Training Isn’t an Event: Why Behavior Change Takes More Than a Training Day

Have you ever had a great training day?

Everybody is engaged. They’re excited. They’re practicing. They leave saying, “That was great. We’re going to do this.”

And then Monday happens.

The schedule fills up. Clients are waiting. Someone calls out. Managers have fires to put out. And little by little, it becomes very easy for people to fall back into the way they’ve always done things.

After more than 40 years of training beauty and wellness teams, there’s one thing I know for sure:

Training can happen in a day. Behavior change doesn’t.

Expectations Are Not Training

This is where I think many businesses get themselves into trouble.

We tell our teams:

Sell more retail.
Rebook more clients.
Give a better consultation.
Recommend home care.
Talk about upgrades.

And then we become frustrated when those things aren’t consistently happening.

But before we call it a performance or accountability problem, I think we need to ask a much more important question:

Have they actually been taught how to do it?

Because telling someone what you want them to do is not the same thing as teaching them how to do it.

“Sell more retail” is an expectation.

Teaching someone how to uncover a client’s needs, make a professional recommendation, explain why they’re recommending it and comfortably ask the client to take it home?

That’s training.

Great Training Should Be Designed for Behavior Change

I’ve never believed training should simply be about standing in front of a room for a few hours, delivering information, handing everyone a workbook and calling it done.

People need to understand what good looks like.

They need to learn the skill.

They need an opportunity to practice it.

They need to apply it to the real situations they encounter every day with their clients.

And once they’ve been properly trained, leadership plays an important role.

Practice it. Coach it. Reinforce it. Measure it. Recognize it.

Not ten new behaviors at once.

Start with one or two that have the greatest potential to improve the client experience or business performance and keep working on them until they become part of how your team operates.

The Question I Care About 30 Days Later

I love walking out of a training room when the energy is high and everyone is excited about what they’ve learned.

But that’s not how I measure whether training worked.

I want to know what happens next.

What is the team doing differently 30 days later?

Are consultations better?

Are clients receiving more complete professional recommendations?

Is the team more confident?

Are more clients rebooking?

Are behaviors changing?

And ultimately, are the numbers changing?

Because the goal of training isn’t simply to create a great training day.

The goal is to create better performance after it.

Before You Blame the Team…

If your team isn’t consistently doing what you expect them to do, don’t immediately assume they don’t care, aren’t motivated or need more accountability.

First ask:

Did we actually teach them how to do this well?

If the answer is no, start there.

And if you need help turning your business expectations into skills your team can confidently and consistently perform, that’s where I come in.

Carol Phillips
Founder & CEO, BeauteeSmarts Global LLC