How to Keep Your Yoga Studio Staff Motivated and Happy
As a business owner, one of your biggest assets is your team of yoga studio staff. Now that your establishment is open and you’ve seen your dreams come to life before your eyes, it’s time to turn your attention to your employees.
Your yoga studio staff are the backbones of your business. Not only are they teachers and administrators, they are also a representation of you and what your studio stands for. With that in mind, it’s important to equip your staff with all the tools they need to do their jobs properly and to keep them motivated.
Understanding your staff is just as important as understanding your customers because they are working for you. Their feelings about their job or their life can spill into their performance, so it’s important to stay informed.
Your team may have started off motivated and engaged, but perhaps over time they have lost their excitement. So what exactly does your staff need to be able to do their job and stay motivated?
Encourage Them
It’s important that your yoga studio staff receive positive reinforcement. When they do a good job or take initiative, make sure to let them know you appreciate their efforts!
Some business owners only call in their staff to tell them when they’ve done something wrong, and that’s a big a mistake. Everyone likes to be appreciated, and something as simple as a “thank you!” can go a long way to keeping your yoga studio staff motivated to work even harder.
When your staff members know that you appreciate them, you’ll find that they will continue to work hard.
Positive encouragement goes beyond simply congratulating a job well done, it can be applied when they make mistakes too.
For example, if an employee accidentally informs a client of the wrong information, don’t scold them. Let them know you appreciate their eagerness to help the client and encourage them to double check information next time.
Being a good boss doesn’t mean you can’t point out your staff’s shortcomings, it means doing so with sensibility.
On top it all, once in a while, show your yoga studio staff you appreciate their hard work with small gifts. Whether that is a thank-you card or a staff picnic, sometimes all it takes is a small gesture to show your employees you care.
Celebrate a Job Well Done
A poor manager acts as if their staff are nothing more than people they pay to fulfill a service, and that any staff who goes above and beyond is simply doing their job. An OK manager expects greatness from their staff, but does nothing to hinder or encourage it. A great manager is thankful for the staff they have, and know that the way to encourage brilliant performance is to celebrate their employees.
What kind of manager do you want to be?
Most managers know that hard work pays off, but why not show your staff how much it pays off by celebrating victories. If you own a small company, and you can’t afford to give your hardworking employee(s) a bonus or a vacation, why not buy them flowers and chocolates or treat them to a spa day? Every expression of gratitude, whether big or small, is appreciated!
When you let your staff know that you recognize their hard work and want to celebrate it with them, they will be motivated to keep doing the work that led them to be celebrated in the first place!
Be Open to New Ideas
Part of owning a business is understanding that you may not have all the answers (and hiring the ones that do).
Having an open-door policy for employees to come in with questions, concerns, or ideas, lets your staff know that their voice matters to you. The result of leaving the lines of communication open between you and your staff is that they become comfortable around you, knowing that they have a voice and they can use it.
You can also set up an anonymous electronic questionnaire, where your staff can share their opinions on how the studio is run, their thoughts on management, and what they would like to see change.
Once your staff sees you value their input, they’ll be more inclined to work harder for you.
Let Your Staff to do Things Their Way
As much as you know about starting a business and being successful at running one, you may not know everything.
We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, and what we know may be taught or it may come naturally to us. However, you must know that a good leader delegates: you can’t honestly expect to see any positive result from doing everything your own way. When you assign tasks to members of your team, you have to trust that every assignment is in capable hands.
Since it’s your business, you will probably have the final say in most decisions. But, when it comes to the day-to-day operations such as servicing clients or tracking inventory or setting up a marketing plan, maybe it’s time to trust your team to take care of that.
People value autonomy: we all desire to have a sense of authority in our jobs in order to feel like we’re important. A lack of agency at work, including feeling like you have to get the managers approval for absolutely everything, is a quick way to send your employee’s morale straight to the ground.
Remember that trust is key: don’t be that manager who micromanages your staff and breathes down their necks. You hired your staff and instructors for a reason! If you’re confident enough that you gave them all the knowledge and the tools that they need to do their job effectively, then it’s your job to trust them enough to apply what you gave them.
Get to Know Your Staff Personally
As you must know, all of your employees are very different people. Their values are different, and the things that they want to achieve in their career and in their lives are dependent on the individual.
On top of that, your staff are in different phases of life: some staff are married, some have children, some are single, and generally, your staff will be at different levels of seniority within your company too. Make sure that you know what motivates your staff, get to the heart of their values, and care about the things that matter to them.
So, with that in mind, it’s important to offer a solution that meets everyone’s needs. Regular check-ins are a great way to ensure that your staff members are still excited about coming in to work. It also helps ensure that staff members are voicing any opinions or concerns with corporate rules and company culture.
It is so important to spend individual time with each member of your team in order to get to know them better and understand how their career goals fit with your company. So spend at least 30 minutes with each staff member when they first join your team, and ask them questions to gain that understanding. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- What is your greatest hope in life?
- What has been the greatest lesson that you’ve learned in life up to this point?
- Who is your greatest source of support?
- What is one big thing that you want to accomplish in your career? How can we help you get there?
- What can we as a company do for you, going forward, to keep you feeling supported, encouraged, excited, passionate, and valued?
The goal of these questions is to understand your employees professionally and personally, because understanding your employees on all levels really makes a difference.
Invest in Your Space
Studies show that the space your employees work in has an impact on their mood, energy, concentration, and sense of well-being.
Creating a safe and inspirational work space for your yoga studio staff is another key factor in keeping them happy and healthy. As a yoga studio owner, you know that having a space that relaxes, stimulates, and engages your students is a necessity in the wellness business. But, aside from your clients, did you consider how much your staff need that kind of a space too?
Because your staff spend a good portion of their lives at your yoga studio, cultivating a welcoming and cozy atmosphere is essential. This tells your team you care about their comfort and well being.
Be Transparent
If you have staff who are under the impression that things are great when things are far from perfect, then you have a problem. Whether you’re losing money every month or whether you’re just not reaching those sales targets that you need to meet in order to stay in business, it’s important to keep staff informed about the status of your studio and what they can do to help. So when you’re running the numbers, it might be a good idea to let key members of your team in on it.
Knowing the numbers can truly motivate your staff to improve sales and it also makes them feel like they have a stake in the company. Additionally, your staff also has a stake in the success of your business. They have to pay their rent or their mortgage, they have to eat, and they have to live. Chances are, they don’t want to go looking for a new job because they don’t want to lose the job that they have with you. So, be transparent about the status of your studio so that your staff can fight for the success of your business with you.
Offer Opportunities for Growth
We all want to grow and have the best of everything in all areas of our lives. Whether that is with our finances, where we live, and who we live with. And feeling like they’re stuck at a dead-end job, where there is no opportunity or ability to grow as a person or in their career, will leave your employees feeling suffocated and looking for a way out.
So, to combat this, why not start an employee development and mentorship program? Mentor your employees by giving them a glimpse of what it looks like and means to be a manager every day. Or how about offering instructor-training at your studio to your front desk staff who may be interested in becoming a teacher one day?
Giving your staff the opportunity to learn and grow is something that your staff would treasure. And if your company doesn’t have the infrastructure to offer this kind of training, go ahead and send your employee to a program outside of your company that does. Investing in willing employees is like an insurance policy for you, as it ensures that all of the high-potential employees that you have at your company are being trained to become even more of an asset to you in the future.
At the End of the Day
We all want to come to work to a job we love. Follow these tips to motivate your yoga studio staff and get them excited about working with you!
Looking for a system to help you and your staff run your day-to-day operations? Check out WellnessLiving’s all-in-one yoga studio software. From easy online booking, to staff and student schedule management, to a rewards program, and so much more, WellnessLiving has it all. Book a free, no-commitment demo today!
