The Constant
Starting at Impressions front desk in 2006 when he was 19 years old, General Manager Paul Petrowsky is a seasoned professional who owner Sarah Taylor says is responsible for much of her own success.
by Stacey Soble
Build a Better Team
As part of his blog series on branding, Akari's Allan Labos talks about the importance of a great team and offers you 10 steps on building a powerful one.
March 31, 2013
3 min to read
A focused, motivated, and educated team is a key component to developing a successful salon brand. Here are some definitions, as well as 10 important steps, on team-building.
Team: Also identified as a tribe, a band, a group that shares the same core beliefs about their professional destiny.
Performance: The performance of your team in their delivery to exceed customers' expectations will determine the strength and success of the brand.
Power: The team has been empowered with a mission, given a road map and set upon a course. The team has a destiny; each individual team member has the correct seating placement on the bus and needs to be perfectly clear how their individual responsibilities and mission contributes to the team...
Strength: Only as strong as your weakest link. Every so often in staff meetings we ask the team to talk about their independent roles and how important their role is. It communicates to the rest of the team how dependent we are on each other. Simple exercises like this will demonstrate how vital every team member is in the delivery of providing a seamless experience.
Placement: Placement applies to where the brand is set to perform. Teams are all in sync with a clear vision of the brand placement, their individual tasks and thus can deliver the ultimate professional experience...
Education: Strong teams have detailed internal training programs as well as strong communication system to implement these programs. Education needs to be an ongoing journey available to all by all.
Superior: As superior service providers, your team members need to be total masters of their craft. They also need to have strong communication skills, become great listeners and pick up clues that their customers hand out during the consultation process.
Supportive: Strong teams know how to be supportive of their co-workers. Everyone on the team needs to feel empowered to move heaven and earth to satisfy and exceed customers' expectations – and understand that even the best-laid plans can go wrong. How a team performs when adversity strikes will demonstrate its strength...
Knowledge: The team needs to know how and when to make room for new, developing and stronger talent. They also need to accept the notion of individual attrition due to changes in their professional, personal or career goals.
We never hire, promote or separate team members; we have created a culture in which they hire, promote or separate themselves. Why would you not hire someone who is highly qualified, has the right attitude and attributes, and will add to the team's bottom line?
The equivalent applies to promotions; they are always earned and celebrated. Separation within the team happens when the vision, goals and career path between the team and the individual change.
Celebration: Strong teams will relish the celebration of success as well as their failures; they seize and look upon failure as a learning opportunity.
Loyalty: To each other, to their mission, to their individual profession and assigned roles....
HOW TO GET THERE:
Step One: Touch base daily with your entire team.
Step Two: Empower them with the necessary tools for their mission.
Step Three: Make their goals seem simple and clear.
Step Four: Stay focused on tasks.
Step Five: Work closely with all departments; keep lines of communication clear, clean and to the point.
Step Six: Show passion, demonstrate steadfastness, stay positive, lead by example.
Step Seven: Document all verbal communications; you cannot remember everything.
Step Eight: Remember new ideas need to be explained more than once to be clearly understood
Step Nine: Support feedback from team, demonstrate agility in addressing concerns
Step Ten: Understand that sometimes you need to take a step back and regroup, turn a negative into a positive. This will enable the team, in the future, to take on greater strides.
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