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When I started hairdressing, I had a very definite vision of
what I wanted from this exciting industry but I didn’t have
a definite plan of how to go about materializing my vision.
I was a visionary, I could be a leader but I had to learn
gradually how to manage my plan. I had to throw myself in
the deep end of managing people at the naïve and tender age
of 18. I had aspirations and ambitions but my enthusiasm was
clouded by my naiveté .
Today, 28 years in such a fast
moving industry, I find myself being able to lead and
inspire my team of 35 members to give their maximum toward
achieving their goals and those of the organization. I went
to great lengths to learn a long lasting style of inspiring
passionate and enthusiastic hairdressers. I became aware
that hairdressers share common characteristics. They are
passionate, glamorous and have a certain power over their
clients. Young trainees and recruits can learn this
power by acquiring the attributes that make a good
hairdresser. For these attributes to come naturally, they
must be learnt inside out. To be a good hairdresser doesn’t
just require technical knowledge. To be a good hairdresser
also requires to develop certain personal attributes and
behavior which will not only make a client feel good and
give them their monies worth but also and most importantly
make the client find us
special enough to come back and stay with us in the long
run.
Cope
with problems and stress with unexpected strength
A
hairdresser needs to be able to cope with problems and
stress with unexpected strength. A certain percentage of
people in any work setting has this strength or knows how to
cope but some don’t. Here we will look at the “processes” of
coping and adapting in a busy salon rather than reflect in
failure and incompetence. We will place emphasis on how
resistant people cope with stress. We will look at how we
react when we are faced with a problem rather than what is
the problem. We look at how we can find and acquire
self-generated strengths to cope with situation problems
that cause us stress.
In today’s
hair salons, the demands for hairdressers as well as salon
managers come from all directions, staffing, finances,
promotions, training needs, staff room politics and very
stressed out demanding clients, that if we dare get it wrong
we’ll have a lawsuit on our hands. At any one day a problem
will arise just to stress our tolerance. We are in an
industry where stress has to be coped with and used
positively if our clients are going to breath the body and
mind experience we promised them.
Our focus
here is to define and understand those attributes that the
individual hairdresser needs for emotionally healthy as well
as adaptive ways of working. These attributes include a
collective, cooperative concern for the well being of the
group/team and a profound personal development. The
emphasis is on qualities and skills that can be developed
through awareness and understanding.
I have
spent years developing them myself through practice and
error and nine years studying psychology and psychotherapy.
Once I
learnt myself these attributes my own trainees would learn
by watching me. They learned by role modeling. I found
myself relaxing and being able to leave the salon for longer
periods. Only to find out that the new recruits new
hairdressers, not trained in our salon, even though
brilliant technically, sometimes coming from big well-known
salons, had no idea how to handle people. Their social
skills inadequacies were presenting problems for the salon
as a whole and client complaints were on the increase. How
could this problem be eliminated? If I did nothing some of
my old staff would leave because they were not used to
working in a negative environment. I had no option but to
act and develop seminars on how to succeed as a hairdresser,
which we taught hand in hand with their technical training.
We looked
at attributes that are of greater value in validating
strengths and abilities These attributes once acquired,
could become our pool of resources from which we gain power
and in turn enable us to contribute as well as to receive
from our salon. These are not techniques but rather ways of
becoming a powerful and resourceful hairdresser.
Social competency
Social
competency is that combination of professional behavior that
allows the hairdresser to find and retain people (colleagues
and clients). It is the ability to be liked by others, to
get along with colleagues and clients and be respected by
them. It includes the quality of empathy, flexibility,
responsiveness, sense of humor and the skills of
communication and adaptation.
Of great
importance here is openness to tolerance and open-mindedness
combined with a sense of boundaries. In other words to be
aware and sensitive to colleagues and clients moods, to be
flexible, adapt to them, respond to them and if everything
fails, use good old humor and also your ears and mouth
effectively and resourcefully. Be open, creative in
different ways and tolerate circumstances within the
framework of salon restrictions. Be it a meeting with a
boss, employee, a stressed out client, a heavy column or
unfriendly and uncooperative colleague. Take in to
consideration other people’s circumstances and needs and
balance them with your own at any given moment. We are there
to service others before we service ourselves.
Remain
positive
Resist the
impulse to getting entwined in the staff room grapevine.
Instead of complaining, try to look at negative situations
another way and make a point of saying positive things about
people instead of joining in the gossip.
Develop a
reputation for kindness, genuine caring about the needs of
others, customers, managers, co-workers and suppliers alike.
Keep your word - Stay Truthful
Don’t make
commitments you can’t keep. Consider verbal promises good as
honored and if
you need to write them down to ensure you fulfill them.
While sometimes it may seem that bending the truth, playing
work politics and undercutting others will help you get
ahead, you will be much better off conducting yourself with
honesty and integrity. Not only you will build a firm
foundation for success, you will also find it easier to live
with yourself during the day and sleep well at night
Problem
solving skills – Trust
Problem
solving skills involve both a mental ability to think
abstractly, reflectively and with flexibility. Have the
courage to find and implement alternative solutions. This
concerns both internal decisions and also issues and
conflicts with others. Specifically for us hairdressers, it
often means finding and using options other than anger,
frustration, misunderstandings and placing the blame on
others. In my everyday life in the salon I came to realize
that to change a troublesome situation that was occurring
time and time again I had to change myself. To do that, I
had to change my perception, as the previous belief was not
working. There was no room for pointless pride. I realized
that two people could see the same thing, disagree and yet
both are right. It’s not logical it’s psychological. This
opened a new dimension of dealing with complaints and staff
disagreements. Through continued calm, respectful and
effective communication I was finally able to see the
other’s point of view. Another example in a salon
environment is trust. I realized that if I wanted staff and
clients to trust me I had to become trustworthy first.
The way
we see the problem IS the problem
Sometimes
the way we see the problem IS the problem. I went to a
seminar after seminar on effective management training
seeking solutions. I had high expectations of my employees,
I treated them right, I worked hard alongside them but
hairdressers were not as loyal, motivated or as responsible
as I expected. After a lot of searching I realized that
maybe I was empowering my employees weaknesses and was
enabling them behave that way. I thought that maybe they are
disillusioned by all the motivational seminars and
techniques, which were all quick fixes and not long-term
solutions. The way I saw
the problem, was the problem. I started seeing
that my employees really wanted substance more than quick
fixes. To employ people and expect them to give us their all
doesn’t work. For hairdressers to keep changing salons and
expect salon owners to give them success will not work
either. The only way is
to undergo the slow process of training our employees or
ourselves toward acquiring the character traits of highly
successful people. Success will then
automatically come to us and recognition will follow. Only
then we can become a highly effective person and a highly
successful hairdresser recognized by others. In other words,
there are no quick fixes and short cuts. As my hairdressers
learnt to be more resourceful and see a problem from
different angles the more able they became in offering
various solutions to problems.
Autonomy – Self Control
Autonomy is
the ability of the individual to relate to herself, acting
from an internal self control, what can you do to
control a situation affecting you, your colleagues, clients
instead of relating to others to change it for you. You can
only control change for yourself and in turn it might
influence the way others see you.
This
concept includes all the self-qualities such as self-esteem,
self-efficiency and self-discipline. A sense of independence
is particularly vital when the influence of the immediate
environment is negative (staff politics, colleagues being
too busy to help you, your support system or boss are being
overstressed or absent).
Self-control is defined as the ability to act independently
and have some control over one’s workplace. This complex
quality involves separateness (being distinct or
different) held in balance with connectedness (being
connected). For example: I can work independently and I am
also a part of the team and salon organization. Even though
I work independently, the way I do it is as if I am a part
of and enhance my team. Everything I do, I do it relating to
my team that I belong. In the salon I have to be
considerate, loyal, honest, helpful as these are vital
qualities for my salon and my colleagues. Otherwise
isolation and in turn destruction are inevitable if I work
in a way that doesn’t relate to others. Others in turn will
isolate themselves from me. Autonomy is not to be
confused with isolation.
Sense of purpose and future
Sense of
purpose and future describes perhaps the most essential of
these attributes, the one that gives meaning to the others
as well as to life in general.
Qualities
like aspirations, anticipation, expectations and “hardiness”
can be defined as the belief that things will probably go as
well as can reasonably be expected under whatever
circumstances present themselves.
The have the motivation to
achieve and to set goals & targets that you believe you can
successfully reach. Perhaps most important is hopefulness,
the ability to imagine, a sense that every working day,
every working week, month and year has meanings and inner
connection to a spiritual dimension.
My motto in the salon is “ I
am here to work, I have to work, I might as well have a
sense of purpose to achieve my targets and furthermore I
will make my time a happy one for me and others”
When times feel difficult at
my work place as well as in my personal life, when life
places me between a rock and a hard place, I notice the
flowers which grow between the cracks and they are
beautiful. I show these flowers to my colleagues too. Some
of your colleagues will make the effort to show you these
flowers too.
I do hope
you will plant your own garden, which in time will fill your
own salon with your own flowers for colleagues and clients
to enjoy!!!! |
