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Salon/Spa Leadership is All About Behaviors

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This blog post focuses on two critical elements of leadership:

First, it’s about the behaviors that you, as the salon/spa owner, choose for self-leadership.

  • If you chose to lead yourself with purpose, discipline and urgency, you have the foundational behaviors for leadership success.
  • If you chose to avoid certain aspects of leadership, procrastination and indecision behaviors will prevail. If you can’t get things done, don’t expect those you lead to get things done.

Second, it’s about how your leadership shapes the behaviors of those you lead. To build and grow an employee-based salon/spa, your most critical role is to shape your team’s behaviors to not only bring your vision to life — but to create a sustainable brand.

The bigger and bolder your vision, the more defined and dialed in your leadership behavior must be.

Vidal Sassoon is the perfect example of a leader with a bold vision and the behaviors to back it up. Vidal’s pursuit of precision and excellence established the disciplined behaviors that many of his original team practice today.

Here are four essential strategies to define and lock in the right behaviors for self-leadership:

  1. Do the work: There will always be aspects of leadership that feel like anything but fun. For some it’s dealing with budgets and financials. For others it’s the self-imposed stress of doing performance reviews. KEY: There are business disciplines that cannot be compromised. There is no excuse for not paying attention, meeting responsibilities and showing up as a leader that is ready to lead. Do the work.
  2. Commit 100% and nothing less: As a leader, anything less than 100% commitment means that, just in case things get dicey, the surrender flag is in your back pocket. KEY: Setbacks are inevitable. That 100% commitment is what gets you back up and pushing forward.
  3. Share the load: You’re fooling yourself and sabotaging your company if you think you can do everything yourself. KEY: Leadership teams share the load. You have to let go of some of the controls to allow your company and your people to grow. The leader’s job is to pay attention to progress while looking toward the horizon for potential hazards and new opportunities.
  4. Fear is something you break through: These days, too many salon/spa owners are stuck because they fear change. They fear that change may rock the boat and workers may leave. KEY: If something is broken in your business, it’s your responsibility to fix it. When fear becomes “do nothing,” you’ve already waited too long. Break through fear the moment you feel it. Do the work. Make the changes. Relentlessly communicate the why, how and when. Be the leader that people will follow — not quit on.

Here are four essential strategies to define and lock in and shape the right behaviors in those you lead:

  1. Share your vision AGAIN and AGAIN: If you think everyone in your company understand your vision, snap out of it. They don’t. Too often visions are big bold dreams that are periodically put on display and then tucked away. KEY: All visions demand behavior consistency in customer care, technical skills, consultation skills, recommendations and next steps.  If you want your employees to embody the behaviors that your vision requires, relentlessly communicate it, share it, discuss it and coach it. Keep it alive by giving your vision life every day.
  2. Mentoring is a planned discipline: Mentoring is not an overused word. In fact, it’s not used enough or practiced enough. KEY: Mentoring is the planned transfer of skills and experience to new employees. If you want your salon/spa to be the market leader, to attract the best talent, you need a formal mentoring program.
  3. Skill certify everything: To be the best, you must train the best. The hallmark of every great business, large or small, is its ability to consistently deliver quality work and customer service experiences. KEY: If you don’t have a formal Internal Training Program that is complete and self-funding, you need one. We can help.
  4. The pride of living the highest standards: Suite franchises use the line, “Escape the drama and all the rules,” to entice employees to go independent. Salon/spa drama is a sign of leadership dysfunction. Rules without high standards of behavior and performance are just noise. KEY: High standards of shared team behavior and performance doesn’t happen by accident. It takes leadership, systems, open communication, relentless training, financial sustainability and trust. When a team rises to perform and execute work at the highest standards, the culture solidifies. The culture creates a level of pride that becomes the most powerful employee retention tool possible.

Here’s my challenge to you: The four strategies for creating the right behaviors for self-leadership and the four strategies to shape the right behaviors in those you lead is best described as best business practices.

Leadership is a commitment to continuous improvement. If any of what you just read poked something that your salon/spa needs help with, click this link to set up a call with a Strategies Coach.

Comments (1)


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Posted By: olympus login slotDecember 12th 2022, 5:56:00 pm