Building Leaders Without Babysitting

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We dive into the essential framework for grooming salon leaders who maintain your salon's soul while scaling operations. Leadership is about transferring clarity, building beliefs, and documenting systems so your mission outlives you.

• Clients come first, systems come next - protect the client experience at all costs
• Great leaders are mirrors, not megaphones - they don't blame but get curious about where systems break
• In team-based salons, don't point fingers - point people back to the system
• Give feedback that builds, not breaks - lead with love, not labels
• Role play is the leadership superpower - you don't rise to potential, you fall to preparation
• Team-based salons earn millions more than individual-focused operations

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Salon Success Secrets, the podcast
where we raise up leaders whoscale Empire's one guest
experience at a time, and intoday's episode it's for every
salon owner or director askinghow do I groom my next right

(00:21):
hand without losing the soul ofmy salon?
Because let's be clear,leadership isn't about giving
somebody the keys and hopingthat they figure it all out.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, it's about.
You know, leadership is trulyabout like transferring clarity,
building beliefs anddocumenting systems.
So the mission outlives you.
It's not so powerful just tothink about it Like the mission
outlives you.
So like if you've ever thought,hey, she's great at her job,
but I don't know if she's readyto lead others, or maybe it's

(00:57):
hey, why can't anyone just takeinitiative around here?
Or maybe you even said, orworse, I'm the only one who can
do it right, then this episodeis your wake up call.
So let's talk about how tobuild leaders without
babysitting and how to installsystems that actually scale.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
I love that.
Systems that actually scale.
You know, let's let's turn tostep one, which is where you
start to share the vision, andthat is that clients come first
and systems come next.
You know, because let's startwith the truth the most
important asset in any salon orbusiness, really in the world,

(01:41):
is the clients.
You know, it's not your chairs,it's not your your teammates,
it's not your color line, youknow.
Even I think people sometimesget confused and think, man, if
I had a rockstar stylist with ahundred thousand followers on
Instagram, that would be amazing.
But no, clients are why weexist and they're why we build

(02:03):
systems, because without systemsto serve them, you're just
hoping for a good day, andhoping isn't a strategy.
You know, because one thingthat we know for sure is your
next leader must know this, andthat's that we protect the
client experience at all costs.

(02:25):
You know, and the way that weprotect it is with systems.
But here's the trap that mostsalons fall into.
You know, they confuseintention with implementation.
You know, because you can'tjust be like, yeah, I think that
this is what's happening andit's not actually happening,

(02:50):
because if the system isn'twritten down, if it's not
recorded or documented in anyway.
You guys, it's not a system,it's merely a wish, and wishes
don't scale.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, if you can watch this live, I'm shaking my
head really big because this isreally good.
I was like, yes, wishes don'tscale.
So when you think about this,you know step number two is
going to be coaching.
Your next leader starts withseeing the system.
So great leaders don't justmanage people, they fix broken

(03:21):
systems.
So your future salon leadershould be a mirror, not a
megaphone.
Isn't that so interesting?
If you think about it, whensomething's off maybe a client
review drops off, rebooks falloff, or even the energy shifts
they don't default to blame.
They get curious.

(03:42):
Isn't that so good?
You know, instead of defaultingto blame, they're going to ask
things like hey, where is thesystem breaking down?
Or they might think like what'sunclear, or maybe it's.
They ask what needs to berole-played, taught or adjusted,
because their role isn't tocriticize, it's to repair.
Because in a team-based salon,we don't point fingers, we point

(04:03):
people back to the system.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Because in a team-based salon, we don't point
fingers.
We point people back to thesystem.
I love that we don't pointfingers, jen.
We point people back to thesystem.
That's so huge in a team-basedsalon.
You know, and I think this iswhere step three really does
come into play.
This is where you give feedbackthat builds, not breaks.
Give feedback that builds, notbreaks.

(04:28):
You know, because let's talkabout feedback because this is
where most new leaders crumble.
You know they try to correct ateammate, but it comes off as
controlling, cold or, even worse, condescending.
You know, and here's what welike to teach instead Feedback
is a team sport.
You know, you have to thinkthat we are on the same side of

(04:51):
the table.
We're not across from eachother.
You know and this is BreneBrown calls this engaged
feedback.
You know, it's when you stay init together and you lead with
love and not labels.
So it would look like insteadof you know you're not doing
this right, you would try to say, hey, tell me what's been going

(05:13):
on lately.
Something feels off and I wantto help.
You know, because that's notsoft, that's strategic, that's
leadership, because when you'recoming from a place of saying
you're not doing this rightyou're trying to make yourself
the hero of the story, but truly, as a leader, you're trying to
make the other person with youthe hero of the story, and the

(05:35):
way that you do that is toreally uncover it in that
conversation that we just talkedabout it doing it that way.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
So good.
It even gave me the ick whenyou said you're not doing this
right.
So we go on to step four.
Role play is the leadershipsuperpower.
So if you want a your newleader to grow fast, teach them
this one thing role playeverything.
Let me say that again.
Role play everything.
And after you role played itagain, role play it again.

(06:03):
So, like this means everythingscripts, scenarios,
conversations with guests.
You know difficult follow-ups,every part of the sales process.
Because here's the truth youdon't rise to the level of your
potential, you fall to the levelof your preparation.
Like the salon leader who cansay, hey, let's run through that
checkout script together realquick is a leader who builds

(06:25):
confidence, not just critiquesperformance.
You know, the role play revealswhere someone's stuck.
You know, maybe it's not theoffer, it's the tone, not the
words, it's the timing.
And once you isolate thebreakdown, you can send them
back to the right part of thesystem.
And this is where you'lldiscover if your systems are
tight or if they're playing thegame of telephone with your

(06:49):
legacy.
You know, this is when youthink about the game of
telephone.
You know we've probably allplayed that game where you start
with the phrase and by the timeit gets, sometimes to the first
person, or even to the secondor third person, it's a whole,
totally different phrase.
And so that's the same thingwhen it comes to, like,
answering your phone.
Like if someone is answeringyour phone and everybody has a
different script that they'reusing, that's a break in a

(07:12):
system and that's a greatopportunity for a leader to step
in, to first be aware of that.
I think that's one of the firststeps to transformation is being
aware of it and then havingthose great conversations and
role-playing it with, um, withthe person you know.
Yesterday we had a new beautypro who's in our co-stylist
training program and she, shewas put up front to learn and I

(07:35):
walked up there and she was likeum, I'm really, really, really
nervous, I don't know what'shappening.
And so, like we did a few morerole plays with her they had
already done some and you couldtell her whole energy shifted,
she felt more confident, shefelt seen, she felt like she
could do it, like we gave herthe gift of confidence, and
that's what a lot of times roleplaying does.
And like, by the end of the dayI was like okay, girl, I'll see

(07:57):
you up there.
Yeah, you got it going on.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
So it's just like we forget the power of role playing
because it comes natural to usbut it's not natural to everyone
.
I love that, jen, and it isjust a beautiful thing when you
see that shift in their energyand their transformation, you
know.
And so helping new leaders tosee hey, we're trying to get a
positive shift, we're not tryingto change every single thing
today, we're just trying to getthat one next positive shift.

(08:26):
So I love that, you know.
And?
And step five really is likehey, if you're feeling the
cracks, it's time to dive intothose systems and guess what
We've got you.
Because, listen, if your stomachjust dropped because you
realized that your systemsaren't written out, your leaders
are winging it and you're stillthe only one who knows how to

(08:50):
fix things when they go wrong.
That's not your fault, you know, it's P R O 2, 4, 6, 9, 2, 8, 3
, 5, 5, 9, 0.

(09:12):
And we'll send you over all thedetails on our brand new
training program million dollarbeauty pro.
You know, this is an on-demandand live training system that
turns you know button pushersinto brand builders, and it's
built for you so that you canfinally scale your team without
watering down the vision.

(09:33):
Just like Jen talked abouttelephone, you'll eliminate the
telephone game forever becauseyou guys, we're not guessing
anymore, we know the score.
Team-based salons earn millionsmore, and it starts with
leaders who don't just show upbut rise up.
So, whether you've got onestylist or that, you're eyeing

(09:59):
for leadership, you know, oryou're trying to build a full
blown management pipeline,remember, great leaders aren't
born, they're developed insideof a system that actually works.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, I love that.
It makes it makes you just wantto keep seeing it.
Team-based salons are millionsmore.
Team-based salons are millionsmore.
So true, so true.
You know, so you know.
Like Lindsay was saying, greatleaders are born, they're
developed inside a system thatworks, and if yours isn't
working, let's fix that.
So we'll see you next time onthe Salon Success Secrets

(10:37):
Podcast.
Let's continue building thislegacy together.