What kind of manager are you and how does it affect your salon business?

In his study from the Harvard Business Review, “Leadership That Gets Results”, Daniel Goleman distinguishes six types of management styles that assure getting the work done. According to Goleman, in order to be a successful beauty salon manager, you should learn to blend leadership styles depending on the required approach: “The best leaders don’t know just one style of leadership - they’re skilled at several, and have the flexibility to switch between styles as the circumstances dictate” (Goleman, 2011).

Let’s take a closer look at those six styles of management in the context of your beauty salon and find out which one will work the best in certain situations.

1. Do what I tell you: Coercive

You are a Coercive manager if you:

• Seek immediate compliance from your employees
• Tend to closely control your staff members
• Have a strong drive to achieve your goal
• Tend to take initiative and are able to make tough decisions
• Motivate your employees by rigid discipline
• Give clear direction and orders
• Are quick to address problems

You are most effective when:

• There is a crisis going on and salon needs to be lead with an iron fist
• The salon is going through a phase of major changes
• Dealing with a problematic employee

This style of management may be problematic when:

• You are getting excessively rigorous - employees may feel devalued
• There are underdeveloped team members, who are not likely to learn much with this management style
• Employees are highly skilled - they may get frustrated due to excessive control

2. Come with me: Authoritative

You are an Authoritative manager if you:

• Prefer to mobilise than to command
• Are confident, yet empathic
• Encourage people to be innovative and take calculated risks in support of the vision
• Give employees clear direction and feedback on their work
• Take responsibility
• Are engaged and committed
• Put trust in your employees

You are most effective when:

• The team is relatively new and requires strong leadership
• There is a change going on and the team needs a clear vision to follow

This style of management may be problematic when:

• You are not credible enough - you will not convince others to your vision
• You are overdoing it - you may get overbearing

3. People come first: Affiliative

You are an Affiliative manager if you:

• Are all about communication
• Are mostly driven by the need to provide harmony and consistency in the salon
• Promote cooperation and building bonds between team members
• Prioritise good working atmosphere
• Prefer to avoid conflicts
• Improve morale in the salon
• Are forgiving and empathic

You are most effective when:

• A mediator is needed
• The team performance is irreproachable, they just need a motivator
• There is a stressful period in the salon and employees need someone to rely on

This style of management may be problematic when:

• There are tough decisions to be made
• Employees are dishonest - Affiliative tends to be too forgiving or even prefer to pretend they do not notice the problem
• Team members’ work is not the highest quality - Affiliative owners tend to care more about the atmosphere than about the performance

4. What do you think: Democratic

You are a Democratic manager if you:

• Are open-minded and do not consider your opinion to be the most important
• Favour making decisions as a team rather than alone
• Value everyone’s opinion
• Want to build consensus through participation
• Motivate by rewarding engagement
• Patiently listen to all ideas, thoughts & concerns

You are most effective when:

• Staff is already experienced and like to work together
• The working environment is stable

This style of management may be problematic when:

• There is a need for quick decisions
• Employees are not competent enough to participate in the decision-making process
• Team members lack discipline

5. Do as I do: Pacesetting

You are a Pacesetting manager if you:

• Set high standards for both your employees and yourself
• Expect self-management and highest quality performance
• Are highly driven by the need to achieve and improve
• Want to see quick results
• Perform many tasks yourself
• Motivate by requiring substantial work output
• Are highly focused on your goal
• Do not tolerate incompetence

You are most effective when:

• Your team is already experienced and very competent
• Your employees do not require too much coordination

This style of management may be problematic when:

• The task requires teamwork and direct guidance
• Employees need more development, assistance and coordination

6. Try this: Coaching

You are a Coaching manager if you:

• Want your employees to develop
• Think about your team performance in the long-term
• Get to know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses
• Treat every team member individually
• Motivate by providing opportunities for professional development
• Are more focused on long-term advancement than a current task
• Are tolerant and forgive mistakes easily

You are most effective when:

• The team is not experienced and requires development
• Employees want to learn and improve

This style of management may be problematic when:

• There is a crisis or a need for tough decision-making
• One of the employees is seriously underdeveloped - as a Coaching manager, you may have trouble firing them, as they believe that everyone can improve

Every single one of these styles of management has its pros and cons. As Goleman said, it is best to learn to switch between them and adjust the approach to what a given situation requires. After all, you know your team members better than anyone and are able to choose the style that your beauty parlour will benefit from the most.

Being a manager is not an easy duty. Managing people is much more difficult than managing machines or programs. Scheduling their work, keeping track of their performance, counting their commissions, recording leaves and absences - it may be too much to handle. No matter how great of a leader you are, you may need an assistant that will work perfectly regardless of management approach - your Booksy software. While you take care of keeping your staff motivated, Booksy will keep track of the numbers, schedules and data, making sure everything is in order.

Do not hesitate and get your free trial today!

_________ Goleman, D. (2011). Leadership that gets results. (Report No. 4487). Adapted from The Harvard Business Review.