30. Boost your team's performance with one-to-ones

Hi everyone, this is the weekly Build Your Salon podcast with me, Phil Jackson. I'm here with the tools you need to generate the profits you deserve so that you can lead a fuller life. Welcome, and today we're talking about one-to-ones. So these are the individual meetings that you're going to be having with every member of your team to help them hit the targets that you need to so that you can achieve salon success. To explain how this fits into your overall strategy, I want you to imagine a goal-setting pyramid. At the very top of the pyramid are the goals that you've set yourself for your entire life. On the second level are the goals that you've set your business to help you achieve your personal goals. On the third level are the targets that you've set, probably with your accountant or your financial advisor. This is your three-year plan. So this is what you need to achieve in your business so that you can hit your business goals so that you can hit your personal goals. And then at the bottom of this pyramid, we have the individual targets and goals that you're going to set for each member of the team to make all of that possible. Today, I've got five tips for you on running one-to-ones. And the first tip is that these are called one-to-ones, not meetings. You may have a little bit of selling to do here. If the only time that you've ever met with your team on an individual basis is because they've been off sick, or because they're not hitting the targets that you need them to, or because, worse still, they're on the disciplinary procedure, they're going to be a bit suspicious if you suddenly start sitting down on a frequent basis on a one-to-one basis. So call them one-to-ones. Don't call them meetings. Keep them meetings for the capability and disciplinary process. Tip number two is around frequency and format of the meeting. So how often you meet with a member of the team would largely depend on the stage that they're at in their career, and also their performance against their targets. So if you have somebody who's very junior in the team, or someone who hasn't been with you for very long, or someone who's struggling with their targets, then I would expect you to meet with them perhaps at the beginning of each week. As people start to get more confident, and they start to tick more boxes and hit the targets that you need them to, that feels a bit like overkill. It feels like they should be earning more money rather than sitting with you. So you can then drop the frequency to maybe the beginning of each month instead. If you have a particularly troublesome member of the team, or someone who's really, really struggling to hit targets at all, I've even heard of salon owners that will sit at the beginning of every day and set targets for that team member.

Number three, we're looking at feedback. So at the beginning of each meeting, you should be feeding back the performance of the team member over the last period. And I use a technique called sandwiching. So at the very beginning, I would try and hit them with something really positive. So try and find something in their performance that you're really pleased about, and that you want to praise the member of the team for. In the middle of the sandwich, we can deal with the more challenging stuff. So difficulties that they've had, or problems that they've had hitting the targets that you set for them last time. Or at times, you need to be quite strong with a member of the team and explain to them what's not acceptable. And then the bottom layer of the sandwich, the end of the meeting, always try and finish on a positive again. So summarize what it is that you're expecting from them over the next period, but make sure you end on a high. So we're going for really positive, negative if there is any, and then positive to finish. So we can start and finish with a really positive spin. Next up, we're talking targets. So the period of negotiation in the meeting should be quite short. I fully expect a member of the team to set themselves a quite easy target, so slightly less challenging than perhaps you would want. And sometimes you have to go with that. Sometimes all you can expect is an improvement on the last period, however tiny that may be. If you've got a member of the team that's not very confident at the moment, then make the target smaller. Get yourself some easy wins to start boosting their confidence before you can start stretching them with much more challenging targets. However, ultimately over a period of time, these targets need to support the salon performance that you need to hit your goals. So if all of your members of the team are being a little bit on the lazy side, not stretching themselves enough, then I'm afraid you have to get a bit tougher with them. This is a negotiation, a little bit of give and take on both sides. So ultimately those targets need to feed through and add up to what you need the salon to achieve so that you can hit your goals. And finally, we're talking about keeping records. You need to make copious notes. Firstly, because you will need to refer to these notes when you next sit down for a one to one, so that you can refresh your memory and remind yourself what it is that you agreed.

Secondly, you're starting to cover your arse a little bit. Sometimes these one to ones will morph into a capability or a disciplinary procedure so that you can begin that procedure having a hand on your heart explained exactly what is expected of a member of the team and exactly what they agreed was going to be an improvement in performance. I take a very dim view of a member of the team that comes into one to one without a note pad and pen. I expect them to make full notes that they can refer to. I expect them to start monitoring their own progress. I expect them to start telling me how they've achieved over the last week or the last month as well. I hope that's been useful to you. I don't know everything. If you've got something that you want to add, please head over to the Build Your Salon Facebook page or pop it in the comments below. I love hearing about how other salon owners are dealing with the issues that I raise. If you haven't subscribed already, hit subscribe now. I put content like this out every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on what I'm sharing. If you've already subscribed, I will see you next week. Take care. Hey everyone, it's Phil again. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you did, please subscribe and be sure to tell your friends. For more help and information on running your salon and your life, head over to buildyoursalon.com. I'll see you there.