Turning Anger Into Momentum

This spring, the franchising industry has found itself responding to an unprecedented crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. From franchisee support to engaging customers while locations are temporarily closed, there is no shortage of challenges facing franchisors. But there’s another component of the COVID-19 crisis that also has the potential to change how businesses function: emotion.

It’s human nature for franchisors and franchisees to be angry at the current situation. With stay-at-home orders still in effect indefinitely, this situation is far from what business owners expected when the year began. That anger has the potential to take a bad situation and make it worse. And according to Rebecca Monet, the president and chief scientist of Zorackle Profiles, a company that assesses franchisees to predict their fit and performance in specific business models, that anger is already present in the industry.

“What I’m seeing with some franchisors is instinctual fear and anger leading to overreactions,” Monet said. “This in turn is leading to course corrections that are only for the short-term and won’t solve any long-term problems.”

Anger doesn’t have to be a bad thing in this situation, though. There are certain benefits tied to the emotion. Anger creates a sense of power that prevents people from freezing or shutting down. According to Monet, it’s all about how that anger is managed.

“Where there’s fear, there are two ways to handle it. The first way is to respond with blind anger. The other is to tie that fear to an injustice,” she said. “If a franchisor can take their anger along with the anger of their franchisees and employees and connect it through a feeling of injustice, they have the ability to be decisive, take action and unify people.”

Monet continued, “COVID-19 isn’t the injustice here — it just triggered it. If we can identify what the injustice is, we can gather franchisors and franchisees to say, ‘Here’s how we’re going to fight this enemy together.’ That injustice and enemy is the fact that our freedoms were taken away. Our ability to make choices was taken away. In some cases, our livelihood was taken away. We can’t fight COVID-19 — that’s something that’s outside of the franchise industry’s hands. But we can find ways to fight for small business owners.”

Franchisors are already doing this individually. By stepping up their support systems and guiding franchisees through this crisis, they’re already fighting for their franchisees to come out on the other side of the pandemic stronger than when they entered it. However, Monet believes there’s still the opportunity for the industry to come together as a whole so that it’s working together, not competing against other concepts.

“It can be hard to see now, but there are a lot of positives coming out of this. The analogy that I use is that of a forest fire. When there’s a fire, it’s horrible. But when you look at the vegetation that comes out of a fire a year or two later, it’s always healthier than it originally was,” Monet said. “Franchisors should be using this time to take a look at what they can improve. They should be asking themselves things like what franchisees are struggling and what services aren’t necessary. If they’re able to use this time wisely, ultimately, it will be a great thing.”