The continued success of a Pilates Studio relies, in large part, on its ability to keep its most precious asset motivated: the team!
To cultivate relationships with team members, and encourage their creativity and loyalty, you must start with yourself. As a studio owner or manager, you need to have a disciplined strategy.
Regardless of the number of instructors who make up your team, getting full involvement for effective results is in your hands. A solid investment in self-improvement will make you a better manager. When doing well, your team members will pick up on this and will motivate you to excel. In our blog post, The Art of Communication, we discussed building rapport with clients. Those techniques can also be applied to how you interact with your staff. By building a good relationship with employees, such as Pilates teachers, reception and cleaning staff, etc. you will foster an inviting and thriving studio environment. We must go further if we want to have a highly effective team. Invest in your Pilates professionals’ advancement. If there are areas of improvement (i.e. a new skill or practice) that your employee would like to pursue, encourage them. Seek out how best to furnish their needs and possibly subsidize their new training. If you combine good services, a studied strategy and quality training, your success will be guaranteed. Remember that your Pilates teachers should be well trained, so skimping on training may mean not being up to par. Your clients will perceive it as well, so invest in the future.
This approach sounds great, but you may not know how to go about it. Stephen Covey summarizes in his best-selling book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a set of rules that can help in such situations.
It discusses improving areas around personal management, leadership, and empathetic communication. Covey’s 7 habits guide you to change your behavior by modifying a series of paradigms that will help you understand the world differently. The 4th habit, for example, focuses on being an effective leader. “leadership is communicating others’ worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” We recommend this reading in the hopes the lessons will manifest in your studio.
These habits give us a taste of the characteristics that a successful Pilates studio manager embodies. In our next post, we will identify 7 tips for becoming a successful Pilates entrepreneur. If you dare to take the first steps to become a highly effective Pilates studio manager, you will be putting yourself and your team at the forefront of your profession.
On the Blog: How do we know we’re teaching a great class?
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