Hairstylists don’t leave jobs they leave managers!

“People don’t leave jobs they leave managers.”
I heard that expression recently and it got me reflecting on the salon managers I had worked for or with over the course of my career, and it got me thinking about the salon owners that I know who can’t keep their staff and I realised that there is a lot of truth in it.
Over the course of my career I have had or seen salon managers who were inspiring, managers who always had time for their team, managers who nurtured, encouraged and supported their team. And as a result their team respected them and would go out of their way to please and support them in return.
But then I have also had, or seen, salon managers who were bullies, demeaning to their team and always coming from a place of ‘fear’. Whether it was fear that staff would leave, or fear that they were stealing product or fear that staff were undermining them.
Managing people isn’t easy
and unfortunately many managers in the hair and beauty business become managers for the wrong reasons, and get no training and find themselves in ‘the deep end’ with a team of people that they are responsible for leading, inspiring and getting results from.
Without some sort of management training, without understanding what the ‘tools of management’ are, then it’s inevitable that many managers resort to passive aggressive behaviours, yelling, bullying or just giving up on people.
It’s not always their fault because without the training, without the support and systems they do what they think ‘management is’ and then they wonder why they can’t get the best out of people, they wonder why there is no trust, they wonder why there is no cooperation and the wonder why there is no respect.
Learning to be a better manager is a skill and like all skills it can be learnt.
If you are lucky enough to have had some great managers in your life then model them, model their approach, model how they dealt with conflict, model what they did to lead, inspire and how they got the respect and co-operation from their team.
But if you didn’t have great role models, and if you don’t have a great mentor to learn from then attend courses, listen to podcasts, read books and search out people who can be a positive influence on you.
Remember, People don’t leave jobs they leave managers. Learning to be a better manager is like learning any new skill, there is a fair bit of trial and error, you will make mistakes, it’s important that you learn from them when you do.
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