Multi-Unit Leadership Live Workshop: The 7 Stages of Building Profitable Stores Across Multiple Markets (In-Person or Webinar)

The 7 Stages of Building Profitable Businesses and Teams across Multiple Markets
© 2025 Sullivision.com

It’s the 3rd decade of the 21st Century. Are your Area Managers, Franchisees and Regional VPs operating their markets and “developing” their people with skills, strategies and tactics designed in the early 2000s? Are you performing as well as or better than your competitors in above-store or above-restaurant leadership? How do you know? What does Multiunit Leadership mean in the digital age of technology disruption, high turnover, staffing challenges, shrinking margins and task saturation? Are your District Managers and Multiunit Franchisees aware of (and using) the best demonstrated practices in 21st Century above-unit supervision? Or are they constantly putting out fires, trying to stay ahead of change and reacting to what’s urgent instead of focusing on what’s important? Have they learned and applied the skillsets of Situational Leadership to coach and develop their store-level teams? Are they trying to solve their staffing crisis with methodologies that worked ten years ago but are meaningless today?

Why do some Area Directors get greater results than others while doing the exact same work? What do the best Multiunit Leaders (MULs) and Area Managers do to prioritize and execute the avalanche of tasks, data, reportage, and people-issues that swamp them daily?  How have exceptional Franchisees learned to get the Big Rocks (KPIs) in place daily, and why do others fail to execute that basic? What do the most effective MULs do when visiting their stores (and what do the least effective ones do)? What are the 7 proven core competencies that high-performing Multiunit Leaders master and apply that moves them from good to great, guaranteed? And how do you effectively identify and groom high-potential GMs to become next-level high-performing Multiunit Leaders?

This workshop will answer all of these questions and more. The content is based on Jim Sullivan’s bestselling book Multiunit Leadership (over 279,000 copies sold) and incorporates brand new research involving 1500 high-performing multiunit franchisees, Area Directors and Regional Managers across 21 different brands and 3 industries. This workshop is ideal for both new and veteran MULs and Franchisees, as it shares detailed do’s and don’ts of building sales, expanding market share, critical thinking skills, and  developing your multi-unit leaders to the next level.

Every Multitunit Leadership Masterclass (whether its in-person or webinar) is COMPLETELY CUSTOMIZED for every client. We will work closely with you to align your objectives, targets, challenges and culture into the workshop content. Our customers include The Walt Disney Company, Panera, Marriott, Domino’s, Chipotle, Wendy’s, The Cheesecake Factory, Dunkin’, IHOP, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Texas Roadhouse, Popeyes, Buffalo Wild Wings, Target, Chili’s, Applebee’s, Denny’s, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, McDonald’s, Five Guys, Planet Fitness, Starbucks, Petsmart, Pizza Hut, and many more. Every attendee receives a customized Learner’s Workbook to help apply the insight back in their stores and markets.

Target Audience

Multi-Unit Leaders (MULs), Area Managers, Regional Directors, Executives, Brand Owners, and Franchisees at QSR, Casual, Family, Fine Dining, or Contract Foodservice and Retail or Salon Operations

Format
Offered LIVE or in Webinar formats in 90 minute, 2 hour, or Half-Day versions

The Multi-Unit Leadership Live Workshop covers these topics (and more):

• A detailed look at the top line competencies and insights from our most recent research with over 1500 high-performing Multi Unit Leaders (MULs)
• How to solve the STAFFING crisis by learning from the best employee experience creators
• Why some teams outperform other teams doing the exact same work
• How to plan and execute high-impact unit visits that measurably improve people, productivity and profits
• The 7 best MUL productivity apps for your smartphone or tablet
• Understanding the difference between being Effective and being “efficient”
• The 10 best practices related to MUL selection, development and performance.
• The 5 biggest challenges MULs will face in 2024 (and how to overcome those challenges).
• 5 ways the Area Manager role has changed and will evolve in the next two years
• An overview of the 7 stages that transform Multi-Unit Managers to Multi-Unit Leaders
• Company MULs versus Franchise MULs: how to transform from an “enforcer of brand compliance” to developer of brand commitment.
• How Multiunit Franchisees can maximize revenue and minimize turnover
• The Three Pillars of Situational Leadership, Critical Thinking and Strategic Clarity

Talent: Recruiting, Grooming, Training, Retaining and Motivating

• The secret to building Bench Strength, RETENTION and Talent Pipelines in a brutal labor market
• The best ways to align team members coaching to your company’s Career Path
• The 3 best ways to select and groom new Multi-Unit Managers
• How to coach and develop veteran Multi-Unit Managers who’ve been in the position for more than 5 years.
• How MULs can most effectively build a continuous talent pipeline in their units.
• The 11 fatal errors new MULs make (and what to do about it)
• Adult learning: Coaching and Grooming the NextGen manager and Gen Z team member
• Where Franchisees most-often stumble when opening multiple units in terms of revenue, leadership, staffing and cost-control
• Case studies: the 5 best company practices for developing high-performing MULs.

Time and Process Management

• Why “time management” strategies from the 1990s fail in the 21st Century marketplace
• A realistic and effective 21st Century approach to managing Time and multiple priorities
• Creative ways to design and execute effective quarterly business plans that align with period goals (and how to integrate them into shift execution at each unit).
• The 3 Proven Time Management Tools for the 2024 Workplace
• How to improve Team Execution in three simple steps

Communication and Leadership

• What Strategic Clarity is…and why most multiunit leaders misunderstand it
• Communicating as a leader and as a manager are not the same…insight into the important difference and how you can master both
• The MUL role in alleviating drops in productivity at the unit level.
• How your multi-unit team can easily catalog and share their best practices and expertise
• How to construct a customized “Idea Bank” for developing your future leaders.
• How to motivate and inspire NextGen team members
• How to plan and deliver meetings that get results

The Art of the High-Impact (revenue-generating) Unit visit.

• The do’s and don’ts of planning, prioritizing and executing effective MUL Unit Visits.
• Transforming from “inspect and correct” visits to collaboration and development via a 5-stage process that gets guaranteed results with all managers and crew.
• How to customize the visit to the personality and performance of the unit, its managers, customers and unique marketplace.
• Purposeful 1 on 1’s: three ways to effectively coach unit managers after a store visit so that you aren’t solving the same problems over and over.
• The High Impact Unit Visit: A Step-by-Step Checklist and template to use to improve your effectiveness in each store

Execution

• Why MULs cannot act like a “GM-on-Steroids” to get things done (and what to do instead)
• What Multiunit Leaders can do to impact team performance when they’re not in the stores
• How to direct and motivate store managers to align quarterly goals to shift execution
• The Roadmap: a 30/60/90 day plan for applying and executing the workshop strategies
• The Commitment: attendees will identify and commit to what they’ll start doing, stop doing and continue doing in the next 30 days

To get more detailed information on this workshop, check speaker availability for your date or book a speaker for the Multiunit Leadership workshop, send information about your proposed dates and audience to sullivision.com@gmail.com. Join Jim Sullivan’s 370,000+ social media followers at LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter (X).