Leadership/Management
Manager Meltdowns
Regardless of how big or small your role is as group fitness manager (GFM), your success depends primarily on how effectively you communicate with a diverse audience. Each employee has a need to hear you, understand your message, store the information and act on it. Keeping employees informed can eat up a lot of time and may prevent you from getting to initiatives that could grow the business.
Don’t Be That Manager: Micromanager
Many personal trainers are promoted to manager or director solely on the basis of their success as a trainer and not necessarily because of their management skills. Now it’s your turn: you are the new personal training manager.
The Language of Job Postings
If the world as we know it were coming to an end and it was your job to find skilled individuals to rebuild society, how would you pick the “right” people? If you chose wisely, they all would flourish; if you chose unwisely, everyone would flounder. When you’re hiring for your organization, use the same careful consideration.
Don’t Be That Manager: Are You Invisible?
Many personal trainers are promoted to being the manager or director of their departments based solely on their success as trainers and not necessarily for their managerial attributes. Now it’s your turn: you are the new personal training manager. You’re finding out how different it is from being on the floor working with clients.
Learn to Delegate
This column provides trainers with practical ways to approach common business obstacles using a coaching strategy called gap analysis. A gap analysis helps people identify where they are currently with regard to a situation, where they ultimately would like to see themselves, and what steps they must take in order to bridge the gap.
Empower Your Evaluations
Welcome to part three of our five-part “Crash Course in Excellence” series with takeaway strategies. This article explores performance reviews in the fitness environment, especially the often overlooked piece of the puzzle called “bilateral evaluations.”
How to Implement a QEP
Have you ever wondered how to offer your personal training staff effective, ongoing quality education that will meet your departmental goals and their professional growth desires without crippling your budget? A Quarterly Education Program (QEP) is an educational syllabus offered in-house on an annual basis that addresses those needs and more!
12 Rules of Gym Etiquette
People loudly chatting on cell phones, empty water bottles left on equipment and used towels littering the locker room floor. These are just three examples of members showing poor gym etiquette. The good news is that you can do a great deal to promote and enforce appropriate etiquette, thereby keeping clients happy and encouraging long-term member retention.
Creative Ideas That Inspire
The University of Florida Department of Recreational Sports gets executive with its class descriptions for Upper Management and Lower Management. Both classes
focus on building core strength, but the former is all about arms, chest, shoulders and upper back, while the latter homes in on the legs and glutes.
Creating an Eco-Friendly Fitness Facility
Can an entire fitness facility take strides toward developing a greener and more eco-friendly environment? The answer is yes.
Managing a Quality-Driven Business
We all strive to run a quality business, but achieving that goal takes great focus and commitment. Managing excellence begins with having a strong definition of quality. What is your definition?
Identifying and Managing Risk Among Trainers
9 Business Basics:
Pricing Your Services
13 Technology:
From Mobile to Mobility
17 Training for Growth:
The Struggle for Significance
21 Best Practices:
Build Your Team
By nature, personal trainers are passionate, driven, organized and excellent at communicating, or so we would like to believe. In reality, within any team there are radical differences in terms of trainer competencies.
Build Your Team
It is said that if you want to be successful, you must surround yourself with great people. One of the most challenging aspects of running your own business is finding great people and then keeping them.
Pruning a Prima Donna Participant
If you teach group exercise long enough, you’re bound to encounter the group exercise diva. This self-proclaimed privileged member wreaks havoc in your classes and throughout the club. She is the person who feels that rules apply only to others—not to her. She (or he!) displays disrespect for the group exercise experience, the instructor and the other participants. The diva’s behavior tends to create a negative experience for the majority of attendees. Unfortunately, the instigator often goes unchecked.
Making Connections
Tamar Cline, assistant director of fitness at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, has spent the past 7 years training new fitness instructors just to see them graduate and move away. Cline and CSU staff help students get a head start on their certification exams while earning spots at the Student Recreation Center as group fitness instructors.
Administrative Regulations
As a new business owner, you will need to comply with a number of administrative regulations and federal, state and local laws; for example, you will have to obtain various…
How to Be the Instructor Every Supervisor Wants
As a group fitness instructor, you seek out innovative choreography, purchase motivating music and put on your biggest smile in an effort to keep people coming back for more. While relating to participants may seem most pertinent, don’t neglect the critical connection with your group fitness director. Since this individual is typically the one who hires and fires, determines the class schedule and decides what equipment to purchase, it’s important to establish a positive and productive relationship with him or her.
The New View
About 30 years ago, the first wave of
group fitness instructors (known then as aerobics teachers) got their start in
an industry yet to be defined. Many of those people are still teaching and
training, yet as the industry grows and changes, continuing to shape itself,
the need for a steady influx of teachers is evident. Since the world of fitness
is radically differ…
Hiring a Business Manager
At some point many personal training entrepreneurs decide they need assistance running their business. Are you trying to balance everything—training sessions, employee issues, business and financial matters, building and supplies, etc.? If so, it may be time to make a change. If you are at a juncture in your business life where you are feeling overwhelmed, stagnant, disorganized, fr…
Create a Positive Corporate Culture
Retention, membership, sales, customer service–these terms are used frequently when describing the various aspects of running a successful fitness facility. One term not heard as often, yet of equal importance, is corporate culture.