It’s awesome to have studio
celebrities on your team that
pack out every class. But how
can you define their ‘X factor’,
and what can you do with those
who don’t appear to possess it?
WORDS: CAROLINE HYNES
s a group fitness coordinator, my
role is to continually create a high
performing team and culture that
makes group fitness shine from the inside
out. I believe there are two components to
success when it comes to group fitness:
amazing programs and, more importantly,
amazing instructors. I recently reviewed my
own skills and those of my instructors in an
attempt to better understand the types of
players that make up a group fitness team
and their impact on overall team performance.
It became clear that my team possessed
a variety of skills and personal attributes. It
was made up of:
1. Instructors who had amazing
knowledge, with some even being
qualified PTs
2. Instructors who were reliable team
players willing to step in and lend a hand
to their team mates whenever needed
3. Instructors who were conscientious and
took pride in the package they
presented both in and out of their
classes through preparation,
presentation, and active interaction with
the team both on and off the job
4. Instructors who were visionaries,
challenging the norm and providing
ideas to further the development of the
team and the programming
5. Instructors who really wanted to connect
with people and who used their classes
and their environment to do this. These
ones could usually be found chatting with
the staff and members after the class.
After giving myself a high five for creating
such a well-rounded team on paper, I had
to face the fact that, actually, it still wasn’t
performing as well as it could be. It was clear
that although there was a good mix of team
players onboard, there were big variations in
the class numbers they achieved.
It appeared that there were some
instructors on my team who, despite not
having the entire list of desired skills and
attributes, had that something… extra; that
something that made participants flock to
their classes regardless of their skill or style
of program they taught.
I understood that people just ‘liked’ them,
and I also knew that they were the types
of people who could really bring home the
A
GX SKILLS
THE GROUP X FACTOR
NETWORK SPRING 2016 | 31