356 Brand Promises, Team Agreements and Difficult Behaviour with Nina Kovner

[upbeat music] Over the years, I've consciously addressed the real issues that come with salon ownership. But one of the areas that I've never directly talked about is dealing with moody or grumpy team members, and the conflict that it often causes amongst the team, and the impact on everyone, including the clients. And as a coach, those topics will sometimes come up, and they're very real issues that have an impact on the salon, the team, and even the clients. So how do you deal with them? I'm Anthony Whittaker, and welcome to this week's episode of the "Grow My Salon Business" podcast. Now, salon owners will regularly tell me that they're struggling because someone on the team is or has become very difficult to work with. Some days they might be wonderful, but other days everyone feels that they're walking on eggshells. Sometimes there's conflict, sometimes there's bullying, sometimes there's lots of tears, and sometimes there are health issues happening behind the scenes that nobody fully understands or perhaps is even aware of. Sometimes it's hormones, sometimes it isn't, and it's incredibly difficult to know where the line is between showing compassion and protecting the rest of the team. So today, we're gonna be talking about something that, if I'm honest, I wasn't entirely sure that I should even touch. Now, a few years ago, I had a coaching client with an all-female team of 20, and one of the girls suffered from what is known as PMDD, which is an abbreviation for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is a severe hormone-based mood disorder that occurs in the week or two before a woman's period. And it causes debilitating emotional and physical symptoms like intense depression, anxiety, and extreme irritability that disrupts daily life, obviously not just for the sufferer, but everyone around them. Anyway, this female salon owner and all of the female team were finding their colleague's mood swings and behavior changes very difficult to deal with. Now, as a man, talking about periods and PMDD and endometriosis or menopause can feel like walking into territory that isn't really mine, [chuckles] and it certainly does feel a little bit out of my comfort zone. But here's the thing, after coaching salon owners for decades, I've realized that this isn't really a conversation about women's health. It's a conversation about leadership. So today's episode isn't about diagnosing anybody. It's certainly not medical advice, and it's definitely not about suggesting that difficult behavior is always caused by hormones because, well, obviously it absolutely isn't. What it's about is asking, "How do you lead well when someone is struggling? How do you protect your team's culture while still showing kindness and empathy? How do you have difficult conversations without making assumptions?" And that's exactly why I've invited today's guest, Nina Kovner, to join me. Now, Nina has spent years helping businesses build healthy cultures, set expectations and boundaries, and develop stronger communication skills. She's not here to talk about medicine because, well, that's neither of our expertise. But she is here to talk about leadership, because ultimately,