Inside Out

If you've ever come to my office at Club Ridges, you will see that I like dry erase boards. There are several of them hanging up in the office. Most of them are staff communication tools about what's going on at the club and fun programs we have coming up. One of my dry erase boards is right above my desk and I like to write meaningful phrases for my staff to see when they walk through my office. Walking through my office happens constantly because I want it to happen. Our management team purposefully created our office area as a flow through station for all staff when they are taking care of the club, getting files for clients or hanging with us. I believe the more we connect or collide as a team on a daily basis the better we are as a team. I've been in too many buildings where the managers are in a typical "Ivory Tower" away from the team. I believe it decreases interaction and causes lower morale.

One of the biggest ways to enhance and blossom morale and loyalty in the work environment is to not actually focus on the job related to that work environment. Here's what I mean. I had a client today ask me if we did professional development for our fitness team. I said yes, but its not what you think. My approach to professional development has nothing to do with learning the latest training approaches, techniques or anything like that. You know why? Most gyms do that. I don't want to be like most gyms or most fitness organizations who put their fitness team through hours and hours of fitness education on tactical training, exercise principles, etc. I don't want my team to be like most personal training textbooks which focus 99 percent of the content on the physical nature of personal training when so much of what creates a successful long term training business is how you relate and connect with others.

So, I'm squarely focused on helping these wonderful souls who work at our club become better human beings inside and outside of the club. I want to mold and foster growth of compassionate, kind, warm, patient and loving human beings. That's a gift that most fitness teams or any work team is not getting at any job. However, I can argue that it is one of the things that will not only make you better at your job, but it will also make you better as a husband, wife, father, daughter, son and the list goes on and on.

When I took over as the Director of Club Ridges years ago I put all of my chips in the direction of personal development for our team. I believed and I still do that focusing on psychosocial/emotional growth leads to a better and more well rounded product for our consumers. And that product is us. People are the product in our business. If I'm not growing people to be better human beings to other human beings then I don't feel like I'm giving our consumers the best possible team to work with. That means our "education" is focused on courses I teach such as Creating Flow in Your Life, Self-Confidence, Leadership Qualities, Public Speaking, Philosophy, Motivation, etc. That means we spend time outside of work every month on happy hours, group adventure races, parties, hikes and more. That means when people come into work I give them a big hug, high five them and tell them how much they mean to me. I like to say at Club Ridges we are dropping Love Bombs on people everyday!

And the best part is watching it work not only for people to become better humans socially and emotionally, but it also makes them amazing at their jobs! I'm proud to say at our small club in Las Vegas we are one of the top personal training revenue producers in a company that has a presence in 33 countries. We've loved our way to great financial success. Its an upside down model...I know...but its one that is so much fun to work on everyday.

I'm happy each day I go to work and that's the honest truth because I get the wonderful opportunity to focus on what's happening inside me, my staff and our consumers. As my pastor said last week and it was so powerful..."What happens inside you is so much more important than what happens to you."

Until next time...

Dr. D