I’ve identified 7 Deadly Sins of Staffing in a gym, and I’ve laid them all out in a new guide to help you avoid HR issues.
To get it, send me a DM on Facebook—I’ll send it right over. It’s got some juicy stories and clear solutions so you don’t commit any of the 7 Deadly Sins.
Here, I’ll give you the other side: 7 Signs of a Virtuous Gym Owner.
1. You Get the Business out of Your Head
How many times have you said “he should know that” or “no one can do it like I can”?
This is a good way to pad your ego but a horrible way to deal with staff. If someone isn’t doing it the way you want and you haven’t laid out clear roles and responsibilities, the failure is all yours.
No one can read your mind or guess what you want.
To ensure staff members do what you want, tell them how to do it and show them what A+ performance looks like. This isn’t micromanagement; it’s providing freedom within a framework.
2. You Communicate Clearly on Time
I hate confrontation, and I bet you do, too.
That can cause you to avoid dealing with issues and use ineffective communication strategies, such as passive-aggressive comments. Another brutal plan: Calling an all-staff meeting to deal with something one person is doing (we’ve all done this).
Instead of bottling stuff up until you explode in a stream of criticism, deal with everything immediately.
Coach sucked in the noon class? Mention it a 1:01 p.m. Don’t wait for an evaluation in six months.
Cleaner skipping the rowing machines? Mention it when you notice.
Think of your gym like your hand: When you get a sliver, you try to get it out right away so you feel better. You don’t endure months of pain and start working on it well after the wound is infected.
Be direct and don’t delay when you must have a conversation.
3. You Don’t Keep Score
The “emotional bank account” is BS. Stop making deposits and checking the balance.
Nobody is running off your scoreboard. You might be tracking all the little favors, the exceptions, the times you helped someone out, but they are using a different scoreboard and saying things like, “They’re lucky to have me,” and, “This business would fall apart without me.”
Stop keeping score. Operate honestly and directly in every “transaction” instead of thinking about what’s “owed.”
This one is hard because every relationship has history. But if you focus on the past, you’ll probably screw up in the present.
4. You Don’t Buy Friends With Jobs
We create amazing opportunities for ourselves, and we’re thrilled to be successful, so we want to share that with people.
But our generosity and desire to help can set us up for emotional explosions down the line.
Don’t try to solve other people’s problems by creating issues for yourself.
We’ve all thought, “X could use a job, and I need a Y.” But is X really the best person for that role? If the answer is “yes!” then hire away. But if the answer is “maybe?” don’t try to force a friend to fit. You’ll lose the friend, the business will suffer, and you’ll lose sleep.
Hire the right people and promote the right people.
5. You Don’t Act out of Desperation
Overwhelm is real, and it’s common to hit a wall, scream “I need help!” and then hire the first semi-competent person you see.
But this any-port-in-a-storm mentality has consequences.
If you’re utterly drowning in work and can’t see your family, I won’t fault you for hiring desperately. But you might end up with an even bigger problem on your hands—like an angry staff member who’s tearing the business apart.
Do me this favor: If you feel desperate, take an hour to have a chat with someone on my team. We can talk about a plan to buy back some of your time the right way. Then, after you have a little breathing room, we can talk about how to stay ahead with staff so you’re never desperate.
Gym owners who aren’t desperate make great hires who deliver incredible value to the business. In return, these sound hires have the opportunity to build great careers. Everyone wins when calm, calculated owners have hiring plans.
6. You Know When Time is Up
Staff members should be given every chance to succeed with your guidance—see below—but in some cases, you really have a people problem, not a process problem.
Getting rid of someone is hard, but you know what’s worse? Putting it off. It’s like doing the workout “Fran”: The longer you think about it, the worse you feel. It’s best to start the clock and just get it done.
Mentor your staff. Care for them. Correct them, guide them and lead them. But when all that fails, pull the pin on the relationship and move on for the good of the business and your clients.
7. You Mentor Staff
You are the leader in your business, and that means you have to lead your staff.
You can’t just hire and vanish.
You are responsible for your staff members’ continued success, and if you stay in contact with them, answer their questions, correct their mistakes, and help them develop and ascend, your business will thrive.
If you wash your hands of everything and only connect with staff when something is on fire, you will have a lot of stress and a fragile business.
Sins and Solutions
Staffing is the biggest and most important investment you’ll ever make because staffing is what gets you leverage in your business.
Once you’ve got a working, well-defined model, you hire staff to run that model, not to create their own ways of doing things. You’ve already solved the problems for them. The key is teaching them how to run your model, giving them feedback on how well they’re running your model, and then replacing them when they’re not running your model.
I’ve given you 7 Signs of a Virtuous Gym Owner to help you stay clear of chaos.
But if you’d like to see what the other side looks like, I have seven sinful scenarios in my new guide, plus seven solutions.
To get the “7 Deadly Sins of Staffing,” send me a DM!
