How to Build a Successful Team for your Franchise with Chris Oakley

Go against the grain to build a successful team

One of the best things you can do is think about the big picture, right? As a business owner, you know that teams are successful when they have good leaders. So hiring the correct management for your franchise location can be the key to growing your business. The right leadership also allows you to focus your attention where it needs to be.

One of the top things you can do is hire someone who is humble, willing to learn, and understands and is passionate about the vision of the company. 

Go against the grain of what other businesses are doing and give yourself time to vet the applicants. Find an employee you trust to sort through applications, conduct initial interviews, and summarize the choices for you. Then take your time with the interview process, getting to know the candidate, and do not make hasty decisions. Let other companies make rash decisions and hire the person desperate for a job.

Work ethic or experience: which is more important?

Obviously, experience and the skill-set for the job are something to look for in a potential hire. But is it the most important factor?Not necessarily. Experience in the field is great, but someone who is teachable and eager to learn is even better. A huge factor for Chris is simple: he has to really like the person he’s interviewing.

His hiring motto is that they need to be “hungry, humble and (people) smart”. 

Take this opportunity to get to know the people you’re interviewing. What are their dreams? What is their higher purpose? Are they good with people? It’s important to gage who they are and what drives them. Continue listening as Chris and I cover some of the best types of questions to ask, and the responses to look for.

Bring personality assessments into the mix

So how do you know the right questions to ask? How do you draw out stories and examples that you want to see in a key employee? This is where we highly recommend utilizing a personality assessment. One that I use is Color Code—but there are many others. You can use Myers-Briggs, DISC, Enneagram, or whatever assessment of choice.

Just don’t choose one that is too time-consuming. You want applicants to be able to do it quickly and not feel pressured for time. You also want to choose something where you’re able to understand the results and use them to decide what questions to ask. It’s a good look at their strengths and weaknesses. Use that knowledge to your advantage to hire the right person for your team.

What do you do if you’ve made a poor hiring choice?

It happens, and when it does—I’m not gonna lie—it sucks. When you hire the wrong person, productivity can tank. The output of your time can be affected, and your business may suffer. Our gut instinct is to immediately remove the person immediately. But this is where you need to take responsibility. If someone wasn’t the right fit for the team, you’re the one that made the decision. So what do you do?

Take the steps towards corrective action. You can’t just fire them without giving them the chance to rectify the situation and make steps towards change. Develop a plan with them, communicate along the way, and wait. You may still end up letting them go—but it will not be a surprise. It also shows your whole team that if a mistake is made, they have a chance to redeem themselves—as long as they are willing to learn from those mistakes.

Listen to the whole episode as Chris and I dole out some great advice, some of our favorite interview questions, and some funny personal stories you don’t want to miss!

Resources & People Mentioned

• The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni
• The Color Code personality test
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory
• The DiSC personality test
• The Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator

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