Want Your Aesthetic Practice to Flourish? Focus on Training and Development!

Everyone wants to do their best. Everyone wants to be their best. Everyone wants to be a part of a winning team. If someone tells you differently, they are not being honest with themselves or you. Being the best is a part of our human DNA. That may be why we were made to sit on top of the food chain.

However, being the best does not come easily. The desire may come naturally but attaining such a level of achievement requires hard work, temperance, and perseverance. Unfortunately, these three virtues do not exist in every person or practice.

Being the best also requires a commitment to development that is beyond what you would typically find in most practices. Surprisingly, while it is void in many people and practices, it could be the most important area for business development. Why? Because people are the difference maker. Great practices, aesthetic or otherwise, consist of well prepared, confident, and driven teams of people.

The Practice’s Responsibility

Every practice wants to hire the best and brightest. The best and the brightest want to work for the best. This is because they know that the best practices do things differently than the rest. One of the many things done differently is how they train and develop their team members. It is a part of their culture. It is a part of their DNA. It is also a necessary component for retaining these difference makers. These all-stars and all-star wannabes have a growth mindset and expect their practice to support them in their quest to be the best.

That said, not every practice can afford to hire the best and brightest in every position, especially in the aesthetics industry. Therefore, the next best option to hiring the best is to develop the talent you have. When a practice makes a commitment to bring on a team member, that commitment includes the expectation that the practice will provide the training and development necessary to be successful in their role. The practice is also committing to offering them an opportunity for advancement when they have proven themselves worthy and capable. These two factors are instrumental in luring talent to a practice and retaining those you have.

The problem is that many practices hire people, place them into a role, and then forget about them. Then, practice owners wonder why the turnover rate is so high. Again, every person wants to experience success and be a part of a winning team. Employees know that the path to advancement can only occur through continuous growth and development. If the best and brightest don’t get it from their current employer, they will look elsewhere.

Proper talent development requires an in-depth understanding of the areas in which the employee has opportunities for improvement and the employee's future aspirations. Not only does a practice need to ensure the employee is continually being developed in the areas that impact job performance, but the practice also needs to make sure they are being developed in areas that are of interest to them.

Talent Development Strategies That Work

• Create strong and consistent talent management systems (onboarding through off-boarding).

• Benchmark the position and be clear abou requirements.

• Know what knowledge, skills, and personal attributes are necessary for an employee to experience success. Assess candidates based on these factors.

• Select candidates for the position who possess the ability and capacity to develop into a high performer. Do not use experience as your only guide. There are people with 10 years of experience and there are people with one year of experience ten times. Experience is a consideration. It is not “the” consideration.

• Create a strategy for developing the employee short-term and long-term. Gather their feedback when developing this strategy.

• Know what motivates each of your employees and why they behave the way they do.

• Know your employee's aspirations, their personal situation, and help them map a plan to realize their dreams. This may go beyond the professional goals you have for them.

• Provide opportunities for regular and meaningful performance feedback that is focused on growth, development, and results.

• Create a communication loop that affords the employee an opportunity to provide meaningful input in a safe environment.

• Recognize and reward desired behaviors and performance. Hold them accountable for anything less.

• Develop a culture of excellence. A consistent culture is what will be the linchpin for long-term success.

Effective talent development is one of the most important catalyst for practice growth. Without it the practice will never achieve its full potential. Highly skilled and well-educated employees are the most confident, achieve the best results, and are what every client desires. A practice’s failure to be fanatical about the development of its team members is a failure to be the best. Long-term, this choice will cost a practice its most talented people and most, if not all of its clients.

Randy Stepp is a Principal with Renaissance Leadership Group. RLG is a full-service business development company whose purpose is to help business owners realize their dreams of independence and freedom.

Visit Renaissance Leadership Group at www.renaissanceleadershipgroup.com to learn more about business development.