A message from Kevin D. Crone, CEO, Dale Carnegie Business Group, Canada.

Good Morning,

A week ago, I met with Greg Hogarth, President of QSR Group Inc.  who has 1200 employees and is one of the largest licensees of Tim Horton’s, Wendy’s and Pioneer.
What a great person he is.  Someone everyone would like.

He built his business from scratch, risking a lot up-front like all founders do.  Then he proceeded to follow the proven franchise system.  Of course like any business, some franchisees do better than others, and why he is so successful is what I will present to you this morning.  Here are some of his insights… see for yourself what they could mean to you and your business.

“We have been creative in how we achieve results”.  Franchisors don’t like creativity – for good reasons.  They want you to follow their systems.  [The franchisee in Pittsburg who invented the Big Mac for McDonalds almost got fired.]  So make any good idea the others person’s idea.  You cannot bulldoze your franchisor.  It takes people skills and humility to allow ideas to get accepted within the system.  Involve others until it’s their idea.

This is a powerful principle and can be used in any human interaction.

Obviously in the industry he is in, they have incredible turnover of staff and management.  He could have moaned and complained about that and used it as an excuse.  Instead he and his team created and implemented ways to develop an environment that no longer burns out employees.  He gives people a part of the profits, encourages and bonuses people who take proper vacations.

They take coaching and training people seriously.  (if you have turnover you’d better do this.)

They promote and build managers who can pass on their expertise to make sure they are replaceable and promotable.

They build a fun environment where employees can learn or be reminded of some of the values.

They respect “team”, “a sense of community”, feeling appreciated and being challenged.

They teach skills employees can use in their lives, at home – everywhere.

They hire attitude.  They can teach everything else.  “A ‘positive, others-oriented’ attitude works 85% of the time,” says Greg.

He finds ways to motivate others.  Greg learned from his own life and training that different people respond to different stimulae.  He found that, for some, it’s public awards, others a personal e-mail, some respond to a pat on the back, and others to gifts.  He says the overall idea is to understand what our people respond to and pay those little attentions and to work constantly on being genuinely interested and caring about people.  “The leader’s job is to motivate others.”

Greg sees that adversity builds people and brings out the true glory of the spirit of people.  We all need it in order to be able to meet the challenges of business and life and it causes new opportunities and character.   Success usually follows.  He understands that business people are forced into handling adversity, so Greg tries to create challenges for his people.

Overall, he says that if you want your business to be half the size it is and you want to work twice as hard as you do, then go around banging people on the head and using scare tactics.  It may work in the short term, but you pay a big price.  It will not be fun, you’ll create costs [like turnover]…too much time away from family… and some personal unhappiness.

There is a big difference between commitment and compliance.  It doesn’t have to be about compliance.  Treat people well and you’ll have the business results, lower costs and a good life.  That’s success.  Greg pointed out that Don Schroeder, the CEO of Tim Horton Canada is one tremendous leader who balances business results and people skills.  He accomplishes results through people.

Isn’t he something?  It was inspiring listening to Greg.  It made me want to be a better leader. We all take people skills for granted and call them soft. In actuality, they produce results and are hard to do. It’s costly if we don’t do them.

How about you?  What actions could you take?  Let’s review:

· Be creative but let others think the idea is theirs
· Create an environment that matches peoples values – team, fun, motivation, challenge
· Coach and train people in some skills they can use everywhere
· Hire and build managers who will give away their expertise and skills, who can replace themselves
· Hire and promote attitude
· Find out others motivations and sincerely give people what turns them on
· Create challenges for your people

Which one of these principles could you focus on this week?  Thanks Greg!

Have a great week.

Kevin D. Crone
CEO
Dale Carnegie Business Group
BusinessNext Inc.
Offering Dale Carnegie Throughout Canada