ISBN 2019 Conference Focuses on Leadership

Jun 7th, 2019

The 2019 International SalonSpa Business Network (ISBN) Annual Conference, which took place May 5-7, 2019, at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Bonita Springs, Florida, featured a strong focus on leadership to build team confidence and ignite innovations; the message was clear: Everyone must consider themselves leaders of change to succeed. The annual conference is a space for owners and business leaders to meet and share best practices, and build strategic responses to industry challenges.

Newly elected ISBN president Scott Missad, CEO of the Gene Juarez group in Seattle, quoted George Bernard Shaw as he called members to action: “‘Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.’ We can affect change for the positive and that way make everything better for the whole industry. If we make the numbers bigger then there is more pie for everyone to benefit from.”

Each speaker who followed over the next few days focused on how to work toward superb leadership. “Everyone has the capacity to be a great leader, but a lack of self-belief and self-knowledge can hold them back,” urged leadership expert Dr. Shalom Saada Saar, associate dean at Miami University Business School.

Drama researcher and specialist Cy Wakeman argued that the way people are led can have a huge impact on productivity, and that simply placing accountability on the individual can add as much as two hours a day in increased productivity. According to Wakeman, 816 hours are lost to workplace drama each year. “Good leadership can eliminate that drama by encouraging team members to see beyond their self-focused view and to accept accountability,” she explained.

In addition, successful members—including Rachel Jud from JCPenney Salons and Nick Stenson of Ulta Beauty—revealed strategies and innovations that worked for them. Presentations were followed by ISBN MasterMind groups, in which members could quiz each presenter and discuss similar strategies that would work for their own organizations.

Members are already signing up for next year’s conference, which will take place May 3-5, 2020, at the Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island in Southern California.