Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: Welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast! I am your host Britt Seva and today we’re going to talk about transformational leadership.
So tapping back on to last week’s episode, I wanted to share just a few more helpful resources to help you get on track with this. This is another piece that I pulled directly from my program, Thriving Leadership. I’m going to walk you through a little exercise to assess where your salon is today, where your skills as a leader are today, and then talk about what it really means to be a transformational leader.
Now, if you have any questions about me or any of my coaching, you can always head to thrivingstylist.com, you can follow me on Instagram @brittseva or @thethrivingstylist. I am always here and happy to help.
Now, last week we had an episode where we talked all about walkouts, and walkouts only occur in two types of salons: Fragile salons and Deprived salons. Y’all know I’m a fan of a chart and a graph and a visual aid, and if you’re in Thriving Stylist, you’re probably familiar with this visual aid. It looks like a four-square grid. I want you to imagine in your mind a quadrant with profit running up and down one side and people running horizontally across the other.
For the salons where they have low profits but really happy staff, I call that an Engaging salon. This is where a lot of salons actually start because the salon owner’s really motivated and excited and maybe they brought a couple of other really motivated and excited stylists along with them, and everybody’s like, “Startups are fun.” It’s really scrappy and you’re in there and you’re like, “Listen, the money’s not really there yet, but we’re going to get there.” Likely you’re like breaking even or doing a little bit better than that even, but you’re not like banging it out either, right? But things are okay. So low profits, but really happy staff.
Signs of an Engaging salon would be staff is content or even happy, salon owner feels happy and doesn’t want to rock the boat.
That’s a big one, like, listen, times are good, things are good. Let’s not mess this up. Let’s just keep on keeping on even if the money’s not really there, nobody’s ruffling my feathers, nobody’s complaining. All’s well, let’s keep on this track, right?
Low revenue and/or profits or revenue that are okay, but not growing…huge sign of an engaging salon.
When you don’t make more money month over month, you’re likely Engaging.
And then carrying debt, some debt, any debt at all. Like my business is debt-free. It doesn’t mean we always have crazy high profit margins, but we’re not carrying debt, right? You don’t want to be carrying debt in your business.
And then clientele builds, but slowly. Generally what happens in an Engaging salon is as the clientele builds, so do the expenses so you never really are making much more profit, but you’re doing okay. Like the doors are staying open. Everybody’s happy. That’s what we call an Engaging salon.
Then we have the extreme opposite, which is what we call the Fragile salon: high profits, lots of money, very unhappy staff.
That was my salon. That’s where we incurred a walkout from, was Fragile. Tons of money, like everyone was making tons of cash. It doesn’t mean they were happy. They were miserable and that’s why they left, right? That’s why I left for sure.
When we look at a Fragile salon, you have demotivated or frustrated staff, lots of rules and systems, but lacking values and culture. Values and culture are going to be key and crucial for any of these models, but to get out of Fragile, that’s like the magic pill. Tensions rise, and senior staff consider looking at other options. Some of you listening to this, some of my favorite Thrivers, left Fragile salons to do their own thing because they’d outgrown it big time.
Clientele flow is strong. Like I said, it’s not for lack of money or lack of business or lack of opportunity. It’s the lack of culture that’s getting ya. And then revenue and our profits are strong. This is the rub is that a lot of salon owners or business owners are like, “Listen, everyone’s making plenty of money. What do they have to complain about?”
Yeah. Money doesn’t provide happiness, like that is such an old-school mentality. Thank you for the good money and the business I’ve built for myself, but I’m not just here to make money.
That’s what stylists realized, friends, like that’s their breakthrough moment. Like “I could make money anywhere. I’m choosing to be here because it makes me happy. If it doesn’t make me happy, I’m going to go make the money somewhere else.” They’ve already proven they can make the money. You get it?
That doesn’t mean we should encourage our stylists not to make money, like, they’ll figure it out. They’re going to make the money. The money is coming.
It’s the culture and the joy. I’ve shared this openly and I’ll say it again. The reason that we had commissioned stylists working in our salon for 15, 18, 20 plus years is because of the culture. They could have easily made more money somewhere else, but the culture was so good while it was good that they wanted to stay. That was the piece that was not replicable elsewhere. You couldn’t find it elsewhere. I still have never seen it elsewhere to be totally candid. It was magic. It was something really unique and different.
That’s where you get to the Thriving Salon, which we’ll talk about in a moment, but let’s actually shift back down for a moment.
We just talked about Engaging salons where money’s not really there, but people are happy. Then we have the polar opposite where money is in abundance, but the people are miserable.
Then on our chart, when you’re looking at low profit, low people, we have what I call the Deprived Salon, which is low profits, unhappy staff. Which to my stylist who emailed me and my salon owner who emailed me last week about the walkout, you probably were in the Deprived salon space. Low profits, unhappy staff is what it sounded like.
So you have short-staffed, demotivated staff, low revenue and/or profits, definitely carrying debt, and the owner feels exhausted, right? And there’s a lot of you in this room listening, who were like, “That’s me. That is me. How the heck? How did I get here first of all, and how do I get the heck out?”
I get it. We’ll talk about that in a second. So then the polar opposite, which is high profits, happy and loyal staff. Like if you close your eyes, that’s probably what you pictured when you chose to become a salon owner. Or when you think about being a salon owner, if you’re not one yet, or if you’re a stylist, you’re like, “yes, that’s the salon I want to work at,” it’s what I call the Thriving salon.
High profits, everyone’s making good money, but they’re also happy and they’re loyal. So it’s money, happiness, loyalty is the recipe there.
When you look at Thriving, the team and everybody are motivated and inspired. Leadership is motivated and inspired. There is consistent clientele growth, systems are in place, and managing them feels effortless.
It shouldn’t be dragging a horse uphill to lead your salon team. (If it is, you’re likely Fragile or Engaging. Something’s not right.) And then revenue and profits are strong and growing. It’s like the best of everything without much of the pain.
I want you to ask yourself right now, do you think the salon you’re working at, the salon you own is Engaging, Deprived, Fragile, or Thriving?
When you start to ask yourself like, “Okay, well, I’m Fragile,” or “I’m Deprived,” or whatever, and you want to get to Thriving, which is where we should all want to be, how do we get there?
As always, it’s not just one action or even three steps or five steps. It’s more layered than that. And in my program, Thriving Leadership, we walk through the Salon Owner’s Profit Pyramid, which has 10 levels to it. What’s interesting is when we’re building the pyramid, the first three levels are a ton of work. Then the second set of three levels are a lot of work. Then as you get up higher, it’s much less work, which is very typical of building a scalable business. Like the initial grunt work is brutal, really hard, and then you get to the middle and it’s like, “Okay, well, I can do hard things. Like I’ve done some of this stuff I just said. I just keep going. I’ll be all right.”
It’s more of like the emotional parts are in the middle. The first part is just hard work. The middle part is much more emotionally based, and then when you get to the top tiers where profit is coming, loyalty lives, trust builds, it becomes easy because you’ve built that strong foundation. You’ve already fought through the hard stuff, so everything comes together. So it is an entire system.
When you look at great leaders, they don’t just do one thing, right? Like for example, have you ever met a charismatic leader? Charismatic leaders are all show and no go. So charismatic leaders are fun and charming and funny and they usually have a really big clientele because clients love all that stuff.
But the problem is working for a charismatic leader, it’s like the facade wears off really fast and you’re like, “Oh, you were not a shiny copper penny. You’re a dull old coin.” You realize that all the charisma was hiding the fact that there’s actually no substance behind. So charismatic leader, very dangerous, and it’s very hard to become a Thriving Salon if you’re just a charismatic leader.
Then we have disengaged leaders who were like, “I don’t even care. Do what you want, pay your rent on time.” Or “I don’t even care. I’ll give you a good commission. Don’t cause me any problems.” That’s not going to work either. Nobody wants to work for either of those people, right? Those are extreme ends.
There’s lots of different kinds of leaders that we could talk about, but today, I just want to talk about being a transformative leader, which I believe is the key to effective leadership in modern times, like in today.
I think it’s the way that all salon owners need to be showing up as transformative leaders, and there are four elements to being a transformative leader: compassion, guidance, connection, and systems. You cannot pick and choose. You must have all four.
I coached to transformative leadership deeply in the Thriving Leadership Method because it’s not—I’m going to give you a taste right now. It’s a great place to start, but it runs much deeper than this, but I am going to give you the hundred-foot view of it so you can start putting these principles into place.
Safe-proofing your business with this will help you to avoid things like walkouts, compensation, grievances, all that kind of stuff. It’s certainly a step in the right direction, so let’s talk about it.
When we look at compassion, I see compassion falling into three categories: time, space, and kindness. When we look at being compassionate with time, it’s time selflessly devoted to the business, meaning your team wants you to devote time to the business. You don’t have to live there, like you don’t have to pull up a sleeping bag and sleep under your station, but they need to see that your heart is in this thing. If you’re just barely there, you do nice, the salon looks nice, you provide all the amenities, the salon is clean, that is basic, basic, basic.
They want to see selfless devotion to the business because when you start selflessly devoting, they will too, but it will take time. You can’t just do a one or two or five times and then say, “Well, I’m doing it. Why isn’t anybody else?” It needs to be a repetitive pattern.
For me as a leader, I know no other way than to selflessly devote my time and that’s what makes me transformative. When I show up like that and it’s obvious that my heart is in it, my team wants to put their heart into it. Only makes sense.
Then we have time available to connect. This is hard. I know that your time is short and it can be really challenging to find time to connect. No connection, no loyalty. If I’m not connected to you, why should I stay? I don’t even know who you are.
I remember our salon owner who was absentee, there’s a stylist who had worked for him. This person’s going to listen to this podcast and have a chuckle. There’s a stylist who worked for him for, it must’ve been about four years, right? Didn’t know her name, mispronounced her name wrong every time, and her name—I won’t say her name, but her name wasn’t anything wild. like it was a very standard name. And I’d correct him, time and time again. Like, no, you still have it wrong.
It’s like if you don’t even know your team’s name and that’s an extreme example, right? A lot of you were like, “Well, I know all of their names.” I should hope so. But if you’re not making time to really connect and know your people, they’re not going to be loyal to you.
Next, appreciation of your team’s need for time wealth. Going back to last week’s episode, if you’re not giving them time off, allowing them to take vacation, they’re going to bounce. That’s not transformative. It doesn’t make any sense.
Then we have space. So privacy with clients and peers, freedom to build a dream business, and flexibility and scheduling, meaning they don’t want to be under your thumb.
You can have systems, you can have guidelines, but allowing people to be who they are. And one of the things I’ve noticed too is that salon owners will complain like, “Well, Alicia and Erica have developed this really strong bond and something’s going on there.” Who cares? That’s great. Do you want your team to bond? That’s not a bad thing and they need to have that freedom to build those connections beyond you.
Maybe they like to sit around and talk about you. I’m certain my team sits around and talks about me sometimes. Good. They should have somebody to vent to. So long as it doesn’t cause negative impact in the business and they’re also coming to me with their issues with me, we’re all gravy. I’m fine with that.
Then you need to give that space and have that compassion for the fact that humans are working for you, not robots, and these are some of the things that need to occur.
Next, we have kindness, empathy for yourself and your needs. Meaning you as the owner, if you’re not putting your needs first, nobody else is going to. Complete support and positive feedback and no fear of negative feedback, criticism or judgment or of leadership skills.
So your team should be able to come up and critique you. I’m going to even say criticize. I get criticized by my team all the time. It’s such a gift and a blessing. That’s how I’ve learned and grown and overcome some of my blind spots or obstacles. But if somebody feels like you’re not a safe zone, like if there’s a chance that you’re going to snap for them giving you feedback or they’re going to say that they need to take two weeks off and you’re going to go, “Two weeks off in November? My gosh, we need you here for that time.”
If that’s your reaction, you’re not a transformative leader. It’s not going to work. So if somebody says, “I need two weeks off in November,” in your mind, you can say, “That’s a mistake. I wish you wouldn’t do that.” But your mouth never says it and you never repeat it to anybody else. Instead, you say, “Okay, awesome. Are you going somewhere? Or what are your plans?” and they can share their plans. You can say, “I understand”—we’re going to get into this in guidance in a second—you can say something like, “Just so you know, November is a really peak season. Are you okay losing that revenue?” If they say yes, then you say, “Okay, perfect. Let’s make the arrangements and make it happen.”
That’s your job to guide and to share, but not to put them under your thumb.
Now, what will likely happen is that person might come back and be like, “I’m glad I took the time off, but I realized how much money I lost, and I probably won’t do that again,” but they need to learn that themselves. That’s what adults do. You make choices and mistakes, and you learn along the way, right? Or maybe they loved it and they’re going to take two weeks off every November. Who cares so long as they show up and they’re a good team member when they are there. That’s what counts.
Then we have the guidance category. Under guidance, we have drive, optimism, and confidence. You need to have vision and goals for the future of your business, a clear and radiating passion, and inspired action taken weekly. No complacency allowed.
Optimism, no negative talk or negative outlook on the future. We can’t say things like, “I don’t even know, let’s see if we’re around in another year,” “let’s see if we can even hire somebody to work for it.” You can’t talk like that. I don’t want to work for a leader like that. You don’t want to work for a leader like that. You have to be optimistic because it’s the only way you’re ever going to build your business and be because people are watching, they’re listening to you, your actions are going to affect their actions. Watch how you’re presenting yourself.
You have to be the salon cheerleader. In the darkest days, you have to be the one to scoop everybody up, and in turn, I promise you, if you have a dark moment, they’ll be there for you, but it doesn’t go both ways. It starts with you.
Once you have selflessly given to the business and as the leader for 18 months or two years, when you have a dark day, they’re going to be there because you’ve proven that you’re there for them, but this takes time. What I’m sharing with you right now is going to take more than three months, six months, nine months. Consistency looks like about 18 months, so you need to stick with this and have faith that goes back to the optimism, right?
Then we have confidence. Makes plans for the future and schedules things into the future. Knowing that the business is going places, you’re not going to close your doors, so don’t make decisions as if you might.
Next, create structure and systems within the salon. We talked about that last week. If you don’t have structure and systems, you are already on the way out.
And then makes tough choices and isn’t afraid to be the bad guy when needed. I can’t even tell you, I’ve made a few difficult terminations in my time. I’ve terminated probably over 50, over 60 team members in my days, like in all of my leadership days.
It’s amazing. Every time I let somebody go, it strengthens the team literally every single time, every time, because I don’t let people go frivolously. It’s always for the good of the business and it makes people respect me more every time, and not in a fear-based way, but in a dang, this person’s going to take care of business when it needs to be done.
If somebody is to the point where they’re being fired, guess what? Everybody knows it. Everybody knows that they should go. It’s up to you to pull the trigger.
Then we have connection. So connection breaks down to communication, recognition, and trust. So communication, we have multiple channels available to meet all stylists’ level of comfort. Not everybody wants to be talked to in a meeting. Not everybody likes to be talked to one-on-one. Some people like to talk on the phone. Some people like—there’s all different ways of communication. You need to get on that level.
Regular low-pressure communication, gestures, meaning not every conversation is heavy. You don’t want it to be like, “Oh my gosh, Britt wants to talk to me today. What could be wrong?” No, sometimes it should just be like, “Hey, you did a killer haircut yesterday. Where did you learn to do that?”
All different kinds of communication is what we’re looking for. And open door, without fear of rejection or negative reaction.
Then we have recognition: celebrates personal and professional growth, words of affirmation throughout the week, and opportunities to mentor or lead.
Then we have trust: relatability reliability, open to criticism and negative feedback, and complete confidentiality and integrity. If you are not trustworthy, you can’t trust your team either. Like if they can’t trust you, how can you expect them to be loyal? If they can’t trust you, why would they stay? They’re not going to, right? So that trust has to be there. And you being reliable, relatable, open to criticism and feedback, and vulnerable is a huge piece of that.
The last pillar of transformative leadership is systems. In systems, we have organization, tools, and rules. In an organization, we have appears to be low stress and working from a plan—if you look frantic, your team is going to be frantic. Nobody wants to work for a leader who’s in a panic all the time—asks for support as needed, goals are set, and projects are finished to completion, no empty promises. Tools, all support pieces needed are intact and fully operational, resources are updated and evaluated annually, and the leader is open to suggestions on helpful tools.
Rules, expectations are clearly spelled out. Rules don’t change often and are upheld, meaning you enforce them and rules are re-evaluated a few times a year to ensure that they are still appropriate.
Can you see, as I’m explaining all of these things, there’s a lot of things that go hand in hand? Like I would talk about trust and you’re like, “Oh, I feel like she just talked about that.” Yes.
When you look at this visually in the Thriving Leadership program, it’s a circle and there’s lots of layers to the circle and the way that it lays out, it’s very cyclical. One does go into the other. That’s why I’m saying there’s a lot of leaders who are more like servant-type leaders, where there’s a lot of connection to your team, you’re friends, they love you. You have a good time. There’s bonding. There’s trust. There’s so much goodness there, but maybe you’re lacking on systems and compassion or systems and guidance.
Well, then you only have half of your potential kicking for you.
Or maybe you’re super compassionate. You let have everybody have the time that they need. You give them tons of space, lots of respect. You’re very kind, but there’s no systems, so then you feel taken advantage of. That’s not going to work either.
You have to have all four. And when I say guidance, most stylists today don’t want to be parented, meaning when I joined the industry in 2007, I wanted to be told what to do. I’ll be totally candid. The irony is I want it to be very independent. I got into the industry to be self-made, there’s just no doubt, but I was like a baby bird, and I was like, “Help me tell me, I’ll do whatever you say.”
Nobody’s wired like that anymore. That was of a time. Now there needs to be systems and guidance that show people what to do, that demonstrate the success, but don’t tell them what to do. It’s that whole like “show me” idea, like “Do as I say, not as I do,” is not going to work anymore. It’s “Do as I do because what I do produce a success and I’ll bring you along on this journey with me.”
“Do as I do” should be the mantra and the motto. The amount of times I hear a salon owner complain like, “If this team would just hop on social media, if this team would have better manners, if this team would dress better, if this team would educate themselves,” and I’m like, “What, are you educating yourself? Your social media looks wild. You haven’t posted on it in three months, so you don’t do it, but you want your team to do it.” That’s not leadership, right?
You really have to embrace all of these concepts if you’re going to retain, sustain, build trust, and have an effective team who you can build, grow, and scale with.
I hope this has been a benefit. If you’d like to learn more about Thriving Leadership, you can head to thrivingstylist.com, hang with me @brittseva on Instagram or @thehrivingstylist.
And as I always say, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
