6 Tips to Prevent Holiday Burnout in Your Salon

Burnout happens. Especially during the busiest time of the year, when clients practically fly in and out of your chair for their holiday ‘dos. During the holidays, stylists work long hours in the salon, tending to a variety of clients back-to-back, standing on their feet for 8+ hours a day.

As award-winning author of No Compromise Leadership, Neil Ducoff shares, “Teamwork burnout, or fizzle, can happen in an instant.” As a salon owner and team leader, what can you do from burning your staff out? Plenty, according to Neil! Here are six of his tried and true strategies to maintain focus, energy and momentum in your salon.

1. Teamwork is fueled by vision, mission and objectives.

• Don’t expect teamwork if your goals are vague or undefined.
• Be specific with your staff and evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.
• One great idea or promotion may get teamwork fired up, but you need a strategy to keep it going throughout the year.
• Set quarterly, six-month and annual goals for your revenue flow, promotional calendar, employee meetings and even staff contests.
• If your team knows and understands what is expected of them, it is much easier to work toward those common goals.

2. Communicate your vision, mission and objectives.

• Too many salon owners stop communicating and wonder why teamwork starts to weaken.
• Lack of communication from you can signal your mission and drive toward goals is over.
• You or a management team member should maintain weekly contact with your staff to ensure they know you’re on top of hitting goals and to keep the energy level in the salon strong.

3. Keep score.

• When you look at sales in a general, non-specific way, and answer your own question of “How are we doing?” with a reply of “not good enough,”—then you’re inviting burnout.
• When you track your sales every week, month and quarter, along with results of promotional efforts, you can evaluate how far off you are in hitting goals and make changes to improve. By sharing this information regularly with your staff, they become a part of the goal-setting and achieving process.
• If they can see where they need to be, then they can set their own goals and put in effort to contribute to the salon growth. 

4. Celebrate progress and wins along the way.

• Celebrating and rewarding progress inspires and motivates stylists to keep working toward goals.
• You keep the positive energy and momentum of achievement flowing when you recognize stylists who hit their goals with extra perks like a cash bonus or other type or reward. Get creative.
• Talk to your stylists about what inspires them to work harder. Is it cash bonus, electronics, gift cards, etc.? Do this on a regular basis, such as monthly, quarterly and yearly. It keep everyone moving toward the bigger year-end goals.

5. Make tough decisions.

• If you have to remove a team member because their performance is not what is best for your salon, then it becomes time to make that tough decision.
• You must act to protect the integrity of your team efforts and overall income for the salon.

6. Make it fun.

• Teamwork, winning and celebrating should have fun built in. Sure, there will be tough moments, but staff members should love what they do and have fun doing it. By creating the culture of a happy, pleasant and hard-working salon team, it becomes fun. Fun is empowering and contagious.
• The key to this goes back to setting those goals, clearly communicating them, helping staff achieve them, and then rewarding them for a job well done. Then work becomes fun.

Finally, for the no compromise salon leader, having fun is essential. Your mood and demeanor set the tone for the entire salon team. By following the tips above, you’ll create an environment for success in your salon and this makes your job as owner and manager much more enjoyable.