The Multi-Unit Leadership Gap That鈥檚 Hurting Your Growth
Most franchisees fail not because they lack ambition but because there's a leadership gap between them and the units they own, and no one actually owns performance across those locations.
The gap is even larger for new Multi-Unit Franchisees, who are very busy focusing on being successful franchisees and managing daily operations.
That’s normal, considering that at the start of their franchise journey, they were Unit Managers. However, this usually causes them to become super GMs rather than leaders who are able to close the gap between the franchise units and the franchise owner.
Don’t let it happen to you! In this blog post, I’ll explain why the multi-unit leadership gap appears and the risks of ignoring it.
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The Leadership Gap
The leadership gap happens between ownership and execution in the front lines of your units.
- Many owners assume that managers plus reports equals leadership, but that is not true.
District leadership is an actual role, not a reward or a title. As discussed in the previous blog post, “The 5 Phases of the Franchise Journey”, there are certain roles that must be fulfilled in a multi-unit organization. The District Manager is one of them.
Someone has to wake up every day thinking about consistency and not just daily coverage. Someone has to take ownership of performance and leadership across locations. That person should be the District Manager. Otherwise, performance becomes accidental rather than intentional and guided by clear objectives.
Keep reading: 3 Signs It’s Time for a District Manager
Why the Leadership Gap Appears
There's a distinct difference between managing units day-to-day versus leading a multi-unit franchise organization through others.
- Managing is the doing and the fixing of day-to-day operations.
- Leading through others is about setting standards, inspecting for results, coaching leaders, and inspiring them to do a great job.
Management tasks, such as opening, closing, attending to customers, conducting inventory, scheduling, etc., should be handled by the Unit Manager. District Managers, on the other hand, should inspire outcomes.
If the owner is still the integrator, then the organization is not scalable. A Franchisee can't deal with the day-to-day of every unit, sometimes even still working side-by-side with Unit Managers, and at the same time, oversee, grow, and scale the organization. It is just not doable!
Another reason for this leadership gap is related to mindset. By that, I mean that Unit Managers usually focus on "today." They might think about tomorrow a little, but mostly, they concentrate on what is happening right now. Leaders, on the other hand, think about the next week, next month, and next quarter.
- The more units a Franchisee directly manages without a clear District Leader role, the more likely they are to become stuck, and the larger the leadership gap will be.
Keep learning: The 7 Most Critical Responsibilities of a District Manager
Lack of Proper Training
Most District Managers are promoted from the Unit Manager ranks. But just because the best managers were successful does not mean that they are prepared to be a great Multi-Unit Leader.
The best Unit Managers succeed because they execute every day. They work shoulder-to-shoulder with their team members, but they also spend time motivating, coaching, and directing them. That’s why they succeed—they are skilled to do these tasks. In the meantime, the District Manager role is one of influence, as they should inspire the team even when they are not there.
If the Unit Managers are not trained to develop these specific leadership skills when they are promoted to District Manager, the role is not clearly defined, or they are unsure of their responsibilities, they will experience confusion about their expectations, a loss of self-confidence, and quiet underperformance.
Most DMs have simply not been trained on what this role is and how to do a great job at it.
That lack of clarity and knowledge isn’t a sign of you failing as a Franchisee, and it’s not your fault. It’s something that happens in franchising because franchising teaches you how to run a single unit well and how to operate that brand successfully across multiple units. However, there is no leadership guidance or training on how to manage a multi-unit enterprise.
The reality is that Franchisees outgrow their operations before they get the training to develop that particular role and those skills. So, literally, growth happens before structure is created, and no one teaches those leaders how to lead this multi-unit enterprise.
- This isn't a people problem; it's a training problem.
The Risks of Ignoring the Leadership Gap
What happens if you ignore this gap because you don't know what to do about it? These are some of the consequences:
- You'll become the bottleneck.
- Your organization will experience inconsistent execution across units because you won’t have time to run every unit and fix the issues to achieve greater consistency.
- There will be a lot of firefighting situations and phone calls happening all the time.
- You won’t have enough structured, thoughtful planning on how to move the business forward.
- Growth becomes exhausting instead of profitable.
All of this can also cause high-potential Unit Managers who are doing a great job feel disappointed, demotivated, and even leave your organization if they don't see the growth they want and deserve as high performers.
Remember: if you are not installing leadership, you are installing chaos throughout your organization. And when you're in chaos, you're not able to grow your business.
If you're growing locations, but are still personally responsible for everything that happens everywhere, analyze where leadership actually lies. Gaps do not close themselves; they expand as complexity increases. So, the earlier you address this leadership gap, the greater your chances of fixing it.
This is a leadership layer that we focus on in our LEAD Program. This specialized training is not about running units, but about leading leaders.
Reflections:
- Are your leaders focusing on today, or are they strategically thinking about the future?
- Have you promoted people into leadership but abandoned them to their luck?
- Are you clear on the role and responsibilities of the District Manager?
- Are you becoming the bottleneck of your organization?
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