Occam’s razor cuts a closer shave. It’s a philosophical principle that will help you grow your business, train your clients and avoid stress. Occam’s razor says: “simpler solutions are more likely to be correct than complex ones.” In coaching, that means “Your clients can’t follow two commands.” In business, that means “you can’t act on every piece of client feedback you get.” In leadership, that means “tell them exactly what you want them to do.” Here’s how to put Occam’s razor into practice in your gym business, help your clients progress faster, guide your team to success, and stay focused yourself. Coaching: Correct one thing at a time. Every client should receive 1:1 coaching from you every day. Whether in a big group, small group or personal training session, your job is to provide individual coaching to every client. But it’s tempting for novice coaches to coach TOO much. Vomiting information on a client will just paralyze them. Tell them one thing to fix; promise to teach them the next step tomorrow; and let them achieve mastery one step at a time. Avoid the temptation to show off your knowledge. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what you told them. Instead of sharing several points at once, spend your entire session on one key point. Give an overview at the whiteboard. Then get really in depth with each client individually. Finally, recap the lesson for the group. Staff Development: Keep your staff evaluations short. More categories for evaluation isn’t better, because the most important points of measurement get buried. It’s critical that coaches show up early; look great; smile at everyone; keep everyone engaged; and end on time. You might add 2-3 more criteria to the list. But a 20-section coaching evaluation is almost worse than no evaluation at all, because it’s not a ...
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