36. Who is in control in YOUR salon

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. Hello and welcome. How do you feel when you think about your salon and your salon team? How do you feel when you think about your week ahead? Are you excited and motivated and can't wait to get in there and start managing your team for optimal performance and turn out fantastic service all week? Or is there a part of you which is a little bit fearful? Or is there a part of you which is a little bit anxious about the week ahead? Is there part of you which is getting frustrated with the way your team is performing? I've had my own salon for 15 years now and on three separate occasions I have been guilty of allowing my team to hold me hostage. What I mean is that the locus of power had shifted from where it ought to be with a salon owner and manager and rested with one or two members of my team. The effect is devastating. It was devastating on my own morale because I no longer fancied going into work to be honest with you. And it was also devastating on the rest of the team. It only takes one or two people to start chancing their hand and pushing their luck slightly for the rest of the team to get the message that there are cracks in the management facade and that there is a danger of you starting to lose control completely. There are some warning signs. If you get into the stage of what I call the more more more disease then you are probably being held hostage by that member of the team. And the example would be, for example, someone who comes to you and asks for a pay rise. Now, money is not a fantastic motivator of your team, I will tell you now. But if you've got somebody who comes to you and asks for a pay rise, maybe they've been with you for a while, maybe they're now going to go and get a car loan or a mortgage or something like that. And perhaps you would do your very best to accommodate their wishes. If that person then comes back and asks for more again, particularly if it's less than one or two years since their last request, then they are in more, more, more mode. And you need to be very careful about how much you give that member of the team. You can avoid these conversations, by the way, if you have a very clear policy of paying your team as much as you can possibly afford. Because then when a member of your team comes to you and asks for more money, you can put your hand on your heart and say,

I cannot profitably give you any more than I am at the moment. And the answer has to be no. Also, if you're finding that there are members of your team that just aren't carrying out your instructions, if they're not carrying out services in the way that you want them to, despite very clear training on your part, very clear communication from management, then they're chancing their arm. What they're saying to you in a very unsubtle way is that they believe they are so important that you won't take measures if they're not carrying out services how you've asked them to. Now, I need you to be brave if this is happening to you. If you feel that there are any members of your team that have too much control and too much power in your team, the situation has to be sorted and it has to be sorted straight away. And we're going to invoke our old friend the disciplinary procedure for this. So the way that I would handle it is as follows. You need to speak to the member of the team informally, but keep notes. So you speak to them informally about one aspect of their work that they're not carrying out, how you feel that they should. So let's say, for example, you've had a team meeting about consultation skills and you've decided what's best for your salon and best for your clientele is a new approach to how you're carrying out your consultations. So you've made it crystal clear to your team in a very nurturing, in a very educational way, what it is that you expect them to do from now on. Let's say that member of the team isn't towing the line. They're still doing consultations how they feel they should be. So you would have a meeting and say, look, we had the team meeting. I explained to you what's required of you. I need to know that you understand every element of the training, because this is the way we're going to be doing our consultations from now on. You record the date and the time of the meeting, make some brief notes of what you've explained and also their response. We are in cover your ass territory here. Now, sometimes that will be enough to explain to the member of the team that actually you're in control. This is the new way we're doing things and they don't have much say in that matter. Sometimes it isn't enough. Sometimes you'll have to go further down the disciplinary procedure and sometimes you're going to have to get rid of that member of the team. Now, unfortunately, it's usually your big hitters. It's usually the ones who feel they're indispensable. It's very rare that you get, for example, a Saturday helper who thinks they've got more control than the salon management. It will be the guys that have been with you for a while. It will be the ones that are bringing in the most money. It will be the ones that think that you can't manage without them.

Well, I need you to run through an exercise in your head and on paper. I need you to imagine what your salon would be like without that member of the team. Now, I'm hoping that we can save them and that we won't get to that stage, but you need the confidence to know that you could carry on. You need a plan in place in case we need to get rid of that member of the team. Run the figures with your accountant. If you've got a big hitter earning good money for your salon and taking good wages home, you will be very surprised at how little impact it has on your overall profitability if you lose that member of the team. They think they're indispensable to you. You need to be in a financial position where they are not. Now, if you do get to the stage where you have to get rid of somebody, trust me, you won't have to get rid of many more. It sends a really strong signal to the rest of your team if you're prepared to get rid of your biggest hitter over something as small as consultation skills. It shows that you're to be taken seriously as an employer and it will send a very clear message to those who were thinking that perhaps you'd lost control. It's scary stuff, I know. I've been there a lot of times and trust me, I never find it particularly easy. But these are things you have to do. You have to be in the driving seat in your salon and you have to be seen to be in the driving seat in your salon. You're the owner or the manager and you are the leader. I hope that's been useful to you. If it has, please don't forget to subscribe. I do a broadcast like this every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I'm sharing. If you've already subscribed, I'll 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.