For my fourth blog post submission and the first one of the New Year, I’m writing on the NCCP core competency of leading which is defined as “the ability to strategically influence change and to enable positive behaviours in others”.

Last year was a challenging year in my small business as my coaching team consisted of only myself and two other coaches. One of them is very green (less than a year in the industry) and the other is very experienced and has been a great teammate of mine for seven years. When either of them got sick or needed vacation, I would be the one who needed to step in and pick up their coaching hours. I was already coaching 26+ hours a week not to mention the 16+ hours a week of business development, team management, and community outreach involved when owning your own small business. Then throw on top of that the 6 hours/week of HPCTL online lectures and the hours required to complete the assignments and blog discussions (which is NOT 6-9 hours/month as advertised David LOL!).

Then in mid Oct, my long time, experienced coach decided she was going to quit the industry completely and try photography for a career change! I wanted to make sure she felt supported in her decision as I know from my own experience, embarking on a career change is a scary thing. I also needed to act quickly because finding good coaches is tough and I only had two weeks to fill the massive void her absence was leaving. Luckily I have a friend who’s an experienced coach who has been away from the coaching game for a few years to raise her daughter but was looking to get back into the coaching. I connected with her and with a couple of days to spare, found a solution that was mutually beneficial for both us. My friend has already made a positive impact on our community with her personality, energy, and knowledge. She’s also great at handstands and loves teaching them so I encouraged her to teach a handstand class for our members. She took the opportunity right away. Positive outcome but I still only had two coaches…

Any small business owner will tell you, you just got to do what you can to make it all work and that’s what I was doing however I knew it wasn’t sustainable. I needed to hire two coaches. My plan was to hire one generalist coach that is a bit newer and one experienced weightlifting coach. My strategy to hire a newer coach is to give my less-experienced coach someone to take under his wing and mentor. Teaching and mentoring someone is a great way to learn and grow one’s own leadership skills so providing him this opportunity was going to be important long term. My strategy to hire an experienced weightlifting coach was to free up my plate without the requirement of a time-consuming new-hire intake process. An experienced weightlifting coach could immediately take over the reigns to program and develop the senior and masters athletes while allowing me to focus my efforts on developing the youth and junior athletes in our weightlifting club and to grow the entire weightlifting program (and my overall business). Our club is growing and many of our members compete so having an experienced weightlifting coach who I can split up the coaching workload at competitions would also be a major asset.

So I knew the gaps I had to fill and my strategy made sense. All that remained was finding those individuals who met the criteria and aligned with my business core values. Seems easy enough but going into my 12th year of business, I can tell you that it’s never as easy as it seems on paper. I couldn’t find a single coach to fit the bill for several weeks and the year was quickly coming to a close.

It wasn’t looking good but then fortuitously a friendly guy dropped by the gym one Saturday morning while I was locking up, asked me if I was looking to hire, and handed me his resume. He was very green but he was very keen to learn and be given an opportunity. I decided to give him that opportunity, took him through our new-coach intake process, and partnered him with my newer coach so he can take him under his wing during the in-take process. It worked out much better than I would’ve expected as they fed off each other’s energy, he picked up things quickly, and quickly began connecting with the members. My not-so-new coach leveled-up during the intake process too which was very positive. This new coach is also pretty good at calisthenics so I encouraged him to put on a workshop so he can help our clients get a bar muscle up. He was really excited for the opportunity so I gave him some tasks that would get it all set up so we can market it to our members. His calisthenics workshop is scheduled for next Saturday, Jan 18th. Not too bad for officially starting his employment this past Monday, Jan 6th.

One of my weightlifting members heard through the grapevine that an experienced weightlifting coach from another gym was looking for new opportunities for work. Apparently she wasn’t getting enough hours in her current gym and it’s far from where she lives. I know this weightlifting coach too but I assumed she was busy and happy at her current gym. I decided to reach out to her and test the waters. Turns out she’s looking for greener pastures and was open to meeting with me in person. We really hit it off in our meeting and she was excited to hear about the opportunity (and the level of autonomy) I was providing for her to develop our adult weightlifting program. She accepted my offer two days after. She started Jan 6th as well and is already killing it with our members.

The start of 2025 is already a massive improvement from 2024. The energy level in the gym is high and each coach is happy doing what they love. I’m really excited for what lies ahead for all of the coaches on the team. KIN586 in particular this past 6-months has really helped me learn the importance of leading effectively using a combination of listening to each teammate’s core values, developing a shared set of core values, developing trust in each of my teammates, and providing opportunities for individual growth and development. Looking back over the past 11 years in my business I can confidently say that whenever I’m leading my teammates in a way that effectively supports their ability to thrive individually, everybody wins.