SALON TODAY's Meet the Manager series celebrates the managers, team leads, and directors in the industry who work to maintain the vision and goals of salons, spas, and barbershops. In today's profile, we meet Sami Hernandez, general manager of Mane Attraction Salon in Phoenix, Arizona. Owners Chris and Jenny Knudsen say Hernandez is the most important person at the salon. So much so they have a WWSD test.  When faced with a challenge, they always ask themselves, "What Would Sami Do?"

The manager: Sami Hernandez, General Manager

Nominated by: Chris and Jenny Knudsen, Owners of Mane Attraction Salon, Phoenix, Arizona

Date of Hire: November 2017

SALON TODAY: What about Hernandez’s background make you believe she’d be a good fit for your business?

Chris Knudsen: “Sami worked in another salon for a few years before moving back home to Phoenix and coming to work at Mane Attraction (MAS.) She started her career at our salon as a Client Care Coordinator (CCC = receptionist). She eventually worked her way into our protege training program and became a stylist. Although she had become very centered as a receptionist, she decided to grow in her CCC role. She became our go-to person for admin jobs and started to manage some of the systems we had in place. That led to a formal assistant manager role, which led to a manager role, which eventually led to her current GM role. She manages with a lot of depth because she knows what it is like to be a stylist behind the chair and a receptionist managing the front-of-house systems, while managing the assistants / stylists, the day-to-day ops, and now managing the entire ecosystem.”

ST: What personality characteristics does Hernandez have that make her a good manager?

Jenny Knudsen: “Empathy: She always can see things from someone's perspective. She is a great listener, and pays attention to the whole story before giving feedback. Humble:  Sami does not have an ego, and she makes mistakes as we all do. She is patient, allows others to make mistakes, and coaches when that happens rather than yelling and micromanaging. Managing the Systems: She knows that our success is based on consistent follow-through of the systems we have in place. Even though she is a good listener and has a lot of empathy, we are running a business, and that takes systems.”

ST: How is Hernandez compensated?

Chris: “She is salaried and has a bonus dependent on performance.”

ST: What are the three most important tasks Hernandez takes on at the salon?

Jenny: “Human resources, including scheduling, payroll and hiring; inventory management; and day-to-day operations.”

ST: How is she held accountable for the salon’s performance?

Jenny: “Through weekly meetings and annual performance reviews.”

ST: When you meet with Hernandez, what do you go over?

Chris: “Everything! We carve out an hour each week, and we always start with pressing situations, upcoming events, and HR issues. If time allows, we get to bigger picture / long-term initiatives. We also have a spring and fall "Management Retreat" where we spend 2 days together out of the salon to discuss bigger picture topics.”

ST: What types of continuing education do you offer Hernandez?

Jenny: “We typically send Sami to 1-2 advanced education trainings per year. It ranges from industry events to software conferences to general management courses.”

ST: How has Hernandez helped you grow the business?

Jenny: “Sami has been instrumental to our success. She is our personal confidant in the salon. She is the person that we run every idea by before we launch it. She is the ultimate sounding board. She is honest and lets us know why an idea won’t work. She has helped make our culture a more trusting, inclusive, and nurturing space to work in. We believe our team actually likes coming to work, and that is primarily because of the work she has done on our culture. She has become THE go-to person if something is amok.”

Chris: “Sami is also the MOST dependable person we work with. She is always there when we need her. She is up early, up late, works on days off, and just does the job at hand when duty calls, and it calls 24-7. She has challenged me as an owner in many ways. Now, before I give feedback, I usually ask Sami what and how she would handle it. I call it WWSD (What Would Sami Do). She challenges me when a system is dated and deserves a revamp. She challenges us when something culturally needs to be reimagined. In summary, she is arguably the most important person in the salon.”

If you have a manager you'd like to nominate for this series, learn more here.