Your salon culture is the heartbeat of your business. Without your team running your salon operations like a well-oiled machine, your business will falter and most likely fail. So, how do you get and keep your team motivated to run at optimum productivity in the salon without sacrificing their well-being?
First, you’ll want to make sure your team is healthy, happy, and well-balanced. You want everyone to have a good work/life balance and plenty of opportunities to succeed and advance in their careers. Without balance in their lives and a sense of satisfaction in what they do for a living, there’s no motivation beyond a paycheck to prosper and grow. They may otherwise become stagnant in their careers, less valuable to their clients, and find themselves in a rut emotionally. That low energy can rub off onto others and eventually affect the team. Nobody wants that!
Getting Your Team On-Track
Once you’ve done some research to assess your salon’s numbers for the last year, schedule one-on-one professional development meetings with team members to address personal, professional, financial, and wellness goals. Set benchmarks together and ask how you, as a leader, can help hold them accountable.
Consider some of these starter questions to get them thinking, talking, and stepping up as valued members of the team:
- What makes you happiest about your chosen profession?
- What one thing do you want to be best known for in this industry?
- What skill have you yet to master that you wish you could?
- What are your top priorities this year?
- How can we help you with that?
- What do you wish you had more of: time, money, inspiration, opportunity, or satisfaction/fulfillment?
- What do you wish others knew or understood about you?
- How do you see your role in the salon and your obligation to the team?
- If you could change one thing about the salon or how it’s run, what would that be?
Now dive into the numbers side with them. But try something a little different in how you approach it:
- Reviewing your prior performance last (year/quarter), this is what I see (insert your assessment).
- What do you see?
- Where do you think you excelled?
- Where do you see room for growth?
- What would you do differently this year?
- Here are the growth metrics the salon needs you to hit this year (present goals).
- What tools do you need to get there?
- What processes need to change/evolve to help you and/or the team?
- How do you want to be rewarded for your professional achievements this year?
Next, step back and analyze: Assess the overall morale of your team to make sure you have a positive work environment. Look inward to see how teammates are performing individually and as a group and assess if they are happy and productive. Are they satisfied with their work/life balance? Do they have the proper motivation and ample opportunity to stay current? Have they unveiled any issues that need to be handled or come up with ideas that the team might find useful?
How you use this information is up to you, but you should know that it may make a difference in your team’s performance throughout the year. Reassess your numbers and develop options to fulfill some of the “asks.” Look into ongoing education and team-building exercises to strengthen the culture of your business.
The success of your team all comes down to finding out what motivates them and using appropriate incentives to keep them on track. Find ways to make goal setting and achievement fun and exciting, then develop a plan that makes the most sense for your business. Just keep it all in perspective: after all, your salon culture is everything!
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