How To Build A Winning Team

It is more than difficult to do the right things with wrong staff, and yet we in the business community are hopeless at hiring good people. ‘So why do you want this job?’ we ask applicants, and with stars in their eyes they say ‘Because I love striving with a professional team; I also thrive on hard work, I am a great believer in excellent service, I can’t rest unless I know the business is making profits and I am committed to continuing personal growth!’

‘Boy oh boy we’ve got to snap you up’ we say, ‘you’ve got such a wonderful attitude, it’s amazing you’ve been unemployed for three years.’

The best way to attract the right people is to learn how to repel the wrong ones, which is a strategy used by Disneyland as a matter of interest. Tell applicants that your salon has three goals: to give excellent customer service, to build a successful team of staff, and to create a financially prosperous salon business. Go on to explain that for these goals to be achieved you need people who will abide by high standards, including: professional behaviour, good care of clients in the salon, consultation with clients, recommendations of ‘looks’ and products, rebooking clients for future appointments, having sales goals, attending training sessions and meetings and taking responsibility for certain salon duties. It is wise to put these points on paper, give them to applicants and ask them go through the points at home, and to call you back if they feel happy to operate by your standards, with the understanding that you will monitor their performance in each area. Only 10 % will call you back, if that many, and that 10% are the people to take seriously as potentially ‘right people’.

Once staff are on board so to speak, these are the key points to think about:

• The word motivation is built on another word, motive, meaning reason for action. Motivate staff then by helping them to discover the ‘why’ factor in all that you ask them to do. And spread the why factor to relate to clients, the salon and the staff themselves. Involve staff in discussing important salon issues, seek their opinions, ask them to work on small projects in teams of two, or with you. The involvement of staff leads to them feeling like contributors to service and business growth.

• Train staff by helping them to uncover the ‘how’ factor in all that you want them to do, and set ‘minimum, high standards’ for their work. Then they must know that they can go above the standards but they can’t go below them!

• Set goals for the salon and with staff, aiming only for improvement. Juniors can share goals with those they work with, and everyone else can have goals that aim for gradual progress in sales, number of services, etc. Let the staff know how many clients the salon needs, how many services it needs to perform, etc. When staff take out loans from banks they must make repayments, and when they take out the loan from the salon called ‘wage’ they must make repayments in the form of improved results.

• Run a meeting once each week for about one hour, and also daily before trading for just 5 minutes, just to keep the team focused on what needs to be done, what has been achieved, etc. The meetings should be informal and kept positive, with ideas and help given to help staff and the salon achieve set goals.

• Invite just a few clients to meet with you and the staff now and then, after hours just for 30 minutes or so, to discuss key issues. Offer the clients a small reward, like some shampoo and conditioner, and ask them questions such as these: is there anything special about our salon, in any area? Is there anything we do that needs to be urgently changed to help clients yourselves? How do you feel about us recommending styles and looks for you, and how would you prefer we did this? How do you feel about us recommending products for you to use at home, and how should this be done? How do you feel about us making new appointments for you? How do you feel about special offers and promotions? What do you like least and most about salons you have visited in the past? These questions will reap a harvest of thoughts and ideas, all in client language and everything they say will motivate your staff. Why? Because when you say you want them to do something they might think it won’t work, but when the clients say something is needed then they will accept that it must be done, and the clients will help them to know how to do the job well! Clients will happily engage in this form of meeting, and you and the staff need this contact with a few clients to give you signals on how all clients thing and feel!

Finally, set a good example to staff, in what you say, how you look, how you work, how you achieve, etc. Remember ‘you have no right to expect any more than you are willing to project’.



How To Build A Winning Team - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.

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