“Why do people want to quit our business?”
This was the question that made all the difference. In his book, “The Dream Manager,” Matthew Kelly explained how he turned his janitorial company around by helping his staff identify their dreams and work toward them.
If Kelly can use the tactic to get people to clean toilets for a living, we can certainly use the same strategy to keep coaches in your gym longer. In fact, we’ve been teaching this strategy for years at Two-Brain Business. We call it the Career Growth ToolKit, and we implement it in Growth Stage of mentorship.
A Career Growth ToolKit session goes like this:
Step 1
At your quarterly Career Growth ToolKit meeting, ask your coach: “What do you want now?” Ask the coach to tell you about his or her Perfect Day. Ask how your gym can support that Perfect Day. Ask where he or she would like to be in six months.
(If you’re not doing quarterly Career Growth ToolKit meetings, start. We teach you how to do it in our Mentorship Program.)
Step 2
Determine how much the coach needs to earn to reach those goals. Using tools like the Happiness Index (and his or her personal budget), calculate a goal number.
Step 3
Use our Career Growth ToolKit tool (we give it to you in the RampUp program) to work backward from the number. Create opportunities to do personal training, run specialty programs, deliver nutrition coaching or coach more group classes. It’s all laid out in our free “Intrapreneurialism 101” guide, which you can download here.
In the next post in this series, I’ll tell you how to identify the best Intrapreneurial opportunities that will generate income for the coach and revenue for the gym.
Step 4
Determine the starting position. What will the coach need to learn in order to capitalize on this plan? Will he or she need a certification before starting a kids program, for example? Will the coach need to take a Two-Brain Coaching course before he or she can work with 1:1 clients?
Step 5
Measure progress. Perform regular reviews as part of Career Growth ToolKit meetings.
**Step 6**
Give the coach an opportunity to open his or her own business under your brand. After you’ve taught the coach how to be an “intrapreneur,” you can help him or her step outside your protective umbrella and open a gym. Read “Go With Them.”
Communicate and Lead
The key to all this is asking your coaches, “What do you want now?”
Some might want more money. Some might want more opportunity. Some want consistency, and some are willing to take risk in exchange for equity. But no one wants the same thing forever.
The best way to help your coaches build a dream career is to mentor them to success.
Other Media in This Series
“How to Maximize Staff Retention”
“What Does Your Staff Really Want?”
“Stellar Staffing: Owner Gets COVID, Gym Marches On”
