When I think about the future of the beauty industry and the success of an employee-based model, I believe it hinges on one thing. Leadership.
Leadership is the solution that we have full control over.
As leaders, business owners, and managers in the beauty industry, we can decide how we want to show up to support and grow teams. The choice you have to make is, are you going to show up as a boss or as a mentor?
A boss is someone who is in charge.
You have people report directly to you at work and you are ultimately the person holding them accountable for their actions and results.
A mentor is someone who guides others.
Mentors have people who come to them with big questions, concerns, fears, and celebrations. If you are a mentor, you are the person responsible for helping a person get to their next best result.
When we look at the data shared from our workforce reports at Talent Match, we see clearly that the team matters– a lot.
We also see that leadership is the number one most critical factor to an employee leaving or staying with a salon.
The beauty industry has a lot of bosses. We need a lot of mentors.
The sheer amount of disruption our industry has faced in the last 15 years means that our workforce is full of big questions and very few answers. They see opportunities around them that they think look shiny- but they really don’t know if they are.
They see influencers achieving things they want to achieve but they have no real knowledge of the” other side of the story”. They aspire to earn 6 figures but feel like they can’t do it- so they bail on the industry.
The beauty industry needs more people in leadership roles to decide that mentoring is better than “bossing.”
The first step to being a great mentor is to establish a rapport that builds trust.
Get to know your team on a personal level so you can be clear on their goals, dreams, insecurities, and perceived barriers.
Once you know these things you can help guide, influence, and support them on their journey.
The future success of employee-based salons depends on the collective power of the leadership deciding to mentor the existing and incoming talent, so they feel seen, heard, and cared for.
We need to create a space that screams opportunity and connection – because of the marketing being done on the independent side of our industry. Independence screams opportunity and sadly there is no direction.
Sadly, the salon workforce is missing out on understanding the value of what it takes to maintain their ability – and run a successful business. You can change that.
