Holding out for a Hero

-  Kenny Harris -

We all have heroes. We all need heroes. And we can all BE heroes.

But what is a hero?

To me, a hero is someone to look up to; someone to inspire me – to jolt me out of my complacency. Someone to challenge me from thinking in the “same old, same old” ways.

I’ve learned something from each of my heroes. Each has given me a life lesson – no matter how unlikely the hero may be.

And if a hero is someone who inspires, who banishes complacency, who helps people learn life lessons, can’t we all be heroes?

Can’t YOU be a hero?

When someone puts themselves in your hands, they don’t want the “same old same old”, they want a hero.

They want someone who can help them achieve things they could never achieve on their own.

They want someone they can look up to; someone who can inspire them to go further, faster, higher.

Heroes don’t need to be playing for England (or Scotland, or anyone else). They don’t need to be famous. Let’s not confuse celebrity with heroism.

They just need to be truthful. And brave enough to do what they think is right. They could be in the news – but they could just as easily sitting in the office next to you. Or even sitting where you are.

Think about your colleagues, your staff and your clients. Do you inspire them to do extraordinary things? Do you challenge them to change the things they think they could achieve? Do you change the way they think? The way they feel? The way they act?

We can be challenged and inspired by the people around us. Every person can be a hero to someone.

If you can be that person, then you can be that hero.

Kenny Harris will be doing his highly entertaining seminar around heroes at the FIA Conference in Telford (July 13h). Don't miss it.

FIA Flame Conference – “Creating Connections – The Key to our future”

Wednesday July 13th at the Telford International Centre.

Click here to book your place now!

Band-Aids or Beliefs

             - Kris Tynan -

You’ll be familiar with the phrase, “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys” - which is a little unfair to the monkeys I have always thought.

There is some truth to this theory, but according to TED talker Simon Sinek (if you haven’t discovered Ted yet check out www.ted.cm) people don’t buy into what you do, they buy into what you believe, and money doesn’t come into it.

Does this have any relevance to the reason that we as an industry are often so bad at gym floor interaction?

Despite a collective nodding of heads when yet another piece of research produces a clear correlation between instructor interaction and improved retention, the situation seems to have got worse over the years.

Is this because talking to members is relegated to the too-hard basket?

Are we so concerned with short-term results (aka sales) that we haven’t got the vision to look ahead more than a year or two?

Or do we simply not have the confidence to commit the required resources to creating sustained cultural change in our gym floors?

Are we just looking for band-aids so we can say we ‘tick that box’ for this year at least, or does anyone out there genuinely believe that one way of improving the measly 12% market penetration we have right now is to look after the customers we already have?

I’ll be sharing a few interactive instructor insights with you at the conference in July.

FIA Flame Conference – “Creating Connections – The Key to our future”

Wednesday July 13th at the Telford International Centre.

Click here to book your place now!

Flame Finalists

- David Stalker -

I am delighted to announce that we now have our finalists confirmed for the FIA and Matrix Flame Awards and the competition is even hotter than ever!

With the Ball of Fire and Conference less than a month away, the team are busy booking industry colleagues onto the final few places. 

I have to say well done to everybody who submitted an award entry - there were some fantastic entries this year which demonstrate the level of work going on in

our industry.

With the two categories producing winners , ‘Outstanding’, which covers Future of Flame, Operators of the year and also Spark of Innovation Award (which discovers the newest and most innovative in the industry) and ‘Facility Management’ which recognises the best clubs and centres in the industry, the Ball of Fire is set to be a night to remember. For a full list of finalists see http://tinyurl.com/3nkn25z .

I look forward to revealing the results at the Ball of Fire (13^th July). If you haven’t already, book you place now!  http://www.fia.org.uk/diary_dates/events1/flame-2011.html ).

From Expert to Facilitator

- Fiona Cosgrove -

I recently attended a conference in Boston entitled Coaching in Leadership and Medicine.

The sessions intertwined theory from systems therapy, executive coaching, immunity to change models and ground breaking research in positivity.

The theme throughout was that a good coach needs to increase self-awareness in the client and help them to take responsibility for their own outcomes.

It matters not whether the objective is to increase productivity or decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, if the end result involves behavioural change (which becoming a regular exerciser does) then helping people to identify and eliminate psychological as well as physiological obstacles is essential.

The fitness industry is crying out for a new teaching model and if exercise professionals can just shift their mindset from being the expert to being the facilitator of change then wellness coaching may just be it.

Australian Fiona Cosgrove is a leading international wellness coach. She is presenting at the FIA Conference in Telford on Wednesday July 13th.

FIA Flame Conference – “Creating Connections – The Key to our future”
Wednesday July 13th at the Telford International Centre.
Click here to book your place now!

The Wellbeing Centre of the Future

- Tim Anstiss -

So, the Government has started to measure our happiness. They have come to the conclusion, reached earlier by many, that economic growth is one thing and the health and wellbeing of the citizens that voted them into power is another.

What makes politicians think they will be any better at improving citizen health and wellbeing than they have been at growing the economy? Well, there’s an emerging science of psychological wellbeing and human flourishing they find exciting and are seeking to apply.

So what do we know? That mental health is a positive thing, much more than the absence of mental illness. That mental health and wellbeing depends on the presence of key things: good relationships, feelings of mastery, competence and achievement, engagement in tasks and activities, the experience of positive emotions and a dose of meaning and purpose.

Over 60 years ago two doctors in South London developed the Pioneer Health Centre in Peckham; a true health centre, not a disease centre. They wanted to ‘create the right conditions for health to emerge’. It never made it into the NHS.

About 10 years ago I shared with a major high street chemist, my ideas for a modern wellbeing and wellness centre. They didn’t quite get it, and chose to sell vitamins and the like.

So, what will the wellbeing centre of the future look and feel like? How will it differ from the modern health and fitness centre? Come to the Flame Conference and find out.

FIA Flame Conference – “Creating Connections – The Key to our future”
Wednesday July 13th at the Telford International Centre.
Click here to book your place now!

How Agile is your business?

- Paul Sloane -

Many leaders of small firms focus on making their business work efficiently and on delivering high-quality customer service. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these objectives. They are both essential aims. However, if they lead to rigidity and the exclusion of variation then they can undermine the key advantage that small businesses have over large businesses - agility.

If you run a small business then your large competitors can outspend you. They have more resources than you do. But they cannot move as quickly as you can. The great thing about running a small business is that you can have a new idea today, try it tomorrow and see the customer reaction the next day. If it works you can reinforce and develop it. If it does not work then you can adapt it or drop it. You can introduce innovations in products, services, messages and methods more quickly and more easily than your larger competitors. Typically they have to go through layers of committees and approvals before they can bring a new concept to market.

So by all means focus on efficiency, customer service, operational excellence and so on. Make the current business model work better. But at the same time allocate some time, money and people to experiment, try some wacky ideas and quickly gauge customer reaction to them. You should try several new ideas every month. Many might flop but that does not matter. Some will have a small benefit and should be retained. But if you keep doing this then every so often you will hit a home run - a really great and novel idea that customers love. That then is your opportunity to really accelerate the growth of your business by seizing a new market opportunity.

Here are some ways to increase your agility:

1. Set a target for the number of new initiatives you want to try over the next 12 months
2. Ask your staff, your customers and your suppliers for ideas to improve your product or service
3. Run regular brainstorm meetings with specific objectives relating to innovation
4. Allocate a small budget for prototypes and experiments
5. Give people time and space to innovate - empower them to try new things.
6. Celebrate success, learn from failure, punish in action

Paul Sloane is presenting at the FIA Conference in Telford on July 13th. For more information on Paul's work visit www.destination-innovation.com

FIA Flame Conference – “Creating Connections – The Key to our future”
Wednesday July 13th at the Telford International Centre.
Click here to book your place now!

If you don’t like change you’ll like irrelevance even less…

- Tim Webster -

Welcome to the Flame Conference Blog for 2011. Over the coming months you will hear from a number of conference speakers on a bunch of issues that currently face our industry and many others. Here’s your starter for ten:

Two or three years ago we were all salivating at the prospect of major government initiatives around activity and obesity and the impact that the Olympics would have on the nation’s desire to exercise.

Here’s a reality check: The Olympics will be great and the opportunities from the Responsibility Deal and the part we are playing in the governments physical activity initiatives are exciting, but we can’t rely on them alone to jump-start the industry. What will help to attract more than one in ten people in the UK is a significant rethink by operators around what it is that the consumer wants and how we can package it in a way that appeals to them.

Let’s look at this through the eyes of the customer:

• Make me feel important and I’ll love you forever.
• Get the results you promised me and I’ll recommend you to all my friends too.
• Connect with me online and I’ll think of you every day.
• Educate me about how to live healthily and you’ll hook me for life.
• Coach me and I’ll work my butt off for you (literally).
• Inspire me and I’ll do things that neither you nor I ever thought I was capable of.
• Entertain me and I might even enjoy working out one day.

But don’t sit on your complacent collective bottoms, palm me off with the same old stuff you’ve been doing for the last twenty years and expect me to pay you 50 quid a month for the privilege.

I want to get fit, I want to lose a little weight and I want to join your gyms. You have a great product that I would like to be a part of, but you need to understand that I’m in the driving seat now and I will exercise on my terms not yours.

FIA Flame Conference – “Creating Connections – The Key to our future”

Wednesday July 13th at the Telford International Centre.

Click here to book your place now!