Richard ToutounjiDirector, Meet Your Network · Connecting fitness & wellness suppliers to our marketing community.

The Dangerous Leadership Trap That’s Keeping Your Team From Growing

12 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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0:47

In this segment of the video, the interviewer asks what skills help fitness industry leaders drive real change. The coach, Steve, identifies a common, costly mistake: talented owners and managers often default to a directive style—telling staff to make more calls, close more sales, build rapport, and overcome objections—without showing how to do it or checking understanding. Steve argues that effective leadership requires asking reflective questions, reviewing results, and offering hands‑on demonstrations. By pausing for staff responses and guiding them through the process, leaders can foster deeper learning and sustainable performance improvements.

Can we just dig a little bit there in what sort of skills would help somebody in the fitness industry to really make a change and maybe show us an example or something, Steve, like that?
One of the big mistakes, and it's a huge mistake, is very talented owners, managers who know what they're doing really well. I mean, they just tell people what to do. You've got to make more calls. You've got to make more sales. You've got to build rapport. You've got to overcome those objections, mate, blah, blah, blah. And they just tell. You're just telling them the person understands the language, but they don't know how to do, or they might have forgotten. You have to ask them a question. How did you think you went? How are the results going? Okay, what do we need to do differently? Would you like me to show you how to do that?
So waiting for the response, not just telling, telling, telling, telling.
Absolutely. And then you gotta do it.