How Do I Get My Staff To Perform?

It’s probably the number one frustration of salon owners today.

You’re working your tail off, your business is growing so you employed a team of staff to help- except none of them make their target.

You’ve tried incentives, competitions and rewards; heck, you’ve even tried a stern threat or two at times, but nothing seems to have an effect for long.

The end result is that you’re working harder than ever now to cover their wages, (they’re still paid whether they make target or not, right?), and you still can’t afford take a holiday!

Bet this is not what you had in mind when you started your business right?

So, how did you get here?

Often the biggest mistake we make as business owners is to assume that our staff are just like us. We were high performers; we know exactly what to do so why shouldn’t they? After all, it’s just common sense, right? Wrong!

Here are 5 clear steps to getting the very best performance form your team:

Share Your Vision. Great staff want to be part of something special, so you need to inspire your team with your vision of the workplace you want to create and how what you do every day, makes an impact in the lives of your clients. This is about so much more than just cuts and colours. This is about lifting self-worth, building confidence and making the world a better place. Do this well and your team will understand that client education and home care have nothing to do with making money and everything to do with their responsibility to their clients, their personal standards and professionalism and delivering on their promise as a trusted grooming professional. Give them goosebumps!
Contracting. Performance is set in the first 48-72 hours of the working relationship, when your new hire is keen to learn and their mind open to new ways, so they can fulfil the expectations of their role. Here, they form the habits and mindset which determine the results they produce for you from here on. Miss this opportunity… or tell yourself you’re too busy to do a thorough induction…and you’ll need to make time further down the track for correction, breaking bad habits and managing performance. Your choice.
Manage Workplace Behaviour. Avoid conflict, manage staff behaviour and improve team cooperation but setting ‘shared values’ of how your staff agree to conduct themselves at work. Discuss what behaviour is expected, what is unacceptable and how you expect team mates to treat each other at work. Then formalise it with your Team ‘Code’- your ’10 Commandments for how we agree to behave at work’.
Continual Coaching. This is your essential, ongoing coaching routine which prioritises time to coach, correct, guide and develop your team to success- not just when something is wrong! Check in morning and night, weekly and monthly using reports, data and observation to review, share valuable feedback and refocus staff on essential actions and core values. This also ensures that you correct problems early and don’t avoid issues which could derail your business if left unchecked.
Keep Relationships ‘Clean’. Results reflect relationships. The biggest influence on an employee’s performance is their relationship with their direct manager- that’s YOU! Performance flourishes within a positive, respectful and supportive relationship. If problems are ignored, tension and resistance build; relationships are damaged, performance is affected, staff disengage and staff turnover increases. Clean up problems continually by having conversations to discuss and resolve issues and restore the relationship.

Building a team who perform doesn’t happen by accident. It takes passion, commitment and specific actions done consistently and well, to achieve. If your staff are positive, excited and want to do well for you, they will. If they’re not, they won’t.

What you focus on signals to your staff what’s important around here. If it’s not important enough to you to pay attention to their performance every day, it certainly won’t be important enough to them!

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Want to know more? Get yourself to our 2-day Salon Leader Bootcamp where you’ll develop serious leadership muscle and learn how to get the very best results from your team.

Kym Krey is a Speciality Salon Business Mentor with a passion for dramatically increasing profits and performance through people. If it’s time to get serious about your business and become the leader you know you can be, get in touch at kym@kymkrey.com.au

The Salon Mentor
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kym@kymkrey.com.au
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