You can imagine my delight about 5 weeks ago when I was told I’d be working some Sundays with Sue at the marketing seminars. Of course, I accepted but part of me was a bit grudging about giving up a morning in bed back home in Tipperary and some home-cooked food with my family. I’m not writing this blog to have a good old moan about work commitments, rather the opposite.
Because despite my initial reluctance to participate in these seminars… I’d now rather like to go on them all!
You might be wondering why the sudden change in attitude? What sane 22 year old wants to work on a Sunday anyway? 5 weeks ago I would have called myself a workaholic or rolled my eyes at my own enthusiasm. Surprising things can happen to us sometimes and when they do we need to take the time to consider the impact they have had on certain aspects of our lives.
The big change for me was getting to know Sue. I know that sounds a bit ridiculous. But we basically spent an entire weekend together. Sunday in Dublin and Monday we journeyed to Belfast. The trip to Belfast was not just a full day of teaching our salon owners all they need to know about their marketing and social media…but a 4 hour car journey there and back. Now, I knew Sue already and we got along well. But I didn’t know her. We had 8 hours in a car to survive together. It was shocking really we are both at completely different stages of our lives but we chatted non-stop there and back. The only silence was when we pulled back into Dublin City Centre, delirious and exhausted!
We talked about everything and I think for me the odd thing is that I now feel like I don’t just have a colleague but a friend for life. The difference this makes to us as a working team is that we now understand each other on a whole new level. We’ve helped each other too, I’ve helped Sue write the content for her website and it was easy given that I now understood what it was she was trying to say. I realised suddenly what it was that Sue Woodall was all about. Sue in turn gave me invaluable insight into what our salon owners need and want from us as their market advisors. I will never send out another blog post on promotions without Sue’s approval first!
So the change for me was realising what I could gain from really knowing someone I worked with and that is something for all of you to consider too. How well do your staff know each other or you? I don’t suggest locking them in a car for 8 hours, but maybe amp up the staff relations… make them chat about more than just work and build a level of trust among your staff that will create a new atmosphere in your salon. I can honestly say that rather than grudgingly going along to the next seminar I cannot wait to spend my next seminar Sunday learning from Sue. I might even try and sneak onto some of the staff seminars 😉
