Leading and Motivating Your Team Towards Success

Now I absolutely love talking about this topic. I find it so interesting because there are no limits to what you can create when you are not on your own. I say this all the time. I feel like that is the power of the Nail Tech Org is that there is so much power behind togetherness, behind really having a core belief that aligns you with other people and allows you to create something that is so much bigger than yourself, so much bigger than what you possibly ever imagined for you, for your life, for your business. And so I want to teach you exactly how to lead and motivate a team towards your vision, towards what you would like to create, and towards inevitably, success for you, for them, for everybody involved. Okay, so leading and motivating a team, great salons are not built by accident. So I want you to have a little think about any salons that you know of or that you might have been to in the past. They aren't built by accident, they are built by leaders. And leadership isn't bossing other people around, it isn't telling people what to do. It's creating a vision that your team believes in, wants to work towards and carries even when you are not there. So I want to talk to you today about how to lead and truly motivate your team so that they will do that for you, because it is possible. Now, the reason I love this topic is because you will have heard me teach this before. So back in, I think it was in the building your brand module we spoke about vision, mission and values. If you skipped over that or you don't remember it, I want you to go back to that module and do all of that training again. It won't take you very long, but it's super important at this stage of your growth. I'm not going to repeat it all because that training was perfectly fine for you to go and look at again. But essentially just to give you an overview, your vision, mission and values are your North Star. And when you are motivating and leading a team, you have to be so clear when on what your North Star is. Because if you don't know where you're heading, how on earth are your team supposed to know where they should steer to? Right? So the clearer you are on your vision, mission and values and the more you get that across to your team, the more you are going to see success in the way you want to build it. So let's go through each one and why it's important. So I want you to imagine your vision is the end destination. So your vision Is if you were going somewhere, the point that you would punch into your sat nav. So what is the final destination? What is it that you are aiming for? What is that overarching reason that you are here today? So where the salon is going, essentially it might be yours. You are, your vision is to be the go to salon in your city for luxury nail experiences. Or it might be to be the number one sustainable salon in whatever your area you're in. But think big and your vision doesn't need to be something that everybody else sees. It might just be an internal vision, right? It might just be something that you and your team lead with and I'll share with you. My vision at the Nail Tech Org, for example, is to be the number one nail community in the world, right? And that was my vision right from day one. So when I even hired my first team member, I was like, hey, welcome to the team here. Our vision is to, to be the number one nail community in the world. And what that meant was I then had something to aim for. My team also had something to aim for. We had a standard set and if they did something that I didn't necessarily agree with or I didn't feel like it was leading us in the way that we wanted to go, it gives me the opportunity to then challenge from a place of, you know, you did this today, I understand why you did it. What? But is that something that the number one salon or nail community or whatever it is that you grow in would do? And if it isn't, you know, the vision, you had no reason to do that, right? And it gives you ammo for communication that is beneficial rather than this person's just in this, I don't know why they've done that. That's not what I want in my salon. That's not productive, that's not helpful, right? So you and your team and anyone who's involved in building this vis needs to know exactly what it is. And if you don't have a vision right now, but you have a team, I would question where are you struggling? Because you will be struggling somewhere and this will be the reason why. So once you've set your vision, let's say it is to be the go to salon in Liverpool for luxury nail experiences, for example, then you need to understand what is your mission. So how are you gonna be that go to salon? What is it that you are doing every single day that is going to get you there? So for me at the Nail Tech Org to be the number one in the world, we are going to help nail techs to build profitable and powerful businesses whilst having fun. That's what we are going to show up and do every single day. And I believe that if we do that every single day, we will be the number one community in the world. I think we already are, to be honest. Right, so what's your mission? How are you going to show up every single day to help you get to that vision? So in this example, it might be we're going to provide high quality, unmatched BB services with a personal luxury touch. And if I do that every single day, and if my team do that every single day and if we focus on that, then we will be the go to salon in our city for luxury nail experiences. Because that's what we do and we are the best at it and we do it to a high quality and we are unmatched with the beab that we offer. That's what our ideal client wants and that's going to help us to be the go to. The go to. Meaning that if you are a, you know, ideal client in Liverpool and you come across our salon, all of a sudden we are the obvious choice. It's just a given that people come to our salon because of who we are and what we do and what we're the best at. Okay. And lastly is your values, how you and your team show up every single day. So in this example, if you want to be the go to salon for luxury nail experiences and you want to offer high quality, unmatched be ab with a personal luxurious touch, then maybe your values are professionalism, organization and being client obsessed. Right. So see how each of those flow into each other. If your team show up and if you show up with professionalism with a tunic on that is clean, that is the right size, that presents you in a way that is professional, that looks nice, that looks aesthetic. If you and your team are organized, know who's coming in at what time, have everything ready before the client arrives so they don't have to wait or sit around or watch you dragging things out of drawers, it's already seamlessly ready for them. If you are client obsessed, if your team is client obsessed, if you put them at the forefront of every single thing that you do and every single decision that you and your team make, then are you going to get that vision? Yeah, probably. If you are leading the mission every single day with those values, yes, you probably are going to end up the go to salon in your area for luxury nail experiences. But if you didn't have any of that in mind, how would you create it? You can't create what you can't see. Okay? And that's why this is so important. And a lot of the time you can see it, but your team can't because you just haven't communicated it. So I would urge you to make sure that your team know your vision, mission and values or one better that they are a part of creating that with you. Who's to say you can't book a day out and close your salon for the day, go somewhere really nice with your team and go through what you all feel the vision, mission and values of your company should be? Can you imagine how on board with that they would be when they got back? Can you imagine how in tune with your vision they would be? Because they know why they're there. They know why it's important that they need to show up in certain ways. And they know what happens if they get there because they know you're going to tell them. You know, if we, if we create this vision, it's going to create opportunities for all of us. We're going to have more profit and we're going to have more opportunities. We're going to be able to do more fun things as a team. We're going to have to be able to create more happiness and success for us individually as well. So please go away, look at your vision, mission and values and communicate with them, your team, with them, with your team, or even better, create them with your team. It's going to help you a lot when it comes to leading and motivating each of the people within it. Lead by example. Your actions set the tone for the vision and the business that you create. So I'll give you an example. If you come into work late and your team see you doing that, do not be surprised if they start turning up to work late. If you do not have a really clear work ethic and attitude around your business. If you walk in and tell them every day that you can't be bothered. If you walk in every day and don't wear the tunic that you told them to wear, your team will mirror what you model. So you will start to see standards slip. If you let them slip yourself. If you cut corners, your team will cut corners too. If you stay consistent, they will also stay consistent and rise to that level. Because you are leading by example. They are watching you with every single step that you take, even if you don't realize it. If you are late, you apologize to the team for being late. You explain to Them. I'm so sorry I was late today. And that's not acceptable. That's not what we do in this team. So I just want you to know that I don't accept that from myself and it won't happen again. Yeah. And you're declaring that to the team about what you accept and what you don't accept. You turn up to work and you need to, let's say, for example, it's your day off and you need to run in and grab something. Maybe you're gonna wait in the car and you're gonna ask your receptionist to bring it out because you don't want to run into work because you're in your gym clothes, Right. And if you went into work in your gym clothes, that gives everybody else permission to run into work in their gym clothes too. Well, what if everybody did it? What would that do to the luxury vision that you have created for your salon? If you want luxury, you have to live and breathe luxury. If you want the number one or the go to salon, you have to live and breathe number one or the go to salon. Respect is earned, not demanded. Your team will respect you if you show them you are someone to be respected, not someone who lays all the rules and then doesn't follow them themselves. Empower your staff and give them ownership. If they are in a role in your business, give them ownership of that. Don't jump in to save them all of the time. Let them make their own human mistakes. They're not going to be perfect. Are you perfect? Have you made mistakes? I'm pretty sure you have. So let team members take charge of areas. Things like stock, things like sell on socials, things like training juniors. They're not going to get it right 100% of the time. It's your job to guide them, to give feedback, to let them make mistakes and then question them after they've made that mistake about what they're going to do differently next time. Let them feel trusted, let them feel motivated. That creates pride, it creates accountability and it creates less resilience on you for every small. Sorry. Less reliance on you for every small decision right now. If you are jumping in to save your team at every given moment, that must not feel good to you. You must be so worried about going on holiday or stepping outside of the salon. You don't want to feel like that. But behavior breeds behavior and it starts with you. Build loyalty amongst your team. This will be one thing that you will not regret. Move away from that mindset of you work and I pay you Want to celebrate your team's wins? You want to make them feel a part of something. Every single one of us as human beings need, needs belonging. We need a sense of belonging. We were born years and years and years ago. Our ancestors were born to live and work and be a part of tribes. It is in our blood. So you want to celebrate the wins. You want to invest in their growth. You want to make them feel a part of something bigger. For example, you can take them on team days out or team nights out, or celebrate milestones. If they've been in your business for a year, recognize that. Give them a bunch of flowers, give them an afternoon off, give them a little bonus or something like that. Recognize any personal achievements. Let's say they passed the driving test. Let's celebrate that in the salon. Let's make them feel a part of a place where they are valued. The stronger the loyalty, the longer they will stay. And it will also reduce your staff turnover and strengthen your team culture. So you want to be thinking about, how could I build loyalty amongst my team? How can I make them feel like they want to be loyal? Well, they need to feel appreciated and valued where they are. So, in a nutshell, leadership doesn't mean you have to have all of the answers. Okay. I have been running teams for over eight years now. I had a team of 27 when I was running my salons. I didn't have all of the answers. What I did do was look to create an environment where the team felt inspired to give the best. And that's what I want you to do. When you lead with your vision, live and breathe your values, and empower your staff to do the same. You won't just have employees, you'll have a team that grows your salon with you so it doesn't feel like everything is on you. Leading your team to success, keeping your team motivated is going to be a game changer for you and what you're trying to create. I know that you are more than capable, so hopefully this has helped you and given you some ideas.