How to Turn a Good Manager Into a Great Leader
Apr 08, 2025
Being a good manager may not be sufficient for having a successful and profitable franchise unit. What you need is not a firefighter who is constantly putting out fires; you want someone who can help your business move forward.
That’s why in this blog post, I’ll share six ways in which you can turn a good manager into a great leader.
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1. Teach Them to Think Like an Owner
The first thing you can do to turn a good manager into a great leader is to teach them how to think like an owner and not just a shift manager.
As business owners, sometimes we make the mistake of seeing our unit managers just as someone who runs a shift every day, and as a consequence, we teach them only the necessary skills to do so.
By changing their perspective from seeing themselves merely as shift managers of a pizza shop, a gym, or a spa, and empowering them to recognize themselves as owners, they will transform their approach to what they do every day. But keep in mind that you must train them accordingly.
- If you want to turn good managers into great leaders, cultivating a business ownership perspective in your unit managers is critical.
Back when I managed a region, I always reminded the managers that the skills they were acquiring to run a business would benefit them not only in their current roles but throughout their professional lives. Especially if they wished to continue their careers in the retail or franchise industries or even own a business in the future, these abilities would help them succeed.
In my experience, not all of them are aware of this. That’s why it's important that, as their leaders, we constantly remind them of what this opportunity could mean to them. This, combined with training them on the skills needed to act like an owner in their unit, will help them transition from good managers to great leaders.
2. Give them Ownership of Their KPIs
The next thing that you can do as a business owner or direct supervisor is to give them ownership of their key performance indicators (KPIs) instead of just the tasks behind them.
For example, one of their tasks is to do a group sales projection to then create an effective labor schedule and have an optimal labor cost. Training them on how to maintain a favorable labor cost is obviously something you must do. However, what you really should do is give them ownership of the labor cost KPI.
- This way, they won’t merely execute what you taught them to achieve that KPI, but they might also develop other creative ways to reach it.
The reality is that, as business owners and leaders, we won't always teach them everything they need to know. But, by giving them ownership of the most important business KPIs, they will have the freedom to explore different ways to achieve the expected results.
That’s why giving them ownership of the KPIs, not just the actions behind them, will turn good managers into great leaders.
Don’t miss: Game On! Using Metrics to Elevate Your Franchise
3. Coach Them Every Day
Something else that you can do to turn good managers into great leaders is to coach them every day on how the business works.
Yes, you must train them on what they need to know, learn, and do every day, but even after the training is completed, there’s more to do! You still have to continually coach them to help them become better and better, and remind them that they have to achieve consistent execution on the things they have learned.
- We all need coaches and accountability to continue to do things in a consistent way.
But please, don't confuse coaching with micromanaging! Coaching is the ongoing support given to your managers to ensure they understand what they have to do and that the tasks are executed effectively. This continuous follow-up will help you identify any potential derailments allowing you to guide them back on the right track when necessary.
4. Equip Them with People Skills
Franchisors do a good job providing franchisees with the knowledge, the tools, and the resources to train their managers and teams on how to operate the brand. However, they won’t give you what they need to manage and inspire people. As a business owner, you are responsible for giving your managers those skills.
Those skills are critical because, without the ability to inspire the team to do great things, you're gonna find it really tough to succeed with your franchise business.
- If you want your managers to be great leaders, they need to have the people skills.
What kind of things can you do to teach them that? If you are a great people leader, then you will be a splendid source for that. But there are other resources that you can reach out to to give your managers those people skills.
5. Have High Expectations of Them
Especially if we're struggling with our people, you might end up subconsciously having low expectations of your people, and they might just live up to that. On the other hand, if you have high expectations of them and you verbalize this to every one of them, their performance will be outstanding.
Open up about the reason why you hire them. Share with them how you went through a process of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring many candidates, and you chose them because you believed they have the potential to be amazing.
Those high expectations should never be lowered. However, if anyone begins to behave in a way that does not align with these expectations, you must address the issue and remind them that they were hired because you truly believed in them.
If they are not living up to these high expectations, it does not mean that they are incapable; it simply means that they are choosing not to. Encourage them to reconnect with who they truly are, that person that you interviewed and hired. This is how you can maintain high expectations of them while giving them the opportunity to live up to those standards.
Keep learning: Your Employees Are Not Doing a Good Job? There are Three Reasons
6. Trust Them
The sixth thing that you can do to turn good managers into great leaders is to trust that they're gonna be able to apply all of this knowledge and do a great job every day. Delegate the responsibilities and acknowledge every time they do a great job.
If you do these things, you're going to be able to turn good managers into great leaders. They will live up to your expectations, and you're going to be amazed at the things that they are going to accomplish because you have done all these things for them.
I hope this gave you insights on the things that you can do better in your organization so that you can have great leaders who will manage and lead your business to success.
And remember, the American Franchise Academy is your partner and your supporter in your franchise journey, and we can provide you with the knowledge, tools, and resources to help you become a successful franchisee.
Additionally, we offer training programs for District Managers and Unit Managers on the leadership and management skills they need to help you and themselves be successful.
Click below to explore our programs:
- COMMAND Program, for Multi-Unit Franchisees.
- LEAD Program, for District Managers.
- MANAGE Program, for Unit Managers.
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