In this article, salon business expert Liz McKeon explores key strategies that business owners can employ to motivate their staff and create a positive and productive work environment.

Motivation is the driving force which causes us to achieve goals.  Since employee motivation is extremely essential for the growth of a salon, managers and supervisors need to know how to motivate their employees.

Maintain your own enthusiasm

It is impossible to be a motivating, effective manager if your own enthusiasm for the salon starts to diminish.  To prevent this happening you will help to maintain your passion for your salon by maintaining your health and managing your own stress.  Surround yourself with positive people, train all your staff in how your business operates.  Make good rules, stick to them yourself and you will reap the rewards.  Be open and honest, lead by example and your team will follow.

Motivate yourself – if you are enthusiastic about your job, it will be easy to make those working with you enthusiastic also.  What can you do better to motivate yourself?

Always work with the objective of aligning the goals of the organisation with the goals of the employees.  Learn to delegate and give due importance to teamwork.  Don’t do everything yourself.  Excellent leadership involves delegating responsibility and authority to employees.  Let them decide how they want to carry out tasks.  When you delegate, your team will get the impression that you want them to take stronger roles in their jobs.

Top 10 Proven Ways to Motivate Employees:

1. Personally thank employees for doing a good job one to one, in writing, verbally or both.  Do it timely, often and sincerely.
2. Be willing to take the time to meet with and listen to employees – as much as they want or need.
3. Provide therapists specific and frequent feedback about their performance.  Support them in improving performance.
4. Recognise, reward and promote high performers, attend to and deal with low and marginal performers so that they improve or leave.
5. Provide information on how the company makes and loses money, upcoming new products/services and strategies for competing in the market place.  Explain each therapist’s role in the overall plan.
6. Involve all staff members in decisions, especially as those decisions affect them.  Remember involvement equals commitment.
7. Give employees a chance to grow and learn new skills; encourage them to do their best. Show them how you can help them meet their goals while also achieving the salon’s goals.  Create a partnership with each employee.
8. Provide employees with a sense of ownership in their work and the salon.  The ownership can be symbolic (for example, appointment/business cards for all therapists)
9. Strive to create a working environment that is open, trusting and fun.  Encourage new ideas, suggestions and initiative.  Learn to allow staff to learn from, rather than punish mistakes.
10. Celebrate the success of the salon and of the individuals working with you.  Take time for team and morale building meetings and activities.  Be creative and fresh with your ideas.

Everybody wants to feel proud of the salon they work for.  It enhances their reputation, makes them feel good, look good and gives the salon access to the best people.  Don’t be afraid to work with the best.  But, sometimes the best people can be difficult.  They are single minded, they have tunnel vision – that’s what makes them good.  They can be reluctant to compromise, can even be intimidating, but if you motivate them with an attitude that you want to do something well, they will respond positively.

Effective Feedback

Just moving your team into action isn’t quite enough because sometime, they will move in the wrong direction.  You’ve also got to master the art of giving constructive feedback, that doesn’t de-motivate them.

Therapists don’t like making mistakes and they don’t like the manager drawing attention to them.  Give staff the chance to correct their own mistakes whenever possible and praise them for doing so.  The two guidelines of giving feedback are:

1. Always exaggerate the good and downplay the bad.
2. Always praise in public and correct in private.

Tackling Poor Morale

Poor morale undermines the commitment of employees, hurts the product and service they offer, and can alienate clients.  It can arise for many reasons such as a difficult economic climate, a personality clash or poor management – all of which may result in a high stress environment and this is the last thing you want your clients to experience.

Poor morale can be encompassing that, after a while it is difficult to know how to find its source, and thus how to reverse it.  What may start just as individual apathy can deteriorate into a generalised infectious problem that spreads throughout the entire salon. 

The good news is – it is reversable!

Personal problems, work stress for example, will affect a team at all levels, including the manager.  So, do you know how to get yourself back on track when your morale is the worst in your team?  Everybody need to vent frustration and anger sometimes or to receive assurance that they are appreciated, don’t let paths of communication break down when you are feeling low.

Your staff are the salon’s most valuable resource.  By creating an environment of open, constructive feedback, staff will feel inclined to co-operate with you as you drive your salon forward.  Tackling poor morale is not a once in a lifetime activity; it needs to be sustained over a long period of time.  Communicating in these ways will show that you are in charge of your salon, you care and value your team, and you are committed to providing a satisfying place to work.

Be Honest and Transparent

A large part of motivation is about trust.  Your team should consider you the most reliable source of information.  Never lie to your team, keep them informed about what’s going on as much as possible.  If there is bad news, it is better they hear it from you first, rather than from corridor gossip, often exaggerated and distorted.  Give them a chance to voice their questions and answer to the best of your ability.

Remember peoples’ feelings matter.  When faced with doubts, they need to feel comfortable coming to you for clarification, allowing you to put concerns in perspective for them, helping them to remain focused and motivated.

Don’t be an average manager or boss – be a motivated leader, because people do amazing things when they are truly motivated.  And, watch your business soar to new heights!

www.lizmckeon.com