No matter what type of business you are in, an organization is only as good as its’ people.
As gym owners, our reach extends only so far. There are only so many hours in the day. We cannot coach classes, clean the bathrooms, post to social media, do the book work and also work on growing the business. Simply said, we cannot do everything ourselves and expect our gyms to provide an income high enough to support any type of lifestyle. We must have employees to help us.
Time and time again I hear owners say “I just can’t get my coaches to buy-in. They won’t go that extra mile and I don’t feel like they care.”
Our role as leaders is to cast a vision. Before we assume that we have a lemon employee who doesn’t care, let’s revisit what we as owners have done to influence our staff and create a clear path of growth and leadership in their role.
#1 Have we defined our mission?
A mission statement is a thing that defines what you are doing as an organization. It’s a set of guiding principles. Do your employees know, understand, and believe in the vision & mission of your facility? Have you told them your story and explained why it matters? If you don’t have a mission – then your team doesn’t have anything to buy into. You will not be able to unite your team around anything so my suggestion would be to stop reading and get yourself a mission. If your employee shares the same vision, they will more likely be on board to make the business a success!
#2 Ensure we have the right team on the bus
In order to carry out our mission we need staff who understand our why, trust us as leaders, and are ready to carry out our mission. Defining a set of key characteristics our team must have is going to ensure we have the right people on our bus. Key characteristics tell the team how to behave. For example; if your mission is to help 1000 people transform their lives through nutrition & fitness by 2025 then an example of one key characteristic your employees should have is that they enjoy helping people. A second one could be they have a passion for fitness or nutrition. If you have an employee who loves fitness and nutrition but doesn’t like helping people then they are not a good fit for your mission. If you could think of the ideal person to represent your brand – what would they look like? Is the person currently working under you?
#3 If you haven’t done exercises 1 and 2 with your current staff, do them!
Have a meeting, define your mission, find out if your current staff is ready to go on the mission with you, and determine if they are willing to grow into the key characteristics needed to accomplish the mission. People who don’t like the mission or the key characteristics don’t belong on the team. Do the hard thing.
Now how does this fit when running a nutrition program in your facility?
First, you must define each person’s role in the mission! Fitness coaches, nutrition coaches, front desk staff personal trainers etc. Everyone needs a role to carry out the mission!
Next, create SOP’s for each role. Everything comes back to fitness and nutrition, so all roles must be cross-trained on how to effectively talk about the mission and the main pillars in your business.
- Train all staff on the nutrition program and vice versa- let them experience it through a challenge or as a test client. People can effectively talk about things they understand and know.
- How is it presented to members?
- How do they get a fitness member involved?
- How do they talk about it in class?
- How does the Free Intro process include nutrition?
- How does the onramp process include nutrition?
- Part of your hiring process for all new employees needs to include training on the nutrition program. Again – people can’t talk about what they don’t know.
After the basics are done and everyone knows what they are responsible for when carrying out this mission – you and your team are ready to begin spreading the good word and getting to work!
Your role as a leader continues to be reminding people of the mission through communication and consistent feedback on their roles.
If you are an HSN Mentoring client and are struggling with staff buy-in – ask your mentor to help!
Not an HSN mentoring client….Book a FREE CALL BELOW to find out how HSN can help you build a nutrition program in your facility in 4-6 weeks!
To learn more about staff buy-in, listen to our podcast Episode #66 where Ashley Osterman and Nicole Aucoin discuss three proven strategies to increase staff buy-in.
Are you Looking For More FREE Help to Launch a Nutrition Program??
FREE Help Related To
Building A Nutrition Program In A Gym
READ: How To Recoup Cost Of Your Initial Investment With HSN Mentoring In Under 30-Days HERE
LISTEN: How To Build A Nutrition Program Into A CrossFit Gym HERE
LISTEN: Nutrition Made Simple Podcast – CrossFit, Nutrition & Your Health HERE
HSN Mentoring Gym Owner Highlight: Meet Barry & Jocelyn, Owners Of CrossFit Generation, a 14-year affiliate owner HERE
