Key Question:
A: Give employees meanful jobs and teach them how to succeed.
Q: What do you think Pam means when she says, delegate with design?
A: She means prepare. Think hard about the job to be delegated and about the person to whom you will delegate. Pam is a hairdresser-turned-business woman. Her formal training was all about making her client look her best. How does a great hairdresser do that? She studies the client. She thinks about the type of hair the client has, the shape of her face and then her life-style and personality. Only then does the artist begin to cut and color a person's hair.
Using the same analytical skills she developed as a hairdresser, Pam is able to turn jobs over to people on her term who are best suited to the task. Just like she used to make her clients look physically good, Pam studies her employees then designs jobs that will make them not only look good but feel good too.
Think about it
When was the last time you delegated a task? Are you happy with the results? What could you do to improve?
Clip from: Gadabout Salon & Spa
Tucson, Arizona: Left with two young mouths to feed and never having worked outside the home, Pamela McNair-Wingate has created a new reality in the workplace where love and generosity abide. Today, from six locations around Tucson, she and her team of over 200 professionals deliver the newest treatments from their spas and the freshest looks from their salons.
The company, Gadabout SalonSpas, is recognized as a leader in the day spa movement both in customer care and in business practices.
In the typical spas customers check in for a week to be pampered, to eat low-fat diets, and to participate in endless exercise classes. Day spas are different! Here you'll find only the pampering part. Pam has been a leader in this revolution from its beginning and she is helping to transform the salon business by setting an example for all. In recognition of her extraordinary leadership skills, Pam was named Salon Entrepreneur of the Year for the US at the Global Salon Business Awards presented in London in 2004.
Gadabout SalonSpas, Inc.
Pamela McNair, Chairman
3501 E. Kleindale Road
Tucson, AZ 85726
5203229434
Visit our web site: http://www.gadabout.com
Office: 5203229434
Business Classification:
Personal Products, human services, beauty
Year Founded: 1976
Delegate With Design
PAM: If all I do is take from the company, then that's all I'm going to get. I have to be able to be liquid enough that I can do the things necessary when the time is right. I also have to pay attention to the long term. My passion was never short term. So it's not like I'm going to do this for a little while, and then I'm going to stop and do something else. I think that the more energy and effort you put into a company, your energy needs to be equal to your pay. I mean, I remember 10 years ago I looked at my salary and thought – I had hairdressers working for me who were making more than I was – so I really had to look at that and adjust it and say, `This isn't equitable.'
But at the same time, there has to be money left in your company; it's a question of flexibility.... ff I'm not flexible to move when I need to move or do what I need to do....
HATTIE: And money makes you flexible.
PAM: Yes, it does.
HATTIE: (Voiceover) The theme here is nurture. Pam nurtures the Gadabout family, and they nurture their clients. What you don't see so easily, but you would if you became a regular client, is this place is about the inside of people more than the outside.
Team member: It really opens people up inside. It's actually a sacred Indian ritual. It's been done for probably 6,000 years.
PAM: Well, I think you have to look at the all-over picture, check and see if your mission and your vision is there, and then you need to get out of the way. You need to be able to delegate with a design so that other people can duplicate what you do or do it better. I'm not the star; I build stars. So it allows other people to be in the forefront, and it allows me to have the time to do what I need to do to make them look better and to be better.
HATTIE: What keeps you jazzed?
PAM: Oh, all my family and all my friends and my husband and just life. I think living on purpose is what keeps me jazzed.
HATTIE: (Voiceover) Yes, clients leave looking good, but more than that, clients leave feeling good. A sense of calm and well-being is discovered in that deep, soulful place we each have. The Gadabout visit reminds us that real beauty comes from the inside.
