What’s the problem with salon teams today?

By Dwight Hodge

As a business owner and leader, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking your team needs to toe the line and do things your way. Well, after all, it is your business.

Do you want to know what the problem is with your team... It’s you!

Apologies if you just choked on your lunch or spat your coffee across the staff room. However, as a business leader, you must take ownership of how you relate to and communicate with your team.

It is your responsibility as the leader to lead, to show the way and go there first. If you expect your team to understand your perspective, first you need to understand theirs. If you wish for your team to be curious and open-minded, first you must be curious and open-minded. If you want your team to be outstanding communicators, first you must be an outstanding communicator.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not all about you. Your team could do better too; no salon team is perfect, just like no leader is either.

After reading what I’ve just written, you’re about to do one of two things. You feel hurt and think stuff you as you throw down your copy of HairBiz. Or you’ll lean into the discomfort and ask yourself, what can I do differently?

Here are three options to consider as you further develop your leadership capabilities.

Be Curious:

You can’t be judgmental of a person or situation and simultaneously be curious. You are either being judgemental or curious. Let’s be honest; nothing good has ever come from a place of judgment.

It’s time to step into conversations with an open mind. Be curious, listen, ask questions, and better understand your team members’ points of view. You don’t have to agree with them. However, getting to know their perspective will give you a deeper understanding of why they think and behave as they do.

By being curious, you may be surprised to realise you are both attempting to achieve the same outcome, just from opposing perspectives. Or they have a solution to a challenge you have yet to consider. In any case, being curious will uncover more information.

More information leads to more informed decisions, and more informed decisions lead to better outcomes. You can’t lose.

Speak their language:

Now that you have had a play with curiosity and developed a better understanding of why your team members think and act as they do, let’s shift focus onto your communication style.

People’s communication styles fall into one of four primary groups.

These are:

1. Direct, forceful, results-oriented, and straight to the point.

2. Optimistic, enthusiastic, outgoing, highspirited, and big-picture ideas.

3. Accommodating, diplomatic and eventempered.

4. Reserved, analytical, precise, systematic, and detailed.

Take a moment to think about which of the four primary groups best represents your communication style.

Now, take a moment to consider which groups your team members fall into. By understanding other people’s communication styles, you can be flexible and shift your style to match theirs and better connect with them.

The How to:

Step 1: decide which of the four primary groups your team members fall into.

Step 2: Begin to play with your approach to communication by taking on the characteristics of the other person’s primary group.

For example, if you fall into Group 2 and the person you’re talking with falls into Group 4, you want to shift your communication style to match that of Group 4. Naturally, your communication style would include a high level of enthusiasm and talking about bigpicture ideas, something a person from group 4 would find difficult to understand.

Replacing your high-spirited, enthusiastic communication style with a more reserved, detailed, and systematic approach will resonate with the other person; interestingly, they will better understand what you’ve said. With this approach, you’ve only changed your communication style. You haven’t changed the content of the message.

See the future:

Some of you will 100% agree with what I am about to share. Yet others will think it’s all a bit woo-woo for them. Trust me, this practice has dramatically changed my relationships and businesses.

We all hold a picture or play a movie in our minds about how a situation or conversation will play out (often, this is unconscious). And guess what? The movie is usually correct.

Let’s say you are about to talk with a team member, and the movie playing in your mind repeatedly projects how the conversation will be tough, that they’ll get defensive and shut down, nothing will be resolved, and you’ll get the silent treatment for the rest of the day. Funnily enough, how the movie plays out in your mind is often how your day will play out, too.

On the flip side, imagine you’re about to enter the same conversation, and the movie now playing in your mind is one of curiosity. Where you gain a better understanding of your team members’ perspectives, communicate well, and finish the conversation on the same page. You guessed it! How the movie plays out in your mind is often how your day will play out, too.

Being conscious of your often unconscious thoughts and mindset can impact you, your team, and your business in extraordinary ways.

It’s time to become the leader you wish you had. To be curious, to listen and to allow others to reach their full potential by communicating in a way they understand.

Question: What’s the one thing you can do today to be a better leader for your team?

@dwighthodge_leadership_coach