One of your most crucial roles as a business owner is being a confident leader. In this episode, I’m sharing common pitfalls to avoid, how to handle team performance issues, and how to build a team of high-performers that follow your lead. It all starts with you at the top. From communication tips, to KPI’s, we’re covering ways to build a competent team that leads to increased sales and profits, a better work environment, and the ability to scale the business effectively. In short - grow as a LEADER and your business will grow too at an exponential rate.
HIGHLIGHTS
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The challenges we faced due to a last-minute airline strike.
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3 common pitfalls leaders should avoid.
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How to take ownership as a leader (and how it will benefit your business growth!)
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Ways to identify and handle team performance issues.
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Techniques to create proactive and honest team culture.
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How to foster a culture of self-improvement within your team.
RESOURCES + LINKS
Book a Strategy Call with us HERE
FOLLOW
Heather: @heatherterveen
Website: heatherterveen.com
Confident team members are attracted to competent leaders. So where are you not being a competent leader? Where are you not showing up like the leader that you want to be? Welcome to the MedSpa CEO podcast, where I teach you how to grow and scale your med spot or aesthetic practice so that you can have the income and impact you know you were meant for without overwhelm, stress or feeling like you have to sacrifice your personal life and happiness to do so. It's totally possible for you and your business plus simpler than you think. Keep listening to find out how. Well hello my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I am thrilled you're joining me today and I hope that summer is going well for you and your family. It has been a couple of weeks of travel for us. We actually went to Canada. We went to British Columbia specifically. We went to an area called Kelowna, which is absolutely gorgeous and had a fabulous time with one of my college besties who she's from San Diego but she married a Canadian and they ended up settling in Kelowna after you know living in Vancouver and Kelowna. So I spent quite a bit of time visiting her in Vancouver but I had never been to Kelowna and it was gorgeous. We spent the week on the lake and the kids got to try wakeboarding and tubing. We were able to celebrate Canada Day. We also my friend through a fabulous Fourth of July party with all of her Canadian friends who came over to help us celebrate the Fourth of which was really really fun. We had a fantastic time and it's funny. I had posted this on my stories. So for those of you who are connecting with me over on stories, probably already saw this but there was a huge strike with the airline that we were flying WestJet that was literally announced like they went on strike four a.m. the morning that we were departing and so we were flying flying from Phoenix to Calgary and then Calgary to Kelowna and we knew that there was a decent chance that our flight from Calgary to Kelowna would be cancelled and our flight to Calgary was fine because the plane was it was a mechanic strike and so the mechanics that checked the plane the day before and so the plane was prepped that morning for that flight. And so we kind of took a roll of the die because we knew it could be you know however long before we could get another flight and flew out to Calgary which is like a seven hour drive to Kelowna. And so long story short we ended up finding a rental car. There was like 200 people in the rental car line when we finally got to the rental car place as we debarked in Kelowna and got a minivan and ended up being able to drive through some of the most gorgeous part of the Canadian Rockies and we spent the night in Banff and we really like my husband and I and my girls kept saying we were making lemonade out of lemons and it was just a great trip. So now we're back kind of in the swing of things but kids are where at least through summer school and some of the camps and we're getting ready for some softball tournaments that we will be traveling for as well too. So it's a busy time of year in a different sort of way because you don't have the same routine. I don't know if you can relate to this or not but it's just like you know there's not the same routine with all three kids which is kind of welcomed but it's also sometimes just a little bit less organized if you will. So today we are talking about reading your team with confidence. This is a topic that has been very popular. It's actually a question I get asked a lot about team members and team members and their ability to sell and what team members are doing and you know front desk people who maybe aren't living up to what you want them or acting how you want them to be and it's a very common topic inside of MSA as well. So I wanted to share some mistakes that I'm seeing folks are making that are preventing them from leading their team with confidence and then also share some of the sort of shifts I think you can make in order to truly be the type of courageous leader that you need to be in order to lead your team with competently okay. So some of the mistakes I've seen so you know we work with women led female boutique results driven aesthetic and wellness practice owners and what women have been socialized to and I've talked about it before what women have been socialized to really be is people pleasers okay. And so you have people pleasing happening in the background even in leadership and then you also have where we tend to want to really care take for our team members which is can be beautiful okay like showing up and really being there and being like not a robot and some militant cold boss is great but what ends up happening is that you can make it too personal okay. And so a mistake I see many of you making is that you've made it so personal that you can't actually have honest and direct conversations with team members and so you'll sometimes put feelings before the choices that are in the best interest for the health of the business and that is a mistake okay. I had a MSA member ask me you know she has a front desk person this was on a recent CEO call that when she first hired her she was awesome she was very bubbly outgoing like you know calling and doing all these things initially and a very very strong momentum when she started off and now the performance has dipped and she was concerned about you know she doesn't want to hurt her feelings she doesn't want her to take it the wrong way she'd already had a fairly honest conversation with her but was really worried that if she was going to have more communication with her that this person might think that she is you know micromanaging her if you will or making the assumption that more communication meant that she wasn't doing it correctly and so what I offered to her was how could coming up with more touch points actually serve your team and staff members and by touch points I mean in this instance she was a fairly new front desk person I think she hired her in like mayor june and so what I've been doing with new employees in fact I have a new marketing assistant right now that I'm doing this with and I learned this from our revenue generating teams coach if you will Laurie in the program is like really having a end of the day message so for the first 30 to 60 days that you have somebody new like actually having them answer three quick questions at the end of the day that let's you know when did they have what did they struggle with and what could they need help with okay so that's just one example but also having huddles like I am having huddles with this new team member often almost for the first couple of weeks I met with her every single day except for one day I didn't meet with her on Wednesdays because of how my calendar is but every other day I met with her and in the beginning I really recommend you do this and the spirit of it isn't that you're micro managing them the spirit of it is that you're there to support them because I will tell you there is nothing worse than being at a job a new job or even a job that you've been at a while where you don't know how you're doing where you have questions that you don't want to bug the busy other team members or boss to ask so I think a mistake is making it too personal right not being able to have direct honest conversations and then secondly not having a nest communication standpoint touch points and assuming that more communications touch points are going to be perceived as negative by your team or staff member when that couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth especially when you go with the spirit of letting them know hey we want to make sure that you're not left with a bunch of questions or left hanging on what to do so we want to connect with you in the matter of this many daily huddles weekly huddles and then we want to know right away we want to have that message point that email sent to us or however you want we do it through email and I actually recommend doing that even if your person you know for your in-person staff members as well too because it's just an easy way to do it where they're sending you that note for a predetermined amount of days after they've been onboarded to let you know how their day went okay so mistake number one is making it too personal mistake number two is putting feelings and it kind of dovetails off mistake number one putting feelings before the choices that are in the best interest for the health of your business and then what I've found is that our brain knows that we're putting in these communication touch points because we really want to prevent them from you we want to help them do a good job but also we've noticed maybe some behavior that we would like to rectify and so we assume that they know that that's why we're doing it and quite frankly even if they do know it's a little bit of that when we take ownership of like hey we could have done a better job of making sure that we gave you clarity that we gave you like that we were connecting with you on maybe some of the things you always have to assume with team members and staff members that you have not communicated enough you have to over communicate because everything that you think is second nature to you whether it's your softwares how certain things are done you have to remember that somebody who's learning it new it's a completely rapidly higher learning curve and you are just desensitized to the fact that you already know about those things okay the other mistake I think that has to do with the mistake I was just talking about is that you're really winging it and like you bring somebody on because you're so busy you need the help whether it's a front desk person or maybe it's another provider or what have you but you don't really have a game plan for properly supporting that new team or staff member so that they can get up and running and feel supported and I think the number one reason people leave jobs I don't believe is money and I mean money plays a part in it but I believe the number one reason people will leave is if they do not feel like they're in a position to do a good job that they know what they should be doing and when and that there's not like a vision for them at that business there's not a road map if you will where you've actually connected with what they want as well too but having a really strong onboarding game plan and ongoing like quarterly meetings maybe you're meeting one like I'm not saying it's a certain amount of meetings if you will it's just deciding ahead of time what that's going to look like so where are you winging it right now because nine times out of ten when somebody like messages me or I'm talking with a new MSA member or what have you and they're complaining about a team member normally when we pull back the the onion what we end up finding is that they weren't onboarded that well they don't have a very good game plan for ongoing communication touch points they don't really have clarity on the role they don't really have good KPIs where the person can feel like they're winning if you will that they're getting A's or they're getting B's or like how they can measure themselves so the big mistakes is really all wrapped up in not having a strong game plan in place whether you're winging it as well too and so it's also the more communication touch points that you decide upon like whatever that might be for you the more you can actually step into making sure you're having honest conversations from the beginning and a great book on just conversations in general that I always refer to is the book crucial conversations I actually purchased that book I think it was 2014 or 15 when I needed to break up with a business partner who was also a friend okay I had an e-commerce business at the time and I no longer wanted to proceed with that business with my business partner and I cared about her and I wanted to really be thoughtful with the conversation I was gonna have with her but I also wanted to be direct with ending the relationship the business relationship not the friendship and so it was a great book and the close notes of it is that basically you can deliver almost any information to somebody if you create a safe environment so you can say almost anything if you have created an environment for which the other person feels safe and so there's some really simple ways to do this first of all it's understanding and owning up to where like let's say you're doing this with a team member that's been with you for years and you want to start getting into a cadence of having better communication touch points with them when you own the fact that the reason that you haven't had a good cadence of communication touch points with them whether it's like you go to one-on-one meetings or quarterly reviews or what have you and you own that and say that is on me and I really want to build a positive environment where we're able to actually meet and celebrate your wins where I can find out where you're struggling and what have you as well that person isn't going to think that those additional communication touch points are just because they're doing a crappy job and it's because you created safety by letting the person know hey we're adding these in because I should have been doing this from the beginning and we're adding this in so that you can feel like a supported team member or staff member and it will completely disarm them and help them actually feel like it's safe to have an honest conversation with you and then after that once you've created that safety then you can actually deliver some constructive criticism as well too like this is where I see your weaknesses are and so these are the areas where I think you have room for improvement and so like let's talk about that the other thing that I learned from that I learned actually from my all the coaching training that I've done as well too is that going with the spirit of curiosity and asking really thoughtful questions with team members when you notice especially like when I was talking to this MSA member whose front desk person had started off really strong and then was not displaying the same sort of enthusiasm and you know she wasn't showing up how she had in the beginning it's an opportunity to ask questions like you know you know we noticed it this and now you know it seems like you are not having the same enthusiasm for this role here and so I wanted to open up the dialogue and when you ask questions after you've created a safety the likelihood that they're gonna give you an honest response is so much higher so the things I've learned from not only that book but like from coaching the thing that I love about all these sort of communication strategies because at the end of the day I am a communication nut if you will like I know I've said it before but I have got my bachelors and masters in communication I find it incredibly human communication interpersonal communication like organizational communication like the way we all communicate as humans I find fascinating and the psychology behind it all and when communicating with team members as well too it can be incredibly useful to really evaluate your own communication as a leader okay so what are some of the things that will help you build a more confident team the first big thing is that confident team members are attracted to competent leaders okay so where are you not being a competent leader where are you not showing up like the leader that you want to be because the more confident you show up the more courageous they witness you being the more you are setting the standard for building competent team and staff members as well okay I know it sounds really obvious but it's interesting that I will have conversations with folks where they clearly are not being the competent leader where they're kind of showing the opposite of competence right like they're acquiescing they're you know they're nervous to have conversations with their team members and what have you and they're displaying that right behind the scenes it's fine be nervous at home chatting to your spouse about it not in front of your team members right the more you show up confidently the more you create an environment and a culture where honest conversations can be had the more you will find that your team and staff will live up to that bar that you set for yourself and so it actually does start with the leader okay so really evaluate where you may be missing the mark and not in a way where you're gonna beat yourself up but it's an opportunity it's an opportunity for you to develop yourself as well too the second question that I will ask MSA members when they're having a challenging moment with a team member is we have to uncover and diagnose what problem we're actually solving for okay and what I mean by that is that let's say we have a provider that we want to sell have her sell more and make comprehensive recommendations and what have you and she's just not doing it and so somebody will tell me like I want my providers to be you know I had somebody message me an email and they were like I really want my team to you know make combination modality I think is the word she used recommendations I keep telling them to do that but what we uncovered once she shared her menu with me and a little bit more information was that they really hadn't create a structure and an environment where it would be easy for their providers to do that they did not have a menu of packages and signature packages and programs that would actually put together combination modalities for their team members ahead of time so that the team members could be like oh this is what should be recommended when these problems and desired outcomes for this type of a patient and really deciding ahead of time what those should be so the problem we're solving for in that case is clarity okay because your team members don't have clarity the more we can establish clarity for your team members and solve that problem right so that's why when you join us in MSA that's always step one let's get clarity on what we want you know we have a whole builder menu sparky that we help you create that has all the details of what should be recommended to whom when it comes to CSPs and BMOs and skincare systems and what have you so then once we've solved for the clarity problem for your team members okay like we're all on the same page like this type of patient who's coming and saying that they want this type of help this is what should be presented then giving them clarity on really having a consult that helps them like how they should be doing their consults in order to present those packages okay it's another piece of clarity okay so those two key things like what should be recommended to whom when and then how they should be doing the recommendations by having like a mapped out consult process right I recommend patient 365 so this is done every single year that every single year all of your loyal patients get a patient 365 of what their game plan is for the year just like when you go to your primary care doctor now my primary care doctor doesn't do a good job of giving me a game plan but they do do a good job of annual physicals and wellness checks but I digress okay so that's the first usually first problem we're looking at the second problem especially when it comes to sales or any sort of behavior that you want a team or staff member to do is actually aware like what it was sales it's like our it's usually an awareness problem meaning I'll say do we have an awareness problem or is it a competence the nest delivery problem and what I mean by that is like are they just not presenting so now we've gotten clarity on the menu we've given them how to actually present the next step is is like tracking are they actually making the presentation okay so that's solving that problem okay so we've solved problem number one then we solve problem number two is like actually tracking are they making the presentations then once that problem is solved for they're consistently doing that then we solve for the competence and the conviction and the finesse and you know tweaking what they're saying helping them work through that that's just one example but like actually uncovering and diagnosing what the problem is and it's this can be done to any sort of team member so same with a front desk person like does that front desk person have clarity on their role that's usually the first place where I find a lot of holes when I like unpack oh this person isn't displaying a behavior that I want for that team member do they have clarity on that and then actually putting some KPIs in place that you can actually help and the goal with KPIs I always say is not to hound them or to make them feel crappy it's actually to really catch them when they're doing things awesomely right and create more of a positive accountability system and then of course like sometimes we're gonna be like okay this is an area where we can work on it right so what problem are we solving for because when we just say this team member sucks or this person's not doing this and we just make these blanket stories about our team members we can't actually solve problems when we do not get super specific with what the actual problem is and then the final piece of advice I have for you all in really building competent team members is creating a culture of self-improvement where can we create an environment a culture in our businesses where continual improvement and continually getting better is the modus operandi where can you do that it starts with you like are you constantly improving yourself right are you improving yourself are you investing in yourself are you looking for ways to improve and then where are you investing in your team members right and you know I had somebody say to me once they were like well I'm worried if I invest in my team members like what if I invest in these team members and then they end up leaving and you know what I said to her was so what's the alternative like you're just gonna have team members that you don't invest in and I wasn't even talking about just like investing in training for them which of course training and coaching is great you should be investing in that with them but I also just meant investing time and other things in them like we can't go with that attitude we have to go with the attitude that the best option is creating a culture self-improvement and that we want to invest in our team members because the alternative to not investing in our team members is not pretty all right that is what I have for you today on building competent teams and what I'll leave you with is is that ultimately you can create an entire team of competent leaders at your practice and it just takes a little bit of intentionality and it is also a skill set that you're developing and to recognize that as you're developing your skill set that you aren't gonna be doing it perfectly and to give yourself a little bit of grace but then to also understand as you look at how you currently are doing things how you can make it better in the future and if you want our help with building competent team and staff members this is something that we do inside of NSA I highly recommend that you apply to see if you are a fit for working with us you can also just DM me over on Instagram at Heather Turvine and just DM me that you're interested in learning more I can actually look at your menu I can ask a couple questions to see if you are good fit for working with us as well too because it is a game changer once you are able to have a system where your team members are thriving and they are able to help with selling they're showing up and it just creates an amazing environment and you create an environment where you're continually able to grow and scale and we cannot grow and scale without having effective team members and we can't create effective team members without becoming the kind of leaders that are competent and courageous and that awesome team and staff members want to follow so that is what I have for you this week my friend I will see you next week and I hope you are staying cool and it's not 110 wherever you are. Hey if you're enjoying this podcast and you're a boutique results driven med spa owner who is looking to drive more sales profitably each month without hustling yourself into the ground to do so then you should consider applying to join us inside of the med spa advantage it's the only program designed to help you grow your revenue and profits while gaining back more time so that you don't feel scattered and drained while running and growing your business each month to learn more about whether or not you're a fit for joining us you can head over to heathertervine.com/apply to apply to get on a call with us to learn more that's heathertervine.com/apply to learn more about the med spa. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
