Managing staff - be clear about your expectations

When managing staff, how clear are you about your expectations, asks Ian Egerton. It is great to see your team evolve and grow, not only as stylists but as individuals. I am a firm believer in encouraging people to learn more about their craft and of themselves. Although it can be a challenge at times; for example I had a great team member who was well liked and trusted. He was not a senior team member so was not expected to be a key holder, but one day, we realised we needed someone to open and close the salon the next day; to which my stylist eagerly volunteered to take on the task. Having been shown the procedure, given an alarm code and a set of keys, he was good to go. I went home confident that all would be well in the morning as he opened the salon. The next day after opening time I called to check how things had gone, only to be told that the (temporary) key holder had turned into a dictator! I smiled quietly to myself as I heard how he gave orders and his attitude as he spoke with his fellow colleagues had turned quite sharp. I envisaged this normally complicit, mild mannered character morphing into some sort of tyrant demanding things be done. I did nothing more about it as I was away and knew the team would cope; I’d be back in the next day and go through it with those who needed to share their story. However all was not over, in the evening I got a call from the alarm company to say the alarm was going off triggered in zone X (the entrance) and how would I like to respond. Fortunately we have CCTV and a remote alarm system that can be reset and isolated without returning to site so, I made my decision all was well, at least until the morning. The next day the “temporary” key holder returned to the salon and came to the office with the keys, “how did it go I asked?” well thank you, it was easy! As I took the keys from him I saw his shoulders physically drop, the stress he had been under, the pressure he must have felt seemed to have been enormous. Sit down I said, tell me how it went. That didn’t go well…! It took him a while to work through the story and share with me how he felt things had gone. By gently coaxing him I got him to realise he may have over reacted and been too harsh with his colleagues. He said “oh, that didn’t go well did it!” I reminded him that he did a great job at opening up and closing the salon. (he didn’t need to know that the alarm had gone off – which was caused by him reopening the door to check the alarm was setting!) Ne need to demoralise him or make him feel even worse than he did! The lesson I hadn’t wanted a manager in the salon, I wanted a key holder. The two are not necessarily the same, but to him that was not clear.

• If you want someone to do something (that they have not done before) be clear about what you want and (importantly) don’t want them to do.
• Do not over burden someone with responsibility.
• Do not assume a task is simple just because you can do it easily!

In the words of Maya Angelou I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. The young stylist eventually became a manager, a great manager!   Ian Egerton is a salon owner and business mentor offering HR support for salons and spas. For further information about how he could help your business visit www.LoopHR.com