Developing Leaders

There's a lot to think about when you are considering adding a location. Real estate, contractors, financing, furniture and equipment, hiring staff...

It would be easy to overlook one of the most important elements - once you have your new location who's going to run it? Do you have the leaders necessary to grow and expand? When we asked ourselves this question, the answer was "no." We have several people with a lot of potential, but we don't have anyone who is ready to step into a leadership role.

Back in the old days of our salon, that didn't seem to matter. If a salon manager was needed, someone was told the job was theirs. No job description, no clear expectations, no guidance - the company survived, but it certainly didn't thrive. That is a mistake we will not repeat. To support our growth, we are conducting a Leadership Development Series of classes. Anyone who is interested in learning more about leadership and salon management may attend. We meet weekly for one hour (although bi-weekly for 2 hours would probably be better). Since we've never done this before we are, to some extent, making it up as we go. So far our curriculum is:

Trust - Based on the book The Speed of Trust.
Cash Flow - Understanding the cash flow of the salon
Culture and No Compromise Leadership - What culture do we need to achieve our vision and our mission? Is that the culture we have?
Four Business Outcomes - Productivity, Profitability, Staff Retention, Client Service (1 week on each)
Coaching and Employee evaluations - how to mentor and coach in a positive way
Difficult conversations - How to have effective conversations about performance
Team Based Pay - What it is and why we do it

So far the classes have been well-attended. When we are ready to expand our management team, interested employees will need to apply for the positions and go through an interview process. It's important to us that our leaders not only know what we do, but why we do it. They need to understand our vision for the company and how we are going to achieve it.