Staff Development: “Eliminate the Fear.”

Chris Millares
Vice President, Franchise Development
Amerikick Martial Arts
www.amerikick.com
chrismillares@amerikick.com

“Do the thing and you will have the power, act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I remember standing on the edge of the diving board of the Temple University swimming pool staring down into what seemed to be a vast, bottomless ocean.  I was 5 years old, nervous, scared and uncertain as I meticulously checked to make sure that the straps of my Mickey Mouse life vest were securely fastened.  A voice from the side of the pool was encouraging me, “It’s ok!  Don’t worry!  I’ll make sure you are safe!”  Those words, although reassuring, could not slow down the rate at which my heart was beating.  I stood tall and began to breathe deeply.  Once more, I looked down to the side of the pool and listened to the same words of encouragement, “It’s ok!  Don’t worry! I’ll make sure you are safe!”  My heart was beating even faster now.  A chill passed down my back as I took another deep breath. 

At that moment, I made a decision to take action on a goal that I had told my mom and dad just last week, “I am going to jump off of the big diving board into the deep end!”  One more deep breath and there it was.  I bent my knees, closed my eyes and jumped out into the unknown.  The drop felt like a mile before I hit the water.  My heart was still racing but instead feeling scared, I felt the thrill of exhilaration.  I quickly made it back to the surface, with the aid of my Mickey Mouse life vest, and hurried to meet the voice that was on the side of the pool.  I caught my breath, looked up and said, “Dad!  I did it!”  He replied, “Congratulations.  You accomplished a goal by overcoming your fear.”  Then I asked, “Can I do it again?”

Fear occurs as a result of a specific set of neural conditioning in the brain formed by past, present and perceived future experience.  In other words, the events in our life create fear.  It is learned!  “The economy is suffering.”  “We invested our entire advertising budget on a campaign that failed.”  “I don’t think I can afford a mortgage.”  “I had a bad experience on our vacation.  I’m nervous about going back there again.”  These are all fears (big and small) that people have and express.

The exciting part about fears is the fact that if they can be learned, they can be un-learned and redirected into waves of confidence.  The neural conditioning in our brain can be reformed and shaped to suit goals, desires, needs and wants.  Understanding this concept is important given the fact that most people have professional fears: elements of the work place that trigger nervousness, anxiety and hesitant action.  As leaders, school owners and managers it is imperative to recognize professional fears in your staff and systematically eliminate them through training and feedback.  Consider the following 2 examples. 

  1. You just hired a new instructor.  He is 21, loves the martial arts, is a respected competitor and a good teacher.  Up until now, he has been a student at the school.  One of his goals over the next 5 years is to open a school of his own.  You notice that after every class, however, he finds some type of excuse to go straight back to the office without speaking to any of the parents, answering questions or targeting any upgrade potentials (which is a key component of his job).
  1. There is list of 10 students who are potential upgrade candidates.  You ask one of your instructors on Monday to call each student on the list and present the Black Belt Club/ Leadership Team/ Masters Club.  It is now Thursday, your instructor is doing a great job at the school with one exception, he did not make his calls.

In the 2 examples listed above, each staff member chose not to take action in the face of fear.  “What if they say no?”  “What do they think of me?”  “I don’t know what to say!”  In any professional setting, especially in a relationship driven martial arts industry, this is going to happen.  As an employer, recognize it and take positive action to correct it.   

Below are 3 principles that stimulate confidence and eliminate the fear in your staff.

Repetition breeds familiarity, familiarity breeds confidence
Great martial arts teachers understand the importance of repetition.  They ask their students to perform specific techniques over and over.  They disguise the repetition to keep the technique exciting then press on until the technique is so ingrained in the student’s mind that it becomes second nature.  Even after this process, great instructors hold review classes, refresher courses and private lessons to ensure student success.  They understand (consciously and/or unconsciously) that repetition breeds familiarity and familiarity breeds confidence.  

In the same respect, our staff members need repetition in their professional development: handling parent objections, teaching a new form, phone techniques, presenting a black belt club upgrade, student/ parent interaction, recruiting new students.  Treat their development the same way you would a yellow belt student in your martial arts class.  Teach them the tools that it takes to succeed and practice repetitively during daily, weekly and monthly staff meetings.  Keep in mind some of the most powerful education concepts in the industry: trial and error (with feedback), role-play, networking, discussion and research.

Lastly, consider the following 2 questions.  “What would I do to ensure that a martial arts student in class succeeds when performing a specific technique?”  “Do I apply the same philosophy to developing my staff?”
  
Relate from the trenches
Successful martial arts school owners, managers and educators have many experiences to draw upon.  Most of these experiences are positive while others may have been negative.  There is a wealth of knowledge available for the purpose of developing your staff.  With this vast knowledge, the potential to relate to your staff members in a professional manner is endless.  This is key because human beings trust and have confidence in things that they can relate to.

A great tool for developing staff members is “relating from the trenches.”  In other words, a leader is able to provide a similar experience and how he overcame the challenge at hand.  For example, a staff member may be struggling on the phone promoting an upcoming event.  He may be stumbling over his words, communicating the wrong information, etc.  A martial arts professional “relates from the trenches” by saying something like, “When I first starting making calls I had a tough time.  I felt completely confident on the matt but once I picked up the phone I was insecure.  One of my managers suggested that I write a small script and rehearse it before making any calls.  This helped me tremendously.  Try it out.  Or better yet, let me show you how to do it.”

Sir Isaac Newton once said, “Stand on the shoulder of giants.”  Martial arts leaders are the giants and the staff members are standing on their shoulders.  

What’s does it mean to me?
Answering the question “what does it mean to me?” feeds the W.E.I.T. (whatever it takes) attitude in staff members and human beings in general.  It ignites a fire that propels staff to work towards achieving the goals of the school that ultimately boil down to 2 things: getting new students and keeping them.  Answering, “what does it mean to me?” completes both sides of an if/ then statement.  For example, “If our retention rate improves by ‘x %’ as compared to last year, then the staff bonus will be ‘$x.xx’.”  “If we enroll ‘x’ amount of students, then commission bonuses will increase by ‘x%.’”  “If our current active student count increases by ‘x’ number, then I’ll pay for front row tickets to you favorite…”

Answer “what does it mean to me?” for your staff, show them tangible examples of success and watch them ignore professional fears as if they did not exist.

Conclusion
The principles listed above are three simple tools to implement with your staff members.  They are ideas that only work if you apply them.  Take action, be consistent and motivate them to overcome their professional fears.  Do this enough and your staff will ask, as I did when I was a little kid, “Can I do it again?”       

Thanks Dad!