The Mentor Moments You’re Probably Wasting

Every casual conversation is a learning opportunity. Here's how to make mentoring a daily habit, not a calendar event.

You don’t need a formal mentoring program to build a culture of growth. In fact, some of the most powerful learning moments in a franchise network don’t happen during scheduled sessions, they happen in passing: a quick check-in call, a spontaneous store visit, a “how’s it going?” over coffee.

But here’s the problem: most of these moments go to waste. They’re treated as small talk or admin catch-ups, instead of the micro-opportunities they really are to build capability, transfer know-how, and shift behaviour.

Based on insights from my 7-year research study into franchise success factors, it’s clear that mentoring is most effective when it’s a mindset, not a meeting. That means reframing how you and your team show up every day and being ready to turn everyday interactions into meaningful development moments.

In this article, I’ll show you how to spot these moments, use them effectively, and embed mentoring as a daily habit across your franchise network without adding more to your calendar.

The Hidden Cost of Wasted Mentor Moments

In many franchise networks, mentoring is something we talk about but rarely capitalise on.

The term gets thrown around in onboarding programs, coaching initiatives, and support team development plans. But in practice? It often becomes a formalised calendar event, disconnected from the day-to-day flow of business. Franchisee Support Managers tick the box. Franchisees nod politely. Then everyone goes back to business as usual.

But here’s the reality: most mentoring doesn’t happen in meetings. It happens in the margins.

It’s the advice offered over coffee, the insight shared during a site visit, the casual “Have you tried this?” on a troubleshooting call. These spontaneous exchanges, the ones we often brush off as casual chat are packed with high-value learning. Yet, we miss them, gloss over them, or fail to capture the gold.

And that’s costing us.

What’s the cost of these missed moments?

• High performers aren’t aware of what they do differently and can’t pass it on.

• Struggling franchisees stay stuck, simply because they don’t get the timely nudge or targeted insight that could shift their results.

• The Franchisee Support Team defaults to reactive problem-solving, rather than proactive development.

• Valuable know-how surfaces and vanishes with no system to capture or refine it.

When these moments are missed, the ripple effect is enormous. Not only do we lose the chance to drive immediate behaviour change, but we also lose opportunities to fuel the network with real-world, field-tested knowledge.

And that’s where one of the most dangerous Silent Killers creeps in:

⚠️ Silent Killer #2 – No appetite for crude oil exploration and refinement.

Even when breakthrough insights emerge in real time, they’re often dismissed as one-offs, lost in conversation, or never shared beyond the moment. If your network isn’t capturing and refining these mentor moments, you’re bleeding value every single day.

Rethinking Mentoring: From Formal to Fluid

If mentoring in your franchise network only happens in pre-booked calls or leadership programs, you’re missing the point.

The franchisors I work with who see real, measurable franchisee growth don’t treat mentoring as a standalone initiative they treat it as an everyday behaviour. A mindset, not a meeting.

That shift from formal to fluid is critical.

What does formal mentoring look like?

• Scheduled sessions once a month

• Set agenda, generic check-ins

• Often focused on performance reviews, not capability growth

And what does fluid mentoring look like?

• A Franchisee Support Manager hears a great insight during a store visit and shares it with others in the network that same day

• A casual “How are things going?” turns into a breakthrough moment of support

• A franchisee trialling a new approach gets prompted to reflect and document what worked before the insight fades

Fluid mentoring thrives on responsiveness. It doesn’t wait for permission or a calendar invite. It taps into real-time needs, real-world wins, and practical experience. And when done well, it unlocks the power of what I call Knowledge Sharing Moments - those seemingly small exchanges where know-how is discovered, refined, and transferred on the spot.

But here’s the catch: most franchisee support teams haven’t been trained to spot these moments, let alone leverage them. They're focused on KPIs, compliance, and ticking off support tasks - not on drawing out learning and capturing it for others.

This isn’t about adding more to their plates. It’s about working differently, not more and making sure that every valuable insight is noticed, nurtured, and shared.

Because if it’s not being captured and transferred, it might as well not have happened at all.

Spot the Moment: Where Mentoring Opportunities Happen Every Day

If you think mentoring only happens in performance reviews or coaching sessions, think again.

In thriving franchise networks, mentoring opportunities are hiding in plain sight - often overlooked, brushed past, or filed under ‘just conversation’. But the truth is, these moments are happening every single day. And when you know how to spot them, they become your most powerful tool for shifting franchisee behaviour and building network-wide capability.

Here are some of the most common but under-utilised mentoring moments in franchising:

Franchisee Support Visits

These aren’t just for compliance checks. They’re fertile ground for uncovering wins, diagnosing challenges, and coaching in context. The key is to listen for what’s working, probe into what’s really going on and help the franchisee reflect, adapt, and grow in the moment.

Coaching and Check-In Calls

Every “how’s it going?” is an opportunity. Don’t default to admin or problem-solving - instead, guide the conversation towards learning:

“What have you figured out this week?”

“What surprised you?”

“What would you share with another franchisee if they were in your shoes?”

Peer-to-Peer Conversations

Mentoring isn’t just top-down. Peer sharing is often where the richest insights surface because it’s real, relatable, and experience based. Encourage franchisees to connect and share what’s working, especially during onboarding, training, or pilot projects.

Onboarding & Shadowing

Mentoring is baked into onboarding or at least, it should be. But unless you build reflection into the process, it becomes a one-way info dump. Instead, use these early interactions to model curiosity, encourage questions, and capture fresh eyes perspectives while they’re still fresh.

Performance Reviews & Difficult Conversations

Even tough conversations are mentoring moments in disguise. Instead of telling franchisees what needs to change, ask:

“What would good look like here?”

“What’s one thing you could do differently next week?”

These prompts trigger ownership and that’s where real development starts.

Knowledge Sharing Moments

These are the gold you’re probably missing. Knowledge Sharing Moments are those casual, spontaneous interactions where someone says or learns something valuable, for example a great workaround, a simple phrasing that improved sales, a clever local area marketing tactic. The problem? Most of these moments disappear the second the conversation ends.

That’s why the most successful franchise support cultures don’t wait for these moments to accidentally happen - they build habits to surface them deliberately.

Start Every Meeting with a Knowledge Share

Just like safety shares in high-reliability industries, knowledge shares should become a standing agenda item.

 “What’s one win, learning, or insight we should all hear today?”

This simple ritual normalises knowledge sharing, uncovers replicable success, and reinforces the value of learning in real time.

When you embed this into Franchisee Support Team routines - coaching calls, field visits, team huddles - you create a daily rhythm of mentoring and momentum.

Make It a Habit: How to Embed Mentoring into Daily Practice

Spotting mentor moments is one thing - making the most of them, consistently, is another.

Without a few deliberate habits, even the best Franchisee Support Managers will default to task lists, compliance checks, or surface-level rapport. Not because they don’t care - but because the day runs away from them.

The good news? Embedding mentoring into your daily rhythm doesn’t have to be complex. It’s not about doing more; it’s about approaching what you’re already doing differently.

Start With a Knowledge Share

We touched on this earlier, but it deserves a spotlight. One of the simplest, highest-impact habits you can implement is this:

Start every meeting, coaching call, or support visit with a Knowledge Share.

“What’s one thing that worked well this week?”

“What insight or win could others learn from?”

It’s the franchising equivalent of a safety share, a small ritual that reinforces a big cultural value. Done consistently, it triggers reflection, captures know-how, and sets the tone for a developmental conversation.

• Franchisee Support Team huddle? Start with a share.

• Monthly franchisee call? Start with a share.

• On-site visit? Start with a share.

And don’t just let the moment pass - capture it.

Use a Micro-Tool to Log the Moment

Here’s where it gets operational.

Every time you hear a golden nugget - a replicable success, a clever workaround, a new approach - have a system to catch it. It might be as simple as:

• A shared WhatsApp or Teams channel

• A notes field in your CRM

• A voice note sent to a central inbox

• A templated Knowledge Sharing Moment Log (see below 👇)

The point is: if it’s not captured, it can’t be refined, shared, or turned into fuel for the network.

Build It Into Your Routines

If you want mentoring to become a habit across the network, it needs to be:

• Visible – modelled by Franchisee Support Managers and leaders

• Valued – celebrated, tracked, and followed up

• Simple – so easy it becomes second nature

Even five-minute mentoring conversations, repeated consistently, have a compound effect. They shape mindset, shift behaviour, and build franchisee capability from the ground up.

🔧 TOOLKIT SPOTLIGHT: Knowledge Sharing Moment Log

Use this simple table to log and refine mentor moments before they’re lost. It’s not just about noticing, it’s about turning casual conversations into scalable know-how.

Want a simple way to turn spontaneous insight into network-wide fuel? Use this log:

KNOWLEDGE SHARING MOMENT LOG

Prompt	Response
What was shared?
What made it effective?
Where could this be applied elsewhere?
What’s the follow-up action?

Equip the Mentors: Train Your Team to Lead with a Mentoring Mindset

Spotting and sharing insights is one thing - building a network-wide culture of mentoring takes something more: deliberate capability building.

Too often, franchise leaders assume that mentoring is intuitive. That if someone’s great at running their region, or delivering support, they’ll naturally be a good mentor.

But mentoring isn’t just about sharing experience - it’s about asking better questions, guiding reflection, and drawing out know-how in a way that others can apply. It’s a skillset. And it can be taught.

Who Should Be Mentoring? (Hint: It’s Not Just the Franchisee Support Team)

Mentoring shouldn’t be limited to formal roles or top-down structures. In high-performing networks, it’s distributed:

• Franchisee Support Managers mentor their franchisees - not just on compliance, but on performance, mindset, and local innovation.

• Franchisees mentor each other - peer-to-peer, across regions or experience levels.

• Franchisee teams share what works - helping build internal capability and reducing dependence on head office.

• Head office leaders mentor the support team - modelling the culture of learning and development you expect them to deliver.

The key is to equip everyone with the mindset, permission, and tools to see themselves as mentors.

What Great Mentors Do Differently

Franchisee Support Managers who lead with a mentoring mindset don’t default to giving advice. Instead, they:

• Ask open, reflective questions

• Prompt insight instead of prescribing answers

• Share their own lessons after drawing out the franchisee’s thinking

• Help franchisees connect the dots between actions and outcomes

• Identify and log Knowledge Sharing Moments that others can learn from

This isn't fluffy feel-good coaching, it's capability building that fuels network-wide performance.

Build a Learning-Oriented Culture

If you want mentoring to scale, it has to go beyond individuals. You need a culture that:

✅ Values know-how as a competitive advantage

✅ Normalises reflection and peer learning

✅ Celebrates insight sharing, not just results

✅ Encourages contribution from everyone — regardless of tenure or role

One of the fastest ways to make this real? Embed Knowledge Shares into every meeting, every visit, every team huddle.

Just as safety cultures begin with a shared commitment to small, consistent actions — mentoring cultures begin with the habit of sharing what works.

Because when everyone sees themselves as a mentor, you multiply your impact without multiplying your workload.

From Missed to Maximised: A 5-Minute Framework to Use Right Now

Most mentoring moments don’t need an hour.

In fact, the most effective ones often take less than five minutes, but they leave a lasting impact because they spark insight, reflection, and ownership.

So if you want to start building a mentoring habit today, here’s a framework you and your Franchisee Support Team can use immediately. It works during store visits, coaching calls, even in the car park or on a Friday afternoon check-in.

🕔 The 5-Minute Mentor Framework

Step	Prompt
1. Spot the Moment	Has something just worked well? Did they try something new? Are they stuck?
2. Ask, Don’t Tell	“What led to that result?” / “What do you think made the difference?”
3. Draw Out the Insight	“What could you apply again?” / “What would you change next time?”
4. Make it Transferable	“Who else in the network could benefit from this?”
5. Log the Moment	Capture it using your Knowledge Sharing Moment Log (or voice note/email)

Use This in Real Time

Whether it’s a small win, a clever workaround, or a hard lesson - this quick conversation flow helps you extract value from the moment, reinforce learning, and multiply its impact across the network.

Even better? You’re not just helping one person; you’re building the fuel that drives success for many.

And when you build this into your day-to-day rhythm, it becomes second nature.

Try It Today

Here’s your challenge:

In your next support call or franchisee visit, use this 5-minute framework once. Just once.Then log what came out of it and notice the shift.The conversation becomes richer. The relationship deepens. The insight doesn’t get lost.

Because mentoring, when done right, isn’t another task, it’s how you get better outcomes from the time you’re already investing.

Final Thoughts & Action Step

Mentoring isn’t a program. It’s not a project. And it’s definitely not just for head office.

When done right, mentoring becomes part of the culture - a daily, habitual way of thinking, sharing, and growing. And it starts with how your Franchisee Support Team shows up in every conversation.

Because here’s the truth: Every conversation is a choice.

You can choose to tick a box, or you can choose to build capability. You can get through the visit, or you can spark momentum.

The difference? A mentoring mindset and the habit of turning casual conversations into Knowledge Sharing Moments.

Franchisees don’t need more information. They need insight, reflection, the space to discover what works and the encouragement to pass it on.

Your Next Step:

If you’re ready to turn everyday conversations into game-changing growth…

👉 Grab your free Franchisee Growth Bundle - a curated collection of templates, tools, and resources to help you mentor, support, and scale success across your network.

Let’s stop wasting mentor moments and start using them to build a franchise network where learning is constant, growth is contagious, and success is shared.