7 Tips On How To Handle Difficult Conversations With Your Employees

As your medspa or salon scales, you’ll most likely begin to hire and bring on a team. While this is an exciting time in your business, it also comes with its own challenges. 

Stepping into a leadership role can be a more difficult transition than previously thought. Even if you did make a seamless transition, you can still find yourself running into tough or uncomfortable situations with your employees that you need to address.

Addressing an issue with an employee can be hard to navigate and you want to avoid sounding aggressive or rude. You just need to have the right communication skills going into the conversation in order for it to be effective. 

Here are the ways we suggest conducting these team conversations: 

1. Assume whatever happened was not intentional. 

Going into these conversations with the thought that your employee was probably trying to make you mad, is not going to allow you to think about things clearly and communicate in a positive and effective way. Don’t assume anything and be open to listening.

2. Take ownership.

It can be easy to look at your employee and blame them entirely for the mistake that was made. But, you are the boss and your employees are your responsibilities. Is there something you didn’t communicate or instruct them on properly? Perhaps they needed more training, so have an open mind and be prepared to ask for feedback about what you could’ve done better to make sure this issue never happened in the first place.

3. Don’t be defensive.

Don’t go into the conversation with guns blazing, and feeling like you’re gonna show them what they did wrong and that they can’t mess with you. Leave all of that behind and go in with the goal to find understanding between all parties involved. If whatever transpired is igniting feelings of anger and defense, take the time to calm down and then have the conversation.

4. Start by giving the person a chance to explain their side of the story.

Be willing to hear them out and talk through everything so there can be open communication and understanding on both sides.

5. Make adjustments and corrections as needed.

Make sure to do this in a way that is empowering and not aggressive. Don’t minimize the need for the behavior to change. Come up with a strategic plan with your employee that will help them to avoid this mistake or any other miscommunications in the future. 

6. Express that you need commitment from them.

Make sure they know you expect them to implement whatever you talked about immediately. This can be done by saying something like, “Can I count on you to commit to the dress code next time?” If the team member says yes, then assume that they’ll implement that change. You don’t have to hold on to the conversation or make them feel like you’re expecting them to fail. If they say no, you might want to ask more questions to see if there’s something they’re not clear on or a policy they just don’t understand.

7. Send a follow-up email to the team member to go over what was discussed.

 Make sure you’re on the same page and you’re both aware of the team members’ dedication to do things better. Send a follow-up to let them know how much you appreciate the conversation and that you look forward to seeing the changes implemented. 

If you need further help managing your employees, reach out to us via social media or https://www.spa-strong.com/discoverycall