A Model for Success

Do you enjoy seeing other people's success stories?

My personal favorites are the fitness success stories... especially when someone posts a before and after picture. Many times its accompanied by a great story of how they finally decided enough is enough, put together a workout action plan, and consistently stuck with it even though it was challenging.

I may have posted one of my own stories right here on linkedin a few months ago.

From that post, I received DOZENS of DM's asking me what my secret was. These experiences are actually what inspired me to start writing the 10% training habit newsletter.

See, Employee Training programs have a TON of similarities to Physical Fitness training programs. People can truly get incredible results with both. People also can get poor results if they don't take the right action steps.

I actually just recently heard someone say "I don't want my employee training program to end up like a gym membership. You know, a great resource that we just never use."

Take a moment to reflect on your own experiences with physical fitness training programs. Maybe you even bought a gym membership for yourself once... went for a few weeks, and it didn't stick.

Meanwhile, you see someone else, with the muscles, body, and fitness you desire that bought the same exact gym membership you did.

I know I've gone through this experience myself. Too many times to admit actually.

With this in mind, lets jump into today's lesson.

5 ways to supercharge your Employee Training program by modeling successful physical Fitness Training programs.

1. Investment is Required: One definition of investment is "an act of devoting time, effort, or energy to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result". When you look at people with great fitness - it is very clear they put in the time, effort and energy. We as leaders must empower our teams to invest in their professional growth as well. The ROI is there .
2. Consistency is Key: This overused catch phase is overused because its actually true. I personally lost 30lbs over 3 months- not from random 4 hour gym sessions... but from consistent 15 minute workout sessions every day. We as leaders must empower our teams to build a consistent learning habit to get the results.
3. Improvement is gradual: I don't know anyone that can go to the gym for one session and then see the results they want. Same goes for employee training programs... having our team take one class or attend one training event without any follow up is probably the biggest reason why most employee training programs fail. Don't treat training as a one off event. We as leaders must empower our teams to build a professional growth plan .
4. Different programs for different needs: If you ask 100 people walking into a gym what results they are looking for when it comes to physical fitness, you're likely to receive a wide range of answers... from losing weight, to feeling better about themselves, to train for a weightlifting event, to train for a marathon... the list goes on and on. All of these results will have specific training programs that match where they are on their fitness journey and the results they are looking for. We as leaders must empower our teams to learn and grow in areas that are customized and individualized to their career journey and skill sets .
5. Accountability is important: The pros in fitness all track their progress, and many even have a personal training coach. I'm personally a big fan of Peloton's Fitness App, even though I don't own a Peloton Bike. We need to track and see our results along the way. We need experts to to coach us on best practices to accelerate the results. We as leaders must empower our teams to be accountable to their own Career Development journey, and coach them along the way .

ACTION TIME:

1. Think about your own personal physical fitness journey. What worked over the years? What didn't? If we are honest with ourselves, we can find a ton of golden nuggets to model success and avoid common mistakes when it comes to building a best in class training program.
2. The best leaders in my opinion are the ones who inspire people to grow by example. How can you inspire your team by continuing to grow personally and professionally yourself?

I appreciate you taking a few moments to digest this article... as it is a bit longer than my 23 previous ones. This one may be worthy of hitting the favorite button on your browser haha. I'm grateful that I can help you inspire growth and truly make a difference in the people around you. Thank you for subscribing.

Your Friend,

Dan