Building a Committed Team: Key Strategies for Dance Studio Owners - No Bulls#$t Business Tips 23

Hi, friends. Amanda and Bec here with no bullshit business tips. And today we wanted to talk to you about something I'm very passionate about. Team.

Absolutely. So we wanted to talk about how to get your team invested in your studio. We have that come up so often with people that we're coaching is, you know, oh, my team don't show up to the team trainings, they can't come to concert, they make bad excuses. And they're not just, like, invested in your culture. And I know that's something you're really passionate about, right?

It is. And it's something that I don't think we spend enough time or put enough importance on. And, you know, I've been to lots of team trainings all over Australia, and I just think it's something we need to value more. And I'm not talking about training your team in how to teach dance. I'm talking about training your team in, you know, how to enroll a student, how to upsell, how to be in a class when there's a new student coming in. Like, think things that we think are just so obvious, but they're probably not that obvious to our team. So I think the number one tip I'm going to give is that you need to actually invest in training your team.

Absolutely. And I think that's something that so many people don't realize. And invest is the word. Right. Because we do need to spend money on it. We do need to pay them for their time for them to value it and make it incredible. Right. So to get your team invested. Definitely. Starting with staff trainings, which we're going to chat about in a later episode. But how else do you think you could get your team invested in your culture and really, like, feel the vibe for it?

Right. Well, talking to them about it firstly and making them aware of what your culture is, and that has to be a continuous thing. I know a lot of people will talk to them about it in the interview, or I hope they at least talk to them about it in the interview. But then do you keep talking about it? So, for example, the thing at our school which you guys probably all know is creating confident kids. Now, we're then constantly talking to our staff about how we create that confidence. What do we do? We had an incident yesterday which I haven't told you about, Amanda, where a parent called me and she is not. Not a complaining parent at all. She's an amazing parent. Her child got their back walkover and a big deal wasn't made about the child. Okay, so then. And That's a fair call because it's made often about other children when they get things. And she said her child went home upset and her child had been really working on this.

We all have those things, right.

100%. We have that all the time. So I went back to my team and said, you know, we're about creating confidence. This needed to be a moment of creating that confidence. How can we make this now a really special moment for that child? It's just that constant checking in that I think we forget. Absolutely.

And I think so many people are a little bit worried about talking to their team and checking in and having those conversations. But, you know, rather than, you know, not say anything to that team member who did that yesterday and made the mistake and leaving it until it got bigger and worse. Like just addressing the elephant in the room that day and chatting to them about it. And not as in, you're in trouble because, like, they probably should have done it. But it's not end of the world stuff. We've all made mistakes as teachers. We got busy, we got, you know, things happen Right. In the class. But it's more just the conversations around it and training and help and suggestions on how they could have made a bigger deal out of that back walkover and what they could do moving forward.

Right, Absolutely. And another thing is making sure that when you're talking about team, it's everyone has the same treatment. And what I mean by that is a lot of people will have staff meetings or staff training, but only some teachers have to come and then others they make excuses for. And that's not a cohesive team. Right. Like, you need to have the same rules for everyone, whether they're a really high end teacher, who's a city teacher kind of thing, who teaches at a lot of studios, or whether they're a full timer for you. They should all be at every training session, should all be pulled up if they make mistakes, should all be, you know, you should be able to manage your team.

Absolutely. Manager. Absolutely. And I think we forget that. Right. We think, oh, you know, we got into owning a studio because we love teaching kids. Absolutely. But if you've got a team, you are now a manager. And so it's really important that you're building those relationships as well. And I think that's a big thing, that it's that constant building of relationships. I hear from so many studio owners, oh, my teachers don't care. My teachers don't. This. I'm like, cool, what have you given them?

Yes.

You know, I think That's a big conversation we've got to have is what are you giving them? Like, you know, are you giving them the time of day? Are you having great conversations and connections with them? You know that sometimes are non dance related, sometimes they're more just like, hey, just checking in, how's life going? How's your new house going, your partner going, whatever that is. Right. But it's really just finding ways to connect with your team and bring them part of the decision making process. I think that's a big thing too.

It totally is. It's building relationships and it's allowing them to have input into decisions that you're making in your business and not being such a control freak with that. Because when you let your team in and they're actually allowed to help you with the runnings of the business and the decisions that you're making and put their own ideas into it, they have more ownership over it and they feel more a part of it. And that's when you start getting them more committed.

Absolutely. I think that's exactly it. Right. So, you know, if you are struggling to get your team invested in your studio, I want you to self reflect and reflect on what you're doing. Because I think as a leader that's what we need to be doing and reflecting. Are you giving them everything so that they will give you something in return or are you just asking for the world without giving? Because that's not really how relationships work 100%.

So guys, take some action on this. And the action probably needs to be self reflect. Have a look at your team, how can you do things better and then choose one thing that you're going to do better and take some action on it.

So go take action. Let's do this shit.