Support to learn and grow your skills as a business owner is one of the strongest benefits of choosing a franchise option. At 7-Eleven Australia, all new franchisees participate in our leadership development journey “Run-Lead-Grow My Store” to start their journey as a franchisee.
According to Fiona Hayes, General Manager – Channel 7-Eleven Australia, “the Run-Lead-Grow program is broken down into three sections and runs over six months with a combination of online, in-person classroom learning, in-store experience and formal mentoring as well as self-guided learning. It’s designed to give franchisees a solid operational and compliance foundation before they start in their store, then to build up the core skills in leadership and performance analytics that are so important to business success.
“Our learning and growth team have used a combination of insight and research on our best store leaders, and advanced learning design informed by neuroscience to build the Run-Lead-Grow program and cultivate a culture of learning.”
Franchisees start business growth with training
The first component of the training is ‘Run My Store’. It includes 25 mini-modules and daily activities around a number of topics. Each lesson is immediately applicable to the in-store experience and includes mentor assessment and completion sign off.
“Being able to take the operational training and put it into practice right away helps our franchisees cement those crucial core skills – it’s a watch and do immersive approach to learning how to operate the store competently. Having our mentors as well as our field managers play a role in supporting and coaching is an important part of our training approach,” Fiona says.
Having the skills to lead and develop their team is critical as the franchisee settles into their role as the store leader. The ‘Lead My Store’ component of LEAP is a two-week program focused on leadership skills and building and motivating a great store team.
“Giving franchisees the space to develop their operations skills and settle intf the day-to-day running of their store for a period of time before they focus on expanding their people leadership skills means they are more able to absorb the skills and information,” she says.
The last element of the Run-Lead-Grow program is ‘Grow My Store’.
Data insights help 7-Eleven franchisees to grow their business
“This component is dedicated to ensuring our franchisees build the data insights skills and performance analysis skills needed to be able to take advantage of all the available data points to improve store operations, customer service and overall store performance.”
“Franchisees who are diligent about using the available data to fine tune how they are managing their store are equipped to ensure that their store is performing at its best.”
While 7-Eleven Australia franchisees have access to ongoing training, learning libraries, and support from their field manager, the Run-Lead-Grow program plays a critical role in setting franchisees up for success.
“We want to deliver the market leading convenience offer in Australia in every single store, across every transaction, every day. Investing in the learning, development and growth of our franchisees and store leaders is critical for us so we can ensure they are leading their teams to provide an extraordinary experience for customers and grow their businesses as a result,” Fiona says.