No Excuses!

When I'm faced with an uncomfortable task I sometimes have the tendency to procrastinate. Of course, at the time I don't identify it as procrastination - I have perfectly good reasons why I should wait!



I'm ashamed to say that for almost five years I've made excuses not to terminate a problem employee. I have documentation going back to 2005 where we discussed the areas she needed to work on. On some level I've always known she had to go. But there was always a reason to keep her. Here are some of my rationalizations:

• we'll be short-staffed without her


• she's a talented stylists (we can fix her)


• I like her


• we've had so many changes lately it will freak the team out


• she's so-and-so's best friend and that would put her at risk of leaving too

I could go on...

So two of my managers just came from a leadership class with a to-do list. Number one on the list was "Terminate Becky-Lou" (not her real name - duh). I was ready for them with reasons why it was not a good time to do it. They held their ground. I terminated her. Whew! It's like clean, fresh breeze just blew through the salon! We're not experiencing noticeable client loss and the rest of the team is a lot happier.

Two lessons -

1. QUIT PROCRASTINATING!
2. Develop leaders in your salon and value their opinions