What is Emotional Intelligence?
How important is Emotional Intelligence for the hairdressing industry? Hairstylists deal with people daily. Evidently, clients are the cornerstone of the salon business. At the present time, hairstylists are not appropriately trained in EI. And salon staff generally concentrate on developing technical skills. In addition, business managers often don’t know how to teach staff how to become more in tune with feeling valued? We see different behaviours every day. But we don’t usually stop and learn how to motivate our team to turn up to work in a great mood every day. Emotional intelligence is all about the management of our emotions. Learning how to recognise your personal impacts assists with managing others.
Understanding Emotional Intelligence
The Essence of Emotional Intelligence: Self-awareness
This step is working out your own emotional state. Being able to correctly identify your own emotions and reactions. Think of a time that you became really cranky or annoyed. How did you respond to the situation or person? I reacted sternly but never outraged. I keep a daily journal listing my reactions to situations. This has helped me implement strategies for the next time an issue occurs.
Hairdressing is all about building a clientele; when a new client sits at the hair station for the first time, what are your cues? Do you watch body language? What body language do you look at? Below is a list of body language that are essential for hairdressers to succeed in holding onto new clients. Body language can communicate happiness, unhappiness, and lack of confidence and more.
Facial expressions
- Eye contact
- Crossed arms
- Moving in the chair
- Avoiding eye contact
- Fake smile
More importantly, as the professional giving advice, look at how you listen, look, move, and react. Hairdressing is about communicating to the client whether or not you care. It shows if you’re being truthful. It also displays how well you are listening to what is being said.
Managing your Emotions
In difficult situations, be present and take 3 deep breaths. Listing what each trigger is will help with how you respond, and it won’t be so annoying. Unquestionably, that is emotional intelligence. This makes you aware and will be less troubling when something happens again. Therefore, you may stay calmer and less irritated. Stop what you are doing and just breathe. Being present and listening to your breath helps ground the mind. A past experience with a colleague, we would count backwards in the moment: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, especially when the boss wasn’t adequately leading us.
Personal Intelligence: Mindfulness.
Think about the extremes of our emotions. How can we function each day on an even scale? Subsequently, when sadness rules the body, our mood scale will negatively affect us. Additionally, at the other end of the scale, experiencing excitement and hyperactivity leads the mind. Evidently, it will be challenging to get work done.
Empathy for Motivating Yourself
Getting up and having a daily routine assists in any work setting. Get your clothes ready the night before. What I have learnt is to pack your gym bag with the essential items the night before. Makes it easy to head out the door. Being a self-starter means you can find strategies that work for you. Motivation can be hard to find. Finding things that you enjoy really helps build your level of motivation. To help with motivation, I have a daily routine: making my bed and showering. Do the hard things first, and reward yourself with the more manageable tasks.
ESP: Personal Intelligence
This is something that takes a long time to master. We often find it challenging to understand and recognise our partner’s emotions, let alone clients. However, during a hairdressing appointment, we can identify negative emotions by looking at people’s facial expressions. For example, if someone is sad, offer them a tissue. This will support emotional well-being. Equally important, if someone is overwhelmed, give them space.
Lastly, if someone is celebrating success, join in! During a hair consultation, sit on the chair beside the client while chatting with them; this makes them feel more comfortable. Using a cutting stool, run your hands through the client’s hair. Resting your hands on the client’s shoulders is another way to make clients feel at ease. Lastly, if the client has enough time, try massaging their shoulders. Anything to help calm and revitalise them. This will obviously work in a beauty or hairdressing salon, not an office. If you want to learn more, Pro Hair Blogger offers Professional Education.
Leave a Reply