We all know the business owner or coach that safe harbor’s their knowledge, refusing to share it with others. The sacred recipe of X’s and O’s. This thought process leads you to the inevitable outcome of being the bottle neck of your own business. The only way for others to improve their skill sets is through education. By educating the team its empowering for both you and them!
It’s a win-win situation for all involved.
The truth is that education sharing was never an issue at VH. We built an environment of education via the internship process and continued education events since 2009. This has enabled us the ability to grow a TEAM of experts. Any great team I’ve been on, the players on that team like each other, have mutual respect and understand the ultimate goal…which is winning.
We make it very clear as to what “winning” looks like as a unit at VH. The tip of the spear when it comes to driving culture is leadership. Leadership starts with clarity. Clarity within the context of roles, accountably, and what your company stands for and who it serves! Leadership is the foundation of the organization.
Marketing on a broken foundation oftentimes can add insult to injury. Short term marketing campaigns can add an influx of cash, which many times hide the real issue… The real issue being infrastructure and organizational accountability. As Mike Desanti states in his book, “You can’t build a new construct on a broken context.” (A New Man Emerging)
Your business “context” is the accountably, who does what within the company, the offerings, how things get accomplished on a weekly basis, and how we measure success as a unit and individually.
Many factors go into becoming a great leader of your business. We’ve simplified it into 4 pillars as to what it takes to become the leader that your business needs!
1. GSFC – Give a shit factor of concentration – Simply put, you have to sincerely care about the well being and development of your staff.
The problem lies in the fact that businesses hire coaches and expect them to know what’s expected of them. Little to no time is invested in these new hire’s development. It’s a, “Hey shadow me on the floor for a week and I’ll introduce you to some people. Next week you’ll start taking some classes.”
How can we expect people to win given these circumstances?
We can’t!
The solution is reframing your thought process that when you take the leap to hire someone, that person becomes your number 1 client! There is no greater return on investment in the gym business than getting a new coach, the ability to conduct a great assessment, lead very professional training sessions, and become a great communicator.
2. Career Trajectory – Hiring someone and piling 50 hours a week on their calendar with no follow up is a recipe for burnout!
We need to spell out what success looks like for a coach. We’ve built out a depth chart in regards to coaching.
Intern – Part time – Associated coach – Full time coach – Director of Training.
Each role has requirements, how they are to be achieved, and a compensation range within each level. When we hire someone, this is explained in detail which helps to build a road map of success.
3. Empathy – In people reliant business things are bound to happen. Situations are going to come about, it’s a fact. Hedge these situations with a somewhat flexible scheduling system. Have clear communication channels that aren’t text message feeds. We use slack to help organize the communication amongst the team. Your team doesn’t want text messages about work on Saturdays at 4pm, be respectful of their time.
You don’t need to be a hard ass to be a very effective leader.
4. Celebration – Too often people realize a goal without even acknowledging the win. Similar to the 24-hour rule in sports, you have 24 hours to be upset about a loss but you also have 24 hours to celebrate a win!
When someone does something that really exemplifies your core values, someone gets a promotion, a great client testimonial, and celebrates those wins publicly.
People love praise in front of their peers. It helps to build authority and mutual respect. We can’t do this often enough.
Now what?
The development of your team whether it be 1 person or 10 needs to be of upmost importance.
You’re the CRO – Chief Reminding Officer.
Anchor team development and meetings in the schedule.
If it’s memorable, it’s repeatable.
Be the coach you wish you had.
We hope you enjoy the course!
Dedicated to your success,
Dan Goodman
