Empowering Your Team Through Staff Training - No Bulls#$t Business Tips 24

Foreign.

It'S Amanda and Beck here with no bullshit business tips and we are going to talk to you today about staff training. Now, this is something that I have done in studios all over Australia before. We started Dance Principles United and I think it's something that's so lacking in our industry.

Industry, absolutely. Like, what a great chance for personal development for our teachers, our admin team, our, you know, our whole team to come together multiple times a year to, you know, really upskill and learn some new things and get them invested in your studio.

Right, absolutely. I. I worked in retail for a long time, Amanda, before I owned my studio. And there's nowhere in retail or hospitality that you wouldn't consistently have that updated training. And I just think sometimes as studio own, we don't realize the importance of it. I know some of the studio owners that we've worked with who are now doing it see what a massive game changer it is, but I think if you're not doing it, it's absolutely something that you need to implement. So let's talk about a few different ways that we could do the staff training.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, my first thing I think is making it special.

Yeah.

Because we'll talk about the content and everything, but making it special and making it a big deal for them. Because a lot of your staff might not have ever been to a staff training, a conference perhaps, or anything like that. You know, we just ran an incredible studio Growth club retreat recently and a lot of our Studio Growth club members came away from those two days and went, hey, do you mind if we steal some of the ideas to implement in our staff training? Number one, I was like, it's not stealing, let's just do it. Most definitely. But, you know, they were talking about how they could uplevel their staff training. You know, things like really great presentations and PowerPoint presentations to make it a bit more exciting little gift. Some of them, you know, borrow the ideas of, you know, the different gifts that we had on the table and stuff like that as well, you know, And I think making it super special like that, you know, even if it's just, you know, a really nice Kmart, you know, notepad on everyone's table when they walk in and it's set up nicely and a beautiful lunch or something like that. It's just a really great way to sort of start the vibe and make them feel super special. Right?

Yeah. And make them feel valued. We want our staff to feel valued. I know a lot of people do staff meetings and they come in and they've just got their list of cranky things and they're like, you don't put your props away. You don't do this. You're not at work on time. And that's a definite way to get your staff not on board with you and get them cranky about the whole thing. I always suggest to our Studio Growth club members that they start their staff trainings with some goals. Setting goals, talking about things they've achieved, allowing your staff to have a share about them before you make it about the studio, make it about them. And that's how we start our sessions as well, when we do in person sessions. And I think that's a great way to start.

Absolutely. Do some celebrating. And I think what you said back then was really important. Right. You know, the meeting is just like a list of demands and things that you want changed. And don't get me wrong, sometimes we do need to discuss some of those things. Absolutely. But a staff training is different. A staff training isn't just here's how we should do things moving forward. It's training them on how and the why and, you know, really getting them excited and upsetting. What are some things you think we should always be including in our staff trainings as a very quick overview?

Well, I think we should always be including how to enroll our student, how to act when a new student comes into class, you know, teaching them all that sort of stuff, what your expectations are in and around that. I definitely think going over our values and allowing them to come in and say, okay, our value this term is going to be self worth. How are we going to bring self worth into every classroom? Or how are we going to make every child feel special? So, you know, those things that you want to see happening, talking to them about that, talking to them about why we do things, you know, why we have uniform, for example, is a great one that I talk to my staff about because I want everyone to feel inclusive, because that's one of our values. So explaining that stuff to them, I think is really, really, really important. And then sometimes upskilling them. Maybe you're gonna do a session on how to clean routines. Maybe you're gonna do a session on, I don't know, what else can we do sessions on?

Oh, there's so many things, so many great things. And I think that that's really important, that there's a nice balance of different things in there, for sure. And I really like talking about the why because I think that's how we change behaviors. So rather than going in and saying, hey, I want you to run the class like this. Instead, it should be. The reason we want to do that is because we want every child to feel included. You know, instead of, let's talk about changing lines and kids changing positions and coming to the front. I think that's a really great example. And, you know, just by telling your staff, hey, you know, I want the lines rotated. Everyone needs to have a turn in the front. They're like, I hate doing that, blah, blah, blah. But talking about the story behind it and the why, that's really important. Because a lot of our young teachers might not understand that. Maybe some of our more older teachers don't understand that it's not always about age. But, you know, the reason I want that to be done is because, well, you know, we want everyone to feel valued. We want, you know, all the kids confidence to be built. Everyone paid the same amount of money. The tickets in the audience, like, there's so much to it. So explaining the why, I think is super important when we're talking about staff training.

Absolutely. And the last thing I want to say is what staff training does for you is it makes you a leader, a true leader in your studio. And you are so privileged to be a leader, but it allows you to stand up in front of your staff and make the business what you want it to be. When you're leading staff, you can do that. Your staff shouldn't be going in there and doing what they want to do because it's not their business. It's your business. You're putting your heart and soul into it. And when you lead like that, you'll find that the business will be becoming the business of your dreams. It's gonna make such a difference for all of you.

Amazing. So I think that is such a great way, and hopefully we've given you some great tips on how to make your next staff training amazing. We'd like to know in the comments below, have you got your next staff training booked? If so, maybe that's the action you need to do today. Take action on it. Book a staff training. I know you like to do them every single term at your studio at Pause. And so that's a great thing. But, you know, if you haven't ever done one, start with just one and see how it goes.

Absolutely. Don't be scared, guys.

Let's do.

Sam.