How To Create A Team That Holds Itself Accountable

So I have had the privilege of working with more and more salon owners over the past couple months, and I have been really, really enjoying it because myself, as a leader and somebody with a team and who's had a even larger team than I have now, um, I'm obsessed with leadership and I'm obsessed with the problems and challenges when it comes to growing and managing a team. And I personally have had, like, a lot of difficult experiences and hard lessons to learn myself, and continuously have hard experiences and lessons to learn myself, um, from a leadership perspective, that have allowed me to really help a lot of salon owners within our, our specific space and industry and within my coaching, um, empower their teams and do really, really beautiful, amazing things. Like, we have a mastermind member who is getting new stylists in the door, and they are immediately making, like, an insane amount of money right out of beauty school. And then therefore, the salon owner gets to make more money and everybody profits and wins at the end of the day.

And it has just been a lot of fun. But one of the biggest things and one of the biggest challenges that I recurringly see with salon owners is, how do I get my team on board with a change that I have going on, or how do I get them to take the initiative that I'm looking for them to take? Or maybe even if you are an independent stylist listening to this, or just a stylist in general, how do we get a change to land well with our clients? Or how do we get clients to naturally be motivated or act how we would like them to act, basically, in order for us to make our jobs easier or to be able to serve them better?

And I think that that's what all this really comes down to at the end of the day, is like, as a leader, your job is to make it so you set up an environment to be able to serve the people around you the best that you possibly can. And therefore, you need to take full responsibility for if they are not given the things that they need to be able to show up to do that for you and give you those things to be able to do that job easily. So in today's episode, we're gonna be talking about how we can get your sty- your stylists on board and taking initiatives themselves, and how we can get any clients on board with any changes or things that you'd like to make or change in your salon business. So with that being said, I'm gonna pass it over to Jodi, Ms.

Jodi Brown, so that way she can lead me through the conversation today. Okay. I'm super excited about this conversation. I think you're so right that there are so many similarities in terms of the, the psychology between team members and clients and just, like, getting people on board essentially with what it is that you wanna do.

And so I know the first thing that we wanted to talk about today is, did you hire or attract the right person into your business? And starting with that as kind of the baseline question, if you're having issues with getting people on board with the changes that you wanna make. Yeah, 'cause it really does come back to this, which is, like, such a shitty answer, right? Because when I...

When... Normally, when people come to me and I start coaching them, it's like obviously you might, you probably have, like, an existing team. You have an existing clientele. And so it's like you're working with what you're working with, right?

So I'm not discrediting that. Like, there's ways that we can manage that, but I guess the question kind of becomes, at what point do we decide that this person is just actually not the best fit for our business or our company, right? Like, at what point is it, "Okay, I actually did not hire the right person, and no matter what tactic, strategy, communication style I put into place, that nothing is going to change because it's not the right person"? Because...

So, so it really goes back to the very beginning. So, and the reason I say this is because let's say that you are having a difficult time with somebody being cleanly in your salon. So maybe they are not, you know, cleaning up their trays very efficiently or consistently in between clients, or they're leaving color at the color bar, um, or leaving a shampoo bowl dirty. Whatever it may be, right?

Let's say that cleanliness is the issue. If you, as a company, have the core values of cleanliness, then what you want to be doing is you want to be hiring people with the similar core values. And so having a documented understanding of what your core values are at the very beginning, and then making sure that they're things that are not just thrown to the wayside or just, like, on a poster board in the break room that never get read, that they're actually something that you consistently activate and that you have written out and documented and also rev- uh, also revisited multiple times. And then l- leading every single decision, including hiring, through that lens, that makes it so you create a really, really beautiful and amazing team that actually does the things that you would like them to do.

Or you attract a clientele who is aligned with you, who is willing to do the things that you would like them to do. And so with the cleanliness example, when you hire somebody who has that same core value, if that person cares as much as you about the salon being clean because they know that this creates a great client experience for them, it creates a great working environment for everybody else, then you can actually have a productive conversation. If somebody does not share that same core value and they don't just say... It's not about them just saying that they have the core value.

It's like you can, in an interview, a, with different types of questions, you can, like, actually, like, really tell if somebody actually has that core value, right? Um, uh, if that somebody has that same core value, you're able to have productive conversations because they actually want the same things. So it may not be that the person doesn't want the same thing as you. Maybe they are just ignorant to what behavior they have or that they're putting in place or they're doing, whatever, that is actually working against that core value, and you need to make them aware of it.

And we also need to provide them with the resources or the coaching and leadership and facilitation to actually fulfill the exemplification of the core value. So that is your job as a leader, is to make it so you are coaching and giving people everything that they need to actually fulfill what you... the behavior that you're trying to have them do. do or how they, you wanting them to behave within your company, but you can't do that if the person does not believe the same things that you do.

Because all of our behaviors go back to our thinking, right? 100%. So, like, the reason I decide to get onto a podcast and yap to all of you guys is because I think and I believe that this stuff is very important for the industry to hear, because I love taking care of people and I love this industry, and I love empowering it, right? But I could also just do this podcast because it's the, it's a, a important part of my business, right?

So then therefore it's just a behavior. And so the thinking now is, "Okay, I'm doing this just because it's a part of the, it's a part of the business and it's essential for what I need to do." Right. And that type of encouraged behavior is not w- not behavior that's going to be done very well.

Right. Right. It's, it's going to be something that feels forced. It's going to be something that is going to be done at the bare minimum.

It's just- Right ... doing it because I have to, and I'm scared of what happens if I don't do it. Right. However, if I'm doing this because of the belief that it is important and that I love it, and that it's i- and that it's making a bigger impact, right, then I'm going to approach it with a lot more intention, and I'm going to do it a lot better, because there's positive enforcement in me doing this.

So a lot of the time what we're trying to do is we're trying to change behavior instead of changing thinking, and thinking changes the behavior in a much better and more productive way. Right. One of the things that you said when we were planning this episode that I thought was so well put is that, like, in, with leadership now, like the evolution and where we're at societally, you can't just expect people to blindly follow orders anymore. Like, because of what you just said.

It's like, okay, if the motivation is I'm just scared of what will happen if I don't do this, like, there's not gonna be that core, like, belief that this is important to do, right? So that's when it's like, okay, the second you step outside the salon, the things that are important to you are no longer happening 'cause there's no longer that fear. So it's like you're almost, like, getting yourself into a position where you're gonna have to micromanage forever, otherwise it's not gonna get done. And so the...

Talk a little bit about, like, the why behind the things that you're doing, and make, and, and how you can kind of bring your team in on understanding why something's important versus just like, "You have to do this 'cause I said so." 100%. And then if you, somebody has the why, then they're a- able to actually take it further than you can. So that's, like, one of the beau- most beautiful things about this approach, is, like, thinking about the core values, leading through the core values, hiring with the core values, is that, like, your goal as an entrepreneur is for you to be as scaled above the company as possible, whether that be to be removed from the company and to be able to make as much money by working the, the least amount, and/or be able to focus on more high-level tasks that actually grow the company much faster than the menial, smaller tasks that are just maintaining the business.

And so when you have a, when you have t- a team that has these thing, has these core values, they n- understand the why, then they're, they are going to naturally find ways to make those different things in the space better by themselves, and even better than you can. Because that's when you get to take advantage of the fact that you have multiple beautiful brains who are in your business, who are in the weeds of it every single day. They have their own experiences, their own ideas, their own backgrounds, right? Like, they all get to contribute to that success and, like, the beauty, because you are only one brain.

But imagine if you have a ton of them that are all aligned with the same vision and mission and core values, and they can only add to the experience. But they can't, you can't, you can't expect anybody to do that or even get better than you or come up with better ideas than you, first off, of course, like I said, if you don't hire that from the very beginning, or if you don't allow for the facilitation of that. If you are always, like, death-gripping everything and you're the one coming up with the solutions for everything, then yes, this just becomes you yapping at everybody and just telling everybody what to do all the time. And oftentimes that is not what's going to get somebody to take initiative and actually naturally want to do these things, right?

100%. So with that being said, how do we actually get people involved, right? Because that's where that flip and that switch actually happens, is when you start to allow your team to have more ownership over the behavior that they would like to ha- uh, that you would like to see happen more often. So an example of this is, uh, we'll go back to the cleanliness situation.

You will sit down with the, uh, employee who has not been fulfilling these core values, and you'd be like, "Hey friend, so I'm gonna have every employee self-evaluate themselves on a scale of one to five for each of our core values here today," okay? And by the way, this is something that we should be doing on a consistent basis. We should be doing this in our team meetings. We should have exercises around our core values.

And so you have your employees maybe in your one-to-one on a consistent basis. They, they give themselves a one through five on cleanliness. So then that way you're gaining information about where their head is at as far as how they feel they're doing. And that's super important information, because if you wanna meet someone in the middle, you need to know where they're at first to be able to get to that middle, right?

Otherwise, you're not gonna be able to create a roadmap, because you'll be talking at them instead of starting from where they're at to bring them to where you want them to be. So having them self-evaluate is giving them the opportunity to first self-reflect and maybe find the problem and bring to you the problem, so that makes your job very easy. And then the self-reflection by itself is going to naturally make somebody behave better, and because they're actually thinking about it, right? So let's say cleanly, cleanly person, let's say I was a tornado, like this is very much me, 'cause I make ADHD and I'm just like nuts.

That's honestly one of the biggest reasons I moved to a suite, 'cause I was like, "I don't wanna have to worry about if I left a color tube at the color bar and it's like bothering anybody." You know? Like I just wanna like be able to make my own mess and manage that and make everything else clean for the client. So, uh, let's say that you sit down with me and you're, and, and I come to you and I'm like, "I think I'm a five out of five for cleanliness, honey.

Like, I'm clean as fuck." Like, I ate that, no shade. And so then what you would say is you'd be like, "Okay, so I notice that you put a five down for cleanliness. Would you mind, uh, explaining why?"

Whatever. "That's beautiful. Great. Totally get where you're coming from with that.

I agree with you on this. Would you mind if I shared with you what my rating would be for you?" And then they say, "No, go ahead." Okay, so you say, "So honestly, I'd probably make this a three out of five, and here are the real examples of why."

And I cannot tell you how motherfucking important it is that you don't, that you come to somebody w- with constructive feedback with an example. Right. If you just come to them with like some arbitrary idea- Yeah ... and it's like, "Well, I can't remember when exactly that happened," or whatever it may be, then like, then it's really, it's really difficult to actually get your point across, because then there's nothing to actually connect the idea to, right?

For s- Yeah ... for it to click to somebody. For sure, 'cause behaviors like this like are not tied to like a tangible, like you can't be like, "Oh, here's the number of why." Like, it's not like a metric like that, and I think that's such a good point, because we all have different, like we all have different ideas of what clean is even, like for example, you know what I mean?

So I think that's a really, really important piece of this is like being able to illustrate it versus just being like, "You're messy." Like Dude, yes. Thank you so much for bringing that up. So fucking true, and actually, that's why...

Yeah, I, I love that you said that, like it's not a number, right? Like it's not quantifiable. But then it's like how can we ma- then the, the question becomes can we make this quantifiable? Yeah.

And so like that would be, in this specific con- conversation, this would be the example, right? Now, going back to how do we set ourselves up from the very beginning, right? Like we, what I will do with my mastermind people a lot of the times is I'll actually sit down with their team, like we'll have a team meeting with them and I'm like facilitating this meeting, and I will, we'll go through all the core values together, and each of them will come up with an example of what is a good example of this core value actually coming into play, and what's an example of what does, this does not look like. And so that way they're all hearing this together.

They're all like on the same page. And then the saloner gets to take all of that information, bring it back to the drawing board, and in the employee handbook, there is now pictures and an actual definition of what does cleanliness, the s- our standard of cleanliness actually look like. What does our standard of an excellent client experience actually look like? And when you document that, and then when you have this cleanliness conversation, you bring up the example versus the documented standard.

Yeah. So then therefore, there's no human-to-human miscommunication or resentment. Right. I think a lot of the times what, what, what we will primarily end up doing is we'll start to blame the person and their ideas when we are brought constructive feedback that we are not taking well.

Mm. I think we'll of- we'll often be like, "Oh, she just doesn't fuck with me. Like she just is like looking out to get to me. She's playing favorites."

Like that's like a lot of the time what will come up. Mm-hmm. But when it's not about me and you and this personal relationship, it's about look at the book and look at the- Yeah ... picture and then look at what you did.

Right. There is no argument, right? Exactly. Like, so this is no longer a personal thing.

It's like there is a documented situation that is inarguably against this other thing, and that's why I love data so much, right? Like, and so I love that you brought that, this up, because it's so true. Like this, there might not, not be a number, but there is another way that we can create a documented inarguable example to be able to compare and contrast the behavior to, you know? Yeah, 100%.

The end of this conversation, and this goes back to empowering and facilitating your team to get better by themselves. The end of this conversation goes, "So I would rate you a three because of this example. Do you see what I'm saying?" They'll probably say, "Yes, I understand what you're saying here."

Maybe they'll add an excuse in there or two. Don't listen to the excuses, whatever. Just say like, "Okay, so you get that this is the situation. So my question to you is, is do you have any solutions or is there anything that I can provide to make it so this gets better by the next one-on-one that we have next month?"

Okay. Notice how I'm not coming up with the ideas. I'm not like throwing any sort of like bullshit at them or whatever it may be. I'm not combating them.

I'm allowing them to come to me with a solution, okay? So I allow this person to come to me with a solution. Maybe they don't have the solution right then and there, or maybe they come up with a shitty one, okay? 'Cause I like, when I ask my w- for my, my team or my coaching clients even, I'm like, I don't wanna just hear, "Oh, I guess I j- I just have to be better about X."

Mm. That is not a fucking solution, bitch. No. It's very easy for us when we don't actually have a real idea to just be like, "Oh, I just have to be better about..."

And then that nothing changes. Yeah. And nothing changes. So whenever I hear that, I'm always like, "No, I wanna hear what is a system that you put into place.

Where is the reminder? What is the, what is the Post-It Note?" Whatever, I need something fucking tangible. Okay?

So if they can't come up with that right then, you can then offer your ideas. If you do have ideas, I think that's totally great, but what I would even then some more encourage you to do is then ask them, "Okay, by the end of this week on Friday, would you... I'm... W- is it okay if I follow up with you and I ask you what your solutions for this is going to be?

Could you come up with a solution for this by Friday?" Once a solution is agreed upon, you will say, "Okay, great. Thank you so much for hearing me out today. I'm glad that we're on the same page, and I think this is a good plan.

The next meeting we have, we are going to follow up on this. Is that okay with you?" "Yes." "Great."

Next meeting, if nothing changed, you have done everything you can at that point because you have literally... Because that person told you what they needed and what they were going to do to actually make this better, and they still haven't. So then what the fuck else can you do? Right?

They agreed that if this happened, then things would get better. So then at that point, that's when we start to get into performance reviews, and now that's when we start to get into discipline and actually managing behavior, and that's when we get to finally decide, is this person the right fit for my space or not? But normally, we skip right to that. Mm-hmm.

Normally, we skip right to managing behavior, enforcing behavior, negative reinforcement. We focus on yelling at people at meetings, trying to make our point. It's a very emotional reaction oftentimes, and it's very easy. I mean, whenever my team messes anything up, it is infuriating.

It is absolutely infuriating. I totally get that to my core. Yeah. But how much more beautiful of an opportunity for you to step into yourself as a leader and to your leadership role, to then empower them to get even better than you and to come up with their own solutions.

That may even create a wave of positive change across the entire salon. Like- Mm ... how cool is it that conflict can create s- even more innovation, you know? But that's only gonna happen if you allow your team to come to you with the solution, because otherwise, you are going to have to be the one always innovating, and you'll never actually be able to take a step back.

I think this is the thing, too, that burns people out the most when it comes to leadership, is that feeling like they're always chasing bad behavior, right? And so, like, I think you touched upon just so many important things here. Number one, making sure people understand the why. Number two, starting with really clear, definable things and making the intangible tangible as much as humanly possible.

Like, I think documented processes that you can reference, like you said, takes out that personal thing because this is such a personal industry. Like, with our clients, with our, you know, team members, like, it just is so much... It, it's just so interpersonal. And so I think those are the biggest takeaways and then also that piece of, like, personal accountability, because so many times, like, I think in this industry as creatives, like, we're craving growth, personal growth, professional growth.

And as a leader, and I've experienced this, like, in a great way and in a not-so-great way in the 20 years I've been in the beauty industry, it's like you can have people who are, like, looking to help you grow and really are, are cr- you know, not criticizing, but really are working on the same things with you, and then people who are just more, like, punitive in their approach, and the exact same conversation is taken completely differently. So this is such a s- great conversation, so much good advice. Yeah. Um, and I know that I've sha- like, we've had this conversation because whenever I talk about this stuff- Mm-hmm ...

the, the problem is, is that I'm not a parent, so, like, I don't know what that is or looks like or what the- Yeah ... experience looks like, but oftentimes when I talk to parents in this way, a lot of people will draw the con- the, the, the similarities back to parenting, right? Mm-hmm. Of, like, the approach of, like, positive reinforcement instead of negative reinforcement, and allowing- Yeah ...

them to kind of take on the challenge, you know? And also- Yeah ... facilitating the space for them to actually be successful instead of just being like, "Figure it out," you know? D- would you agree with that as a parent, Jodi?

Oh, my goodness. That's a quick no. 1,000%. Like, I think when we were planning this episode, that was the first thing that came up when we were talking about this, is how similar it is, and it's so interesting 'cause, like, I mean, we all...

r- I'm sure we all remember being teenagers, right? It's like, if you have someone who's, like, approaching you in a space that's, like, compassionate and is, like, wanting to help you be better and, like, not being overly judgmental, that is gonna give you... Like, you're gonna be- react to that so positively versus, like, when you're parenting, if you are kind of just more in that punitive space. Like, in my experience, those are, those are the types of parents that ends up with really rebellious teenagers 'cause they just get to a point where they're like, "I don't wanna be told what to do anymore.

I don't understand why you're telling me what to do. You don't get me." Right? That's, like, the biggest thing, and I feel like that's what it comes down to with team members and with clients.

It's like, it... People wanna feel seen, heard, understood, and the approaches that you just described are gonna do that versus that, like, you know, "If you don't do this, then this" type situation. It's, like, not a, it's not a good, like, long-term sustainable solution, I think. Like, it's, like, an easy, like, path to...

Like, it may work, right? Mm-hmm. Like, a punishment may work. Like, discipline may work, and it does have its place 100%.

For sure. Yeah. But it shouldn't be the first- ... try.

It shouldn't be the first line of, of offense, right? Yeah. This should be last priority. And if it is something you have to put into place, again, this is where you decide, is this person the right fit for this space or not, right?

Yeah, and I think the thing is that like, like to your point, you're gonna have people who are not a good fit as clients, as team members. I think it's unavoidable, right? Oh, yeah. Or unavoidable.

Um, but at least with, with these types of approaches, at the end of the day, you know that you've done everything you can. Yeah. You have held up your end of the bargain, and then if they don't hold up their end of the bargain, you can, you know, sleep at night with no regrets on how you coulda done things differently. Yeah, and no question about, how do I approach this in which they're not gonna be offended?

Because if you ask somebody... I even encourage teams and salon owners to do this, these things too, is like, if you approach somebody before all this stuff happens, and you say, "When I have constructive feedback about something, how would you best receive it?" Right? And then having clear standards or an SOP for that person, how you actually approach the, the feedback.

If you approach it the way that the person told you to approach it, then there's no argument about it. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Like, it's just like there's no... Like, what you... Again, it's the situation where it's like you have held up your end of the bargain. Yeah.

My last piece of advice, because we, we drew the, the similarity to the kids, and I'm also going to draw the similarity to my relationship right now. I have found that what my approach is, and this is great for any type of communication with anybody, is like, the approach is just remembering that you're on the same team. Like- Yeah ... and making sure that you always are approaching any sort of these things from that lens and perspective, because again, it all goes back to the core values.

If this person has the same core values as you and the company, then we all generally want the same thing. And so this is for you to be able to empower them and everybody else around them to have what they want. So you are on their team. It's not you versus them.

It is us working together to empower them with everything that they need- Yeah ... to get them what they actually want, or what we can assume that they want. And if you don't have the right person for that, it's gonna be very difficult for you guys to have a productive conversation, and you always will be chasing that bad behavior. So I think that honestly, it's like the shitty answer that I always have for a lot of people.

The shitty answer is, like, hire right. And I know, I know a lot of the times, like, we're in a rush to hire. Like, we just, like, have more clients than we can handle, or we just wanna get this shit taken care of and done. But wasting time and money on a bad hire in the long run is a higher cost- Yeah ...

than the opportunity cost of not having somebody filled in that position because you're waiting for the right person- Yeah ... to fill that position. So I think we've really covered communicating with your team, making sure you're on the same page, and I know we said we were gonna also give a little bit of advice for the independent stylist or salon owner or whomever on how they can get clients on board with major changes or things that they're rolling out, or pushback on certain things that are important to that service provider. And again, this goes back to the same situation.

With a team, with anybody, we are on the same team. Like, th- this is for me to be able to serve you better. Even if it's something with your prices or something that would inherently feel selfish, you have to figure out and remember, because there's always, one, what the benefit is for the client. And when you explain that to the client and when you lead with any type of change with the fact that we are on the same p- team, this is first and foremost to be able to serve you better, normally the response will be a lot more receptive.

And then you can have more productive conversations. So it all comes back to that. Like, the, uh, attracting the right people with your core values and your brand, because then you just don't even have to deal with a lot of this bullshit. Like, normally if you attract the right people, normally you don't really have to chase stuff down very much.

And then when you do chase, have to chase things down, it's a much more productive and even really powerful and beautiful conversation versus when you have the wrong person who is not aligned, because then it's just a dead end, and they may not be the right fit for your business in one way or another. So- Yeah ... I hope that this episode today was helpful for you, my friend, whether you're a team salon owner or you're a booth rental salon owner or you are a stylist with clients and you want to get more aligned with them and get them on board with whatever changes or whatever behavior you're trying to get them to do. So much love to you.

Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2026 Hunter Donia LLC.