders use it to create a positive sense of direction that increases efficiency and reduces stress among employees. It empowers employees and gives them ownership in both the ideas and direction driving the organization...

Getting team members to understand customer service facts

Serving customers is not a punishment; it is a privilege. That's how I want my team members to think. Customers form the foundation of how my employees make money to support their families. The more delighted customers we have, the more opportunities my team members have to take care of the people most important to them. That's why we never stop talking about customer service. Here are some tools we use to continually remind our team about how important the customer is to all of us.

Customer Service: The Facts

Organizations can expect obvious results when they implement an empowered environment. However, many people fail to realize the impact of the hidden effects of the empowerment process. These hidden benefits can have a more dramatic impact on profitability than a leader might imagine. When one considers the issue of the effective use of resources, the hidden impact of empowerment clearly demonstrates how leaders can effectively marshal the resources they are responsible for.
Many traditional managers fail to understand and comprehend how empowerment can impact their bottom line, as there are a number of hidden costs associated with restricting employee abilities and capabilities. Most are focused on their power and authority and concentrate on ways to maintain their personal power base...

This has always been the place, right? America, I mean, where anybody can start with nothing and turn it into something. Every multi-unit organization started with a dream, and many with just a single location. And for those who have kept their promises to customers and delivered great service, success has often followed.
Let me tell you about Lenny's Sub Shop, founded in Bartlett, Tenn., in 1998 by Len and Sheila Moore. Lenny's is a Philadelphia-style sub shop that has grown to about 200 franchisees across the country. They serve their own unique brands of potato chips and thin crisps, and they make a signature hot cherry-pepper relish, just one way they make their subs unique. Their sandwiches are terrific. Why? They provision top-quality products, slice meats and cheeses to order, and adhere to their recipes religiously...

Small business owners frequently juggle a variety of roles within their companies. Creating a balance and effectively managing available time is extremely important to most small businesses. In order to economize and make the most of the available time, you should implement a time management plan.
Get Real. Set realistic goals that are not unreasonable or unattainable. It can be very demotivating to consistently feel as if you have not accomplished anything, simply because you regularly fail to meet unreasonable goals that you've set for yourself. By setting more realistic and attainable goals, you will feel a sense of accomplishment, and often be motivated to work harder.
Know Yourself. When are you most productive? Use the hours of the day when you are most productive to tackle the more difficult tasks...

In 1996, Michael Ansley and his former college roommate asked their fathers for loans to buy their own franchise (Buffalo Wild Wings, then known as BW3) unit near Ann Arbor, Mich.
"We were young and didn't know what we were doing," he recalls. "But we learned how not to run a restaurant and where not to put it." Within a decade, Ansley had grown to 22 Buffalo Wild Wings units throughout Michigan and Florida. The entrepreneur is also involved with the franchise side of Bagger Dave's Legendary Burger Tavern in Michigan.
Ansley's business endeavors generated $45 million in revenue in 2010 and close to $60 in 2011. But his markets have faced difficult and challenging times during the past couple of years. Still, he's optimistic and offered this insight on the economy, his markets, and how he comes by capital...

What gets rewarded gets done, so recognize and reward a lot! This is especially so if you want to learn how to change company culture.
First, reward all the traditional categories: sales achieved, goals accomplished, customer compliments received. Then add some spice to really promote efforts on how to change company culture.
Celebrate new accounts, repeat orders, projects completed under budget, money-saving ideas, increased efficiency, and of course, improvements in customer service. To learn how to change company culture, you need to reward the actions you want to become ingrained.
Acknowledge achievements of individuals: most productive person, most consistent performance, most outrageous extra effort. This can also help in efforts to learn how to change company culture...

When I was 19 years old, I was promoted to passenger service manager for Capital Airlines at Midway Airport in Chicago. I had no college degree, no supervisory or managerial training, and there I was in charge of a shift with about 20 employees in customer service and 20 flights per shift. My experience level consisted of growing up on a farm in Iowa, being a baggage handler, and then a ticket agent for 18 months.
Kind of scary.
How do you know whether you are going to do a good job or not?
Everyone else was at least 10 years older than me in experience. So, I just asked them. I didn't know any better than to be open and honest and ask for their feedback. Wow, did they give me helpful and outspoken feedback. It was very eye opening...

"I'm sorry, but this just isn't working, I think it's best if we part company."
Have you been on the giving or receiving side of that statement? Do you recall the unpleasant sense of regret, the foreshadowing and worry that led to those words?
A performance-based dismissal is typically preceded by a period of discomfort when everyone realizes there's a bad fit to the job. Remedial steps may be taken in the interest of fairness, but there's a sense that the situation will not improve. During this interim period, productivity dives, momentum is lost, and morale deteriorates as fellow employees watch and wait for the inevitable.
Since dismissals commonly play out like this, it is paramount to simply put the right person in the right place from the start...

You search and screen and interview for the best employees. Days pass, sometimes weeks, as you narrow down your choices (and continue to operate understaffed). You pull the trigger, make the hire, and within days you realize you've made a mistake--sooner if your new hire never even shows.
Let's face it, hiring the right employees is the bane of existence for franchise operators. Yet without top-performing front-line employees and unit-level managers--the face of your franchise--you will not be as successful as you could be. Hiring right often seems a mysterious, unachievable goal lacking any chance of long-term success.
"The challenge is that we really want the cream of the crop and sometimes we end up with the cream of the crap," says Bill Wagner, CEO and co-founder of Accord Management Systems, a company that specializes in behavioral and hiring consulting...

Negotiation really is an art, and can be a challenge to master for even the most astute business professional. And like any art form, it must be refined and crafted. Getting a "good deal" can result in a feeling of euphoria. So, how does one "negotiate" a good deal? It can be difficult, especially if the other party appears to be holding all the cards. Here are some tips that will help you negotiate great deals.
Know What You Are Willing to Concede. Decide what your minimums are before you enter the negotiations. Knowing your bottom line, as well as what items are "non-negotiable" will help tremendously. It is important to know this before you enter negotiations, simply because all too often, in the excitement of bartering and negotiating a deal, parties will be tempted to make concessions they had not actually intended make, in an effort to close the deal...

In order to excel in your work, in your life, or as a leader, you need to commit to continuous learning. Many leaders know this, but many more are missing the opportunities for powerful learning that could really help them get ahead on their goals.
Leaders are encouraged to learn "on the job." The problem is that many of us don't. Either because we're too busy, we forget, we don't know what we need to learn, or we don't have the resources we think we need, we end up learning by chance or command. Neither one is very powerful.
Learning by chance means you take opportunities to learn whenever they show up, but you don't necessarily go looking for more. A conference brochure arrives; it seems interesting; you go. A friend recommends a book; it looks good; you read it...

Generally speaking, people like to compete. They like to test themselves and be challenged. Most important, people like to win. Being rewarded for it? That's icing on the cake. It doesn't matter where they're from, what language they speak, or what job they do - people like to succeed and be acknowledged for it. Because I consider myself a coach, and I believe in positive energy and positive reinforcement, I believe that incentives are the single greatest tool I have for motivating my workforce...;and they can be for you, too.
Incentives work - whether the person receiving them is the manager of a retail business, an executive at a large corporation, or an entry-level employee making minimum wage. And incentives don't have to be pure cash, although I have yet to find a team member who would ever turn it down...

When great front-line hourly employees quit, most managers take it personally--and with good reason. For more than 20 years, employee exit interview research has been telling us that the #1 reason the best people leave is because they feel they are being poorly managed. In other words, these folks joined the company and then quit the manager.
Just imagine how frustrated you would have to be with your job to decide to go elsewhere. That's how dissatisfied all the outstanding people who have left your organization have felt. If your people truly are your greatest assets, then the way your managers and supervisors manage those assets is the crucial key to your organization's success.
Whether you're recruiting field and area managers or hourly employees, there are five specific things everyone wants from their job, no matter what their position...

Irate customers. No matter how good you are at what you do, what business you are in, or where it is located, you will at some point find yourself facing an irate customer. Maybe a product was flawed, a delivery was late, or a charge was inaccurate. How you deal with that customer not only will determine how he or she feels about your organization, but how you feel about yourself.
When you are able to turn an irate customer into a satisfied customer, you will gain confidence in your ability to diffuse a volatile situation and to evoke a positive outcome.
When most people come in contact with an irate customer, their first instinct is to turn and run. Dealing with a customer who has a problem and is upset about it, can be more than a little daunting...

As the economy continues to struggle through a slow recovery, business people everywhere are looking for any tools or techniques that will help them keep their businesses alive and thriving. Zane Tankel, CEO of Apple Metro, Inc., a company that owns 34 Applebee's restaurants in the New York area, is no different.
Yet Tankel has not only kept his business afloat during the recession, he even grew his businesses - opening ten new Applebee's restaurants since 2008, while garnering the brand's coveted Franchisee of the Year in 2009 and 2010.
Last time, Tankel began offering some tried and true tips that businesses should note in order to sustain and even grow their businesses in the days, weeks and months ahead in an uncertain economic climate...