Regional Support/GM Job Description
Leading People, Building Confidence
Being a General Manager (GM) at Stevens Great is a role centered on leadership and strategic growth. It is defined by a simple, powerful philosophy: "Being a GM here is not about putting out fires or doing everything yourself. It’s about leading people, building confidence, and moving the business forward one intentional week at a time."
This guide is built on seven simple, repeatable behaviors that are the front door to the entire General Manager Operating System. Mastering this weekly rhythm is the key to creating stable, high-performing salons. The seven core behaviors are listed here for reference.
Show Up, Coach, Move Hours, Check Reports, Recognize, Connect, Solve Problems.
The Big Picture: Your Role in the Chain of Leadership
The entire leadership structure at StevensGreat is built on a clear and simple principle designed to empower leaders at every level.
Problems should be solved as close to the salon as possible.
This means that Managers are trusted to run their salons, while GMs are responsible for the health of the overall system. The distinction is simple but critical.
Your job is not to replace your Managers, but to coach them to handle what they can, allowing you to focus on the patterns that affect the entire pod.
Conclusion: The Identity of a Stevens Great GM
The identity of a Stevens Great General Manager is not that of a firefighter, but of a leader who builds confidence and moves the business forward with intention. Success flows from the consistent, weekly practice of the seven core behaviors: showing up, coaching, moving hours, checking reports, recognizing, connecting, and solving the right problems.
By embracing this intentional rhythm, you create the stability, trust, and clarity that allows your managers, stylists, and salons to thrive. This is how you drive sustainable performance.
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The Power of Presence: Great GMs are consistently and purposefully present in their salons to build trust and guide their teams.
What This Looks Like:
• Being in salons regularly, especially during busy times to coach, appreciate, and lead from the floor.
• Working a closing shift on a biweekly or monthly basis to stay connected to the evening rhythm.
• Cutting hair with the intention of building a connection with the team or teaching a specific skill.
Presence creates trust. Trust creates stability. Stability creates performance.
Being present is the foundation, and what you do with that presence—coaching—is what builds momentum.
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Building Confident and Accountable Managers
Coach your managers through a consistent rhythm of support and follow-through to keep them confident and accountable.
What This Looks Like:
• Meeting with each Manager weekly to check in and provide guidance.
• Following up on expectations and ensuring what matters is getting done.
• Using the two coaching "Pathways" consistently to help people grow without drama (using Pathway 1 for day-to-day issues and Pathway 2 for escalating recurring performance drift).
This consistent coaching keeps small issues small and ensures your Managers feel confident and supported.
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The Engine of Salon Health
Moving stylist hours with purpose is one of the most important and impactful parts of the GM's job.
What This Looks Like:
• Reviewing all Monday schedules before they are posted for the week.
• Adjusting hours to cover shortages, especially for crucial evening (PM) and weekend shifts.
• Reducing wasted hours in the morning (AM) to align staffing with customer demand.
• Owning and maintaining the master Scheduling Matrix, ensuring it is accurate and aligned with demand.
Moving hours sets the salon up for success, and checking your reports tells you if that strategy is working.
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Letting Data Tell the Truth
Reports provide the objective truth about a salon's performance and show a GM where they need to focus their leadership.
What This Looks Like: Each week, you review key data points for each salon. The most critical metrics to watch are:
• Payroll % and staffing shortages
• CPH (Cuts Per Hour) and customer count
• Redo and customer complaint trends
• QC (Quality Check) patterns
• Recruiting activity and pipeline health
• Attendance and ESST concerns
• Tech/facility issues
Your goal isn't just to read data; it's to find the story the numbers are telling you about where your leadership is needed most. The primary outcome of this review is to build 3–5 quick, simple, and clear coaching bullets for your weekly Manager meetings, keeping leadership focused and effective.
While data shows you where to focus, recognizing your team's great work is what builds positive energy.
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Fueling Energy and Culture: Recognize great work consistently to ensure your team feels valued and seen.
What This Looks Like:
• Calling out wins, big and small, during salon visits and team communications.
• Appreciating progress and effort, not just final results.
• Encouraging your Managers and reinforcing their leadership.
Recognition builds energy and resets culture more than anything else.
Recognizing your established team is crucial, and it's just as important to personally connect with new hires to ensure they feel safe and supported from day one.
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Protecting Your Newest Team Members: The GM's role is to own talent placement and ensure new hires feel safe and supported by landing in the right environment. This is one of the most important GM responsibilities in the entire OS.
The 30-Day New Hire Connection Cadence:
1. Meet Personally: The GM meets with every new hire to build trust and establish a direct line of support.
2. Day 7 Follow-Up: Check in on their initial confidence, comfort level, and whether the "Salon Fit" is correct.
3. Week 2 Follow-Up: Assess their progress, how they are landing in the salon environment, and any emerging challenges.
4. Week 4 Follow-Up: Confirm they are in the right environment and being fully supported by their Manager.
If it’s the wrong salon, the GM must move quickly. We do not let new hires sink in the wrong environment. This personal connection and strategic placement prevents early turnover and builds long-term trust.
Connecting with new hires is a specific type of problem-solving, but a GM's ultimate responsibility is to solve the right problems at the system level.
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Fixing Systems, Not Symptoms
A great GM doesn't solve every single issue; they solve the right ones by focusing on patterns and fixing the underlying systems.
What This Looks Like:
• Handling patterns of recurring issues, not single, one-off events.
• Fixing broken systems related to scheduling, customer experience, or operations.
• Supporting Managers by helping them navigate tough conversations.
• Following through on facility issues until they are fully resolved.
• Protecting the "Triangle" by balancing the needs of the Customer, the Team, and the Business.
This focus on patterns and systems—eliminating drift and steadying the culture—is what defines leadership at the GM level.
GM Reflection Materials
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Weekly GM Reflection & Operating Check Instructions
Complete this check-in once per week and submit it to Brian by Sunday evening.
This should take about five minutes. The purpose is not reporting or explaining your week. It is to help you reflect on how you spent your time, the decisions you made, and whether your actions moved the business, your managers, or your key objectives forward.
Lead with honesty and clarity. Numbers first. Brief reflection where it matters. If something didn’t move, say so! that information is valuable and will help improve planning for future weeks. This check-in helps Brian understand where progress is happening, where support may be needed, and how effectively GM time is being used.
LINK HERE TO FORM
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General Manager Quarterly Review
The GM Quarterly Review is the primary way Stevens Great evaluates results, leadership, execution, and role fit.
It is designed to:
Reward strong performance, Increase autonomy for high-performing GMs, Create clarity around expectations, and Identify drift or misalignment early, before it becomes a problem.
This system is not about effort or personality. It is about outcomes, decisions, and execution.
How This Review is Used
Each quarter, this review determines:
Quarterly bonus eligibility and payout
Level of trust and autonomy
Areas of focus for the next quarter
Whether the GM role remains the right fit
There are no surprises.
Targets are set at the beginning of the quarter.
Results are reviewed at the end of the quarter.LINK HERE TO FORM