Amanda Baines from business coaching company Gholdenphish took to the stage at Salon Smart Glasgow to share her no-nonsense approach to dealing with difficult people. 

The problem is, telling people what to do doesn’t work! It should be simple shouldn’t it? You should just be able to tell them. After all, it’s your salon. You’re the boss, you’re the owner.
You’re Alan Sugar – can’t you just tell them?

Telling people makes people feel un-cooperative. It makes people feel resentful. It doesn’t make your team sell more retail or ask for rebookings. And it doesn’t make a happy and successful team.

Five effective tools that DO work

1 Start with what you can easily change – your behaviour
Don't ever think you can change another person. You can't.
The way you behave has a direct impact on what you get back from another person. If you change what you’re doing, it will change what the other person does.

2 Treat your team members individually
To get people to do what you want them to do you have to:

Treat them individually
Tailor your approach
Understand what’s going on in their lives
Know what makes them tick

3 Regular praise
You may be doing this already. If you are…fantastic. If you’re not, then you need to start.

4 You need to be a good and effective delegator
Your team members have to understand exactly what you want them to do.

5 If all else fails, how do you deal with bad behaviour?
You need a step-by-step way to sort someone out who’s stepped out of line.