Locker Room Privacy

I know its been a few minutes...my bad for the delay'd blog. I had a lot of stuff on my plate the past few weeks. I'm good now though.

I was gonna talk about the transition from working with predominately men, at the first supreme clientele, to working with majority women with the new Supreme TEAM. Instead, i want to take a minute to let a new topic breathe because its something that I've noticed which plauges our community. Not just the barbering/salon community, but the African American community.
WE can be so damn messy, sloppy, inconsiderate and unsympathetic to others and it is a common disease that we really need to rid ourselves of.
In particular, i'm refering to Locker Room Privacy. U ask, what is that?
Well, most people who have played an organized sport, understand that what is said and what happens in the locker room...STAYS in the locker room. We all understand that every team will have its ups and downs...but the thing that keeps the team together and ultimately leads it to vicory is how it holds together and does not allow anything or or anyone outside to alter the ultimate TEAM goal. and the team goal is to be the best. Whether its being a world series champion, or the greatest salon....the goal is to be the best. and in order to do be the best, you have to have a TEAM concept, an identity and a compassion for each member on your team that says, "we can fight eachother, but i won't let anyone outside of our circle fight you or know that we fought". That's Locker Room Privacy.
If a TEAM discusses all of the dirty laundry that goes on in the locker room, it establishes lack of trust and it takes away all chemistry because each one is out for self. Something so simple as Locker Room Privacy can be one of those things that catapult a team into becomming a champion or keep them amongs the ranks or mediocricy. When you know that you can trust your teammates with your secrets, your dirty laundry, your indescretions and everything that makes you human...you feel like ,together you can accomplish anything. And let me tell you, we all have indescretions, secrets and dirty laundry. some with a greater degree than others, but we musn't judge.
So, to my point....in the salon, we see eachother more than we see our families, husbands, wives, kids and parents. we work so closely together and naturally we will talk to eachother. we will open up to eachother and discuss our dirty laundry, with the HOPE that our teammate will keep it disclosed like a Tenacious bulldog. one who never speaks...but understands.
so often in the salon, i hear dirty laundry that isn't meant for my ears. i hear, "don't tell so and so". or "keep this to yourself". hell, why didn't u keep it to yourself, why u expecting me too? then we talk about eachother to our other teammates and still act like we have each other's best interest in mind. its almost like the salon loves a great story. everyone wants to get in on the gossip and put his or her two cents in on what they think really happened or what should happen. and the thing is, we can tell eachother our secrets, but as the gatekeeper, we need to respect eachother as we'd like to be respected and keep it to ourselves, or at the very least ....STOP JUDGING. cuz we all have told someone something that we don't want the entire shop to know. we all want to feel like "my teammate has my back". but when we get to telling clients and friends what goes on in the salon, we break code, distroy team chemistry and the TEAM concept. now we become a group of hipocrytical individuals cliqued up secretly against one another. you'll have two people in one room who have formed an invisible "pinky swear" to tell what they know about everyone else, but not eachother. you'll have the few who will stab everyone in the back and act the most innocent and the naive few who still don't get it.
I encourage everyone to keep their personal lives PERSONAL...because the more that people know about you, the more they can hurt you. the less they know...the less they can talk about. i want people to understand that we do not have to be "messy", "petty", "sloppy"or loose lipped. we can support eachother by just being compassionate and honest. honest in the fact that we are not stabbing eachother in the back and smiling in eachother's faces.
The human factor is a muthafucka! you can plan for everything...u can market to the right customers, you can have the greatest products, you can have the best idea..but the human factor is the one thing that you cannot account for. people are still people, and that is the greatest hendrance or it can be the greatest element that leads to a championship.
I'll give you a perfect example: The 2004 pistons vs the lakers in the NBA finals.
The lakers had a team full of future hall of famers...and all stars. They were supposed to win and for the entire season and in the playoffs, they did that...but it was off of talent only. Kobe and Shaq were not getting along. they were airing dirty laundry. Kobe and Phil Jackson were talking about eachother and Malone and Payton were just there to ride the wave in one last hoorrah and retire.
That was not a team. it was a compilation of individuals who thought that on talent alone, they would be champions. Then they met a TEAM...the gritty, hard nosed Detroit Pistons. They knew their limitations and capabilities. They knew they were not a high powered team,but they had eachother's backs and they said,"i'm not gonna let your man beat you tonight". They rotated, they jumped passed, they defended and they held onto the concept that if they played together...that nothing could defeat them. and they handed the lakers a 5 game sweep that shocked everyone...except themselves.

That is what i'm trying to get across the TEAM is that we can preach team all day. we can look great while we do it. but if we can't have eachother's backs...if we can't keep our secrets IN HOUSE....if we can't defend for one another we will never be a championship TEAM.

we need to keep our private lives private. but in the event that we cannot, we need to all understand Locker Room Privacy and NOT let anything come between us and our ultimate goal. lets not allow outsiders to see our dirty laundry. lets not tear eachother down by talking about eachother. let's not be distrustful. Let rise above the standard and not allow a cultural disease to exist in our locker room. When those news cameras come flashing for a post game interview, we need to all have positive interviews. we need to show the public that were are a team and that we lose together and win together. we all have bad days. we all have days where we will score 81 points. we all have secrets and we all want to know that my TEAM has my back.
Its starts from the coach...the leader and must be communicated and expected of each team member. this is the newspaper clipping...the bulletin board material that puts everyone on notice.

This is our locker room. Let's keep it sacred!




-Peace,

Ramont.

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