Three management lessons I learned from my hairdresser

Several weeks ago, I visited my hairdresser for a haircut. As I entered the shop, I saw my hairdresser went out of the door. I walked in. The shop was empty. There was not a single person in there. Couple minutes later my hairdresser came back. He apologized and started cutting my hair. I started the conversation by asking what happened. Who knows this conversation ended up turning into a management lesson!

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The hairdresser told me there were three hairdressers in total. Two of them were working full time (himself included), and one working on “free shift” – he can come at flexible time. On the day of my visit one of the full times was on leave, and the “free shift” didn’t show up for work. In other words, he was working alone on that day. The reason he went out as I came in was that he had to visit the café nearby and ordered food delivery. He didn’t even have a lunch break. When the food arrived, he had to wait until there was no customer before he could eat.

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I was stunned. Was that the best decision to leave the shop empty to order food? What else could he have done? That’s another story. I want to focus on the management lesson in this article. There were three lessons I picked up during my conversation with the hairdresser and my reflection after that.

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1. Motivation

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It was a special day when I visited my hairdresser. All qualified Macau ID card holders received a MOP 10,000[i] cash through the annual “Wealth Partaking Scheme” introduced by Macau government since 2008. The day I had my hair cut was the day of money being deposited to our bank accounts. The reason why the “free shift” hairdresser didn’t show up for work on that day, my hairdresser suspected, had to do with the windfall. “He must have gone to the casino once money was in his hand.”, said my hairdresser. I didn’t know his colleague so I didn’t comment on his comment, but his statement got me thinking – what motivates local Macau people to work hard? This is a question I sometimes discussed and even debated with my associates and friends.

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Those who are familiar with Macau economy know that job security for Macau locals is relatively high, even during and post COVID eras. It’s hard to fire or let go a Macau local without significant proof and repeated incidents of misconduct or underperformance. The annual “Wealth Partaking Scheme” contributed to another layer of privilege of being a Macau local. While the issues of “over job security” and the wealth sharing scheme may warrant additional research and analysis, it’s no doubt that these factors do not promote people’s motivation to work hard. Look no further, people in Hong Kong do not enjoy the same level of job security and certainly don’t get a 5-figures of cash from the government every year. Their competitiveness and motivation to work hard are significantly more prominent than the Macau counterpart.

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Going back to my hairdresser story – what could we do to increase our staff’s motivation given the circumstances of job security and free money? The “Two-Factors” theory by Frederick Herzberg may shed some light. The theory says that there are two groups of factors that contribute to job satisfaction and motivation. The first group of factors is called “Hygiene Factors”, which include salary, benefits, job security – factors that more extrinsically rewarding. The second group of factors are called “Motivational Factors”, which include achievement, recognition, status, development and growth – factors that are intrinsically rewarding. Herzberg told us that Hygiene Factors are foundational – staff will be unsatisfied if the company doesn’t provide enough Hygiene Factors. However, simply providing Hygiene Factors won’t motivate people – the best it can do is to make staff not unsatisfied. To truly motivate people, companies must provide enough Motivational Factors on top of Hygiene Factors.

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In the situation of Macau, there are no lacking of Hygiene Factors – high level of job security, well paid package, annual free cash. Companies must provide enough Motivational Factors if they want to unleash staff’s potentials. You may wonder, how much of achievement and recognition can we do in a tiny hair salon? That will depend on the staff’s personal aspiration. For instance, if the staff is 2 years away from retirement, talking about advancement won’t make much sense. If the staff has a mortgage to pay and two young kids at home, then opportunities and growth will motivate him. The prerequisite of staff motivation is interpersonal relationship between the manager and the staff. Do you know what motivates your staff? How’s your relationship with him? Will he open up when you want to have that conversation with him?

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2. Management by walking around

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When I learned that my hairdresser was working alone on that day, and he didn’t even have a proper lunch break, I murmured to myself, “How could that happen?”, “Why would the manager allow that to happen?” As it turned out, the “manager” may not even know what happened. According to my hairdresser, the boss, i.e., the manager, rarely came to the salon. He created a monthly roster – that’s basically it in terms of managing the operation. “He never came, he didn’t care. It was discouraging.”, said my hairdresser.

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In management, there’s a concept called “Management by walking (wandering) around”. Managers “wander” around the workplace in an unstructured and unplanned manner so that he can observe the true side of the operations and interact with staff real time. This concept originated from the manufacturing industry but was widely advocated in many other companies and industries. The core benefit of walking around comes from the randomness. The unrehearsed visit allows management to see what the customer sees. Experienced managers and leaders can take the opportunity to smell the strengths and areas of improvement in the operations. Consider a leader of a hospitality resort in Macau who visits the hotel front desk during the Golden Week, or the head of the casino who visits his casino floor at 3:00 in the morning. They will likely see something they don’t normally see, speak to colleagues who usually work at overnight shift, and get to understand their business at a deeper level.

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On the other hand, the unplanned visit has another symbolic meaning to the staff. Consider the US President who visited his army unplanned. The President didn’t visit to spot the area of improvements – he visited to see his troops and boosted their morale. When the staff sees the big boss, CEO or the President, coming to visit and talk to them, they feel a sense of importance and recognition, which boosts their morale.

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Going back to my hairdresser. His manager is far from “management by walking around”, because he simply didn’t visit (or walk around) at all. And that is different than delegation. Delegation is a practice in which the delegator (usually the manager) delegates a task to the delegatee. It is a deliberate behavior – there’s communication and agreement between both parties. However, my hairdresser’s manager simply took the “hands-free” approach.

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3. Listen to the staff

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My hairdresser didn’t know I am a management consultant, so he didn’t know he was talking to someone who knows much more than he did on the subject. I didn’t talk much during the conversation. I acknowledged his opinion from time to time, but I didn’t provide my own. Perhaps he felt heard, he kept talking without me asking further questions. That validated my understanding of the power of listening – make people feel heard, and they will talk more. However, the reality is that most of us don’t care what people are saying – we are just waiting for our turn to speak.

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He told me that if the boss knows “what to do”, the salon business could improve. I asked what he meant by “what to do”, he cited a few examples. Whether those ideas make sense to the business is another issue, the key point is that the boss didn’t know any of those ideas. How could he find out “what to do”? One way is management by walking around. The other is to listen to the staff. By talking and asking the staff who deal with the customers on a daily basis, the boss may understand far better than sitting in his office.

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Here’s four questions any manager may self-reflect in terms of listening to the staff.

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1. Do you know you should ask for input?

If you are not aware of the need to ask for input, you simply won’t be able to do it. We don’t know what we don’t know.

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2. Did you ask for input?

This is a yes-or-no question. If yes, under what circumstances did you ask for input? Did you do it in a variety of setting and with a diverse range of colleagues with preferably different ranks?

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3. How did you respond when the input was given?

Did you allow the person to finish talking? Did you thank the person who gave you the input? Did you resist the urge to give your own two cents?

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4. Did you create a psychologically safe environment in the team so that team members feel safe to express their opinion without worrying about consequences?

This is more of a team culture question. High performing teams have one thing in common – high level of psychological safety. They feel safe to challenge each other without getting personal. They are more creative and willing to change. In the fast-changing world today, we are facing problems and challenges that are unprecedented. We need our team to speak up – the days when the boss knows the answer has long gone.

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Epilogue

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At the end of the haircut, I did the usual thing – I paid, thanked the hairdresser, and left. My head felt lighter because of less hair, but my head was full with those management stories.

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Management is everywhere. If you have a domestic helper at home, you are a manager. If you have kids, you are also a manager. Never in my life did I expect to learn about management during a haircut. That’s also the beauty of management. It can happen anywhere with anyone. Have an open-mind, listen, and reflect. You may as well learn something about management in your next grocery shopping. Happy managing!

[i] As of 2024, the MOP 10,000 amount applied to permanent ID card holders. Non-permanent ID card holders received MOP 6,000 instead.