A Partner in Business and in Life
At Janet St. Paul Studio for Hair and Beauty, Director of Operations Natasha McMillen helps bring her wife Janet St. Paul's vision to life, elevating every system from education to operations.
by Stacey Soble
How to Gain Your Team's Emotional Commitment
Great leaders, including salon owners and managers, realize in order to get people follow them, they have to turn what’s important to them into a compelling cause for others to follow.How do you do that? Find out what’s most ...
July 27, 2015
Jay Williams, leadership coach.
3 min to read
Great leaders, including salon owners and managers, realize in order to get people follow them, they have to turn what’s important to them into a compelling cause for others to follow.
How do you do that? Find out what’s most important to you! It has a name…values. It is what you use to determine what’s right, wrong, and good in your life. It’s what makes you happy.
When you are living with values, the world (and your team) see the very best of you! Have them violated and the same world (same team) sees the very worst in you. You’ll know…it’s like sandpaper to your soul when your values are violated.
Take a look at http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/list-of-values.htm . There is a list of 418 values for you to choose. When you go through the list, you’re not picking what you want your values to be, you are picking what your values are. You will have several. Narrow the list down to 10. It’s a fun and enlightening exercise.
You will see the world differently. Think of new glasses or contacts where the world is crystal clear to you. As human beings, we are most happy when we are living and having our personal values met. Great leaders turn what’s important to them into a compelling cause for others to follow. By gaining this clarity for yourself, it becomes much easier for you to articulate to others (your team) and it becomes clearer to those around you.
If knowing my values motivates me, how do I motivate my people? It is not a leader’s job to motivate their people; it is their job to not extinguish their peoples’ motivation. How do you do that? Find out what motivates your people. What motivates them? Same thing that motivates you…living their values!
How do you find out? Ask them. Share with them what you have learned and the difference it has made for you. It has made you a better person, leader, parent, and stylist. Share that you would like to share this gift with them.
Why? Because you have their financial, physical, and mental commitment. You need their emotional commitment. People are emotionally committed when they are living their values and they are being supported by those around them. This emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for discretionery performance. Most companies in the world do not have their employees emotional commitment and they don’t know how to get it. Can’t buy it and threaten people into giving it to you. Both strategies have been used for years…unsuccessfully. Unfortunately, you do not find out if you have it till you need it most. When you are drowning…terrible time to find out if people on your boat will want to throw you a life preserver.
When? NOW!
Where? One on one. Values are deeply personal. Dedicate one on one time in a Starbucks around the corner to sit with them.
What? Because it is not your job to motivate them. It is your job to not extinguish their motivation.
Don’t forget what business you are in. It’s the people business. Your ability to grow will be directly linked to your ability to hire, lead, and retain great people. Great people stay where they can be emotionally committed. Emotional commitment comes from being able to live your values and have others around you support them. Great leaders know their own values and support the values of their followers.
Followers…leaders have them!
Jay Williams has 20 years of experience across a wide variety of disciplines. He has helped numerous salon owners achieve desired business outcomes through his leadership in sales, client services, and executive coaching. He has impressive experience in sales process transformation, managing and driving change, and designing and tracking to customer needs. He also has proven expertise in creating alignment to ensure clarity and focus on strategic priorities.
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