Are You Aware...?

Well, neither was she! And her behaviors proved it. But, in just 3-hours something significantly changed inside of her and she had a conscious mindset shift. In a matter of weeks... things dramatically changed!

Roughly 4 months ago, I had the privilege of working with a great group of Salon & Spa professionals in Georgia. This Salon & Spa has been around for 11 years and is very well respected in the community. They were nearing a tipping point in their business and needed a few tweaks here and there.

The owner of the Salon & Spa told me that most everything was working incredibly well, which I absolutely agreed with based on their overall numbers, employee retention, and reputation in the community. But, something was off. What was it? Or, who was it?

As a third-party stepping into their culture and putting the team through some experiential learning processes and team building exercises it was automatically clear as to what was going on.  It literally took minutes to identify and a couple hours to ignite the change needed for that Salon & Spa to successfully hit the tipping point into a more profitable business.

Here's what happened...

As soon as the team was challenged to perform the task together, the team was separated by one team member. The one team member who was so energized and vocal up until that point, retreated to the sidelines when the pressure began to rise.  It was stealth like, a slow and quiet separation from the task, and even worse...a separation from the team.

As I called a time-out and facilitated a "debrief process", patterns became evident through conversation. The awareness naturally occurred.  The individuals were creating their own rules to operate by. There wasn't a known set of standards. Although the team for the most part was cohesive, functional, and productive, they were in need of a clearly defined high set of standards that ALL team members could follow.  A set of standards that would keep all team members protected through pressure and held accountable with a no-compromise attitude and mindset.  

Most importantly, the owner needed to have this in place for not just her team, but for herself. Because, she was the one who kept disappearing when the pressure would get high. Her team would witness what was happening and they too would fall into their own individual patterns of sabotaging behaviors when the pressure was high.  

As the owner became consciously AWARE of what she was doing, the shift started. She embraced what she needed to work on from the most humble place of gratitude. She acknowledged she had been sending mixed messages to her team, she so beautifully said to her team, "Thank you for picking-up my pieces when I was falling apart, thank you for stepping-in and being the leader when I stepped-back from leading, and thank you for not giving-up on me when you understandably would have." She wept, she laughed, and she muddled a few words of self-disappointment. She stood-up and she declared that day, a new day of leadership.

Over the course of the next few months, I worked with her team on developing their new Set of High Standards. It was a process of individual and team awareness through a series of intense team coaching sessions. 

The outcome was a clearly defined Set of High Standards, created by the team, to support the mission of the organization, to protect the team under pressure, and to help each individual meet their goals too.

I'm happy to report within 4 months of starting the process, they reached their tipping point, and they exceeded their YTD goal by 33%.

It took the entire team to consciously become self-aware and change the things they had control of. Mostly, it was their mindset and attitude, and that alone drove different results.  Results that broke their glass ceiling.

Inspiring, isn't it? You too, can have those results.  It will take a mindset shift, self-awareness, and a humble attitude.

As always....

Yours In Success!

~Kimberly

?