Struggling with team performance? Your salon team isn't PSYCHIC! - buildyoursalon.com

Phil Jackson Author

How most salons deal with poor performance

When team performance declines (or fails to get off the ground at all) the reaction of the salon owner is often predictable.

They work harder.

Put in more hours, see more clients themselves, upsell a little more in order to keep the cash flowing into the till and keep costs covered.  They might also suck their teeth and deliver the occasional barbed comment about their team's performance - avoiding confrontation and hiding in the safety of passive-aggressive behaviour.

Why salons are struggling with team performance

In many cases, salon teams underperform because they simply son't understand what is required of them.  The salon owner simply hasn't made it clear what good performance looks like.

It's about taking responsibility - if a team members doesn't know what they are meant to achieve, who's fault is that?  Yours - you're not making your expectations clear.

If the team member has fallen into bad habits at work?  Well, that's your fault too for not tackling the issue early on.

Got a bad apple in the team?  Yup - that's down to you too.  Sure, there are a few monsters out there - but ultimately we can ask who gave them the job in the first place.  That would be you.

Why salons don't tackle poor performance

A lot of behaviour that should be tackled gets quietly ignored.  Why is that?  Essentially it's a product of the salon owner's fear.

As an industry we have something of a recruitment problem.  My theory is that a lot of performance issues get ignored (or at least not dealt with) because the salon owner feels like they are in a position of weakness.

To be blunt, if we felt we could replace a troublesome salon team member easily, we simply wouldn't put up with their crap.

The three pillars of salon team performance

1.  Tell your salon team what's needed early

If there's an aspect of team performance that's important to you, (retail, for example) we really need to let your stylist or therapist know as soon as possible - I would submit even before they start working for you.

Making your performance measures clear in your job descriptions (you do have job descriptions, don't you?) means your potential employees know what is expected of them before they apply for a position. Reinforce your expectations during the induction process.  Immediately, that puts your expectations front and centre - the team member can't hide poor performance behind unclear expectations.

2.  Model great performance

Are you being a great example to your team?  I can think of at least 5 occasions when I've started coaching a salon owner who is unhappy with their team's performance - only to discover that the owner isn't retailing, upselling or has a poor rebooking rate.  If you can't hold yourself up as a great example, do the work!  Also don't be afraid to use other successful team members as mentors if they excel in a particular skill.

3.  Monitor and feedback regularly

One-to-one meetings should be at least monthly.  Even more frequently if your team member is struggling.  If you're not sure how to structure the one-to-one or what targets you should be setting, check out my Salon Accelerator program which covers this in depth.  There's a link to a free strategy call below.

Need a little help with that?  Schedule you free strategy call and see if my Salon Accelerator method could help.  Click here to book.