Being Detailed and Specific – Leadership

Being Detailed and Specific – Leadership – Best Practice #26

Relevant questions:

• Do your franchisees regard you as being detailed and specific, versus vague and imprecise?
• Are you sufficiently detailed in your communications with franchisees?
• Are you frustrating your franchisees by making broad statements, lacking underlying detail and justification?
• Are you specific about what needs doing, and do you follow up accurately by doing what you said you would do?

A franchisor leader needs to take care to be sufficiently detailed and specific in their communications and interactions with franchisees, whether by email, face-to-face discussion, presentation, agreements or follow-up.

The formal nature of franchising means that detail and precision is needed. After all, franchise systems are governed by a formal framework, with the franchise relationship first defined by the franchise agreement. The legal franchise agreement framework is then complimented by a business system, typically captured within franchise manuals and ancillary tools and documentation. Support then reinforces this operating model. It’s all about detail.

The specificity of this environment, coupled with the interdependent, yet not totally aligned nature of both franchisor and franchisee businesses, means that business and relational discussions and actions, exist within this wider framework. Thus, there is a need for precision in interactions.

In our experience a franchisor that is detailed and specific will develop a stronger franchisee following to their leadership and more positive relationships.  They will also develop more compelling cases for systemwide change than those leaders that are broad-focused and less specific – perhaps leaving others (or in some cases no one) to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.

We have seen examples of franchisors lose franchisee respect and create challenging situations for themselves due to a lack of detailed and precise analysis, planning and/or actions.

Build trust respect credibility with franchisees by being specific and detailed in your communications and interactions. By doing so, you’re more likely to be effective and able to influence franchisees. That includes an ability to influence franchisees on things that matter – like making needed systemwide changes that impact them.

About the Franchising Best Practice 500 Series

This is part of a series of franchising best practices. Franchize Consultants is sharing and publishing these best practices weekly for the betterment of franchising. We know that better knowledge and execution of franchising best practices leads to bigger and more valuable franchisor and franchisee businesses.