Today’s article is from our recent webinar ‘How to Create Franchising Joy‘. In this clip, Jen Chapman-Boffin explains what you can do to promote good mental health across your franchise network. You can also read the summary underneath.
Please note you can join the Franchology mailing list to receive detailed webinar summaries and invitations to future sessions: https://pages.franchology.com/notes.
Jen: Having a robust wellbeing policy is a really good foundation. We often discuss the importance of having policies in place, don’t we? They’re often documents that people forget where they’re saved and aren’t actually accessed. However, a wellbeing policy in particular must be live. It must be written in clear, understandable English, not HR jargon—no offence to HR professionals out there. It has to be easy to understand because if someone is struggling, particularly if they’re just starting to recognise something’s not quite right, they need to be able to access tools and information easily. You don’t want to hinder that process of realising something’s not quite right and wanting to get help.
A wellbeing policy is a really good thing to have in place to protect your franchisee and yourself because this isn’t an employee role. It is different. It sets out what you are and why it’s important. Why is mental health and wellbeing vital for you and for your franchisees? Then what is the black and white of where you will step in, and what support is available? It takes out that grey area because the grey area is a really challenging thing to have in any mental health challenges.
There is so much uncertainty already when it comes to poor mental health—often a lack of certainty and thought distortion, that catastrophising is such a thread within any mental health challenge. That’s what we want to avoid. A wellbeing policy actually takes away a lot of that because it’s there, written in black and white. That’s one of the strongest things you can start with.
After that, in whatever format, it’s about building knowledge—whether that’s self-awareness, not just navel gazing, but those tools you were talking about. Why do what makes me tick? Why do I behave in that way? What are the patterns of behaviour afterwards? Really importantly, how do you then manage that? Because exactly as you said, Graeme, it’s great building that foundation of awareness, but then how do you actually manage those challenges? If you’re someone who behaves this way in a specific challenge, that’s great to know, but what are you going to do about it then? How do you manage it?
Rob: Knowing yourself is one of the great challenges in life.
Jen: Absolutely. It’s building that as part of the norm. That’s why I joined the franchise that I had before, because it was all about creating emotional literacy in children, so that as adults, we’re not in that position where we don’t know what a particular emotion is. We know it from that really young age. That’s so important because one of the phrases I use fairly often is that you have to be able to name it to tame it.
In order to manage it and tame that particular uncomfortable emotion or whatever it is, you have to be able to name it. You have to realise what it is so that you can deal with it.
Rob: Graham, is there anything in your experience that people should consider?
Graeme: Just what we’ve touched on already, don’t underestimate the power of coaching when it comes to these things as well. That level of self-awareness is crucial in building resilience and making sense of things. The clarity that comes with that. I’m obviously just a little bit older than both of you. In fact, I feel like if I had your ages together, that might be mine! But the reality is, we are living in a drastically different world, aren’t we? All of the impacts of the things that we’re talking about, including—I don’t have a downer on social media, but social media has another role to play in all of this as well. It’s so easy to compare yourself to others. Anything that you can do to raise your own self-awareness, recognise the common behaviours and beliefs, because that’s the other thing. We’re all approaching this with vastly different beliefs, shaped by our own circumstances. Some of those beliefs often include self-limiting beliefs as well, which is another real challenge to overcome when running a business.
Rob: Your self-limiting beliefs will become apparent. I forget who said it, but being in business is the best way to grow because it shines the harshest mirror of truth onto yourself. It’s worth doing in that regard.
Graeme: Another thing I’ll mention regarding self-limiting beliefs is that, particularly in my experience with Franchology over the last six years, virtually every single person I’ve had a sufficiently in-depth conversation with, almost without exception, has had self-limiting beliefs, including myself. But of course, when you’re not engaging with that conversation as well, it’s so easy to think that you’re the only one that’s having self-loathing beliefs. However, I suppose places like Her Tribe, as well as Jen, will find a way to provide psychologically safe spaces for people to be open and vulnerable about the challenges we all face in life.
Jen: Exactly that, yeah. It’s being able to have, like you said Rob before, it’s actually being able to acknowledge those—I don’t want to say flaws in yourselves, but patterns of behaviour or patterns of thought process—and feeling safe and comfortable to be able to do so. That’s why so many people choose a franchise network over going it alone, because they are part of something else. We have to use the strengths of a network.
Not to allow people to get stuck in the potential negatives and challenges, because one of the things that came out massively in the survey is that, even though people are part of a network and a part of something, loneliness and isolation, particularly for franchisees and franchisors, were a significant feature across the board. Actually, that’s where we have a massive opportunity to do something new. Make the most of the strengths and opportunities that come from having a collective group of people working towards the same goal.
Rob: I’m more of a freelancer, but sometimes and my wife will say it’s time to go out and see the real people, not just the people on Zoom!
Jen: Yeah, and remember why you’re doing something right? That’s so important. The vast majority of franchisees and franchisors enter this field because they want a better work-life balance, a bit more meaning in their lives, and a sense of autonomy that isn’t just being told what to do and being a slave to their work. So it’s remembering that you’re doing that.
So in addition to knowing all the tools and techniques for mental health and building your wellbeing, it’s also about remembering to incorporate this as a business function.
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