Aesop, sixth century B.C
A lone lion wanders into a field of four oxen. Many times he has found his way to this particular group of oxen but has never come away with the spoils of meat for the pride. These Oxen have formed a bond that is hinged on survival and the groundwork for this survival is in the Oxen’s biology.
When the Lion would approach all the Oxen had to do was make sure each of their tails where in contact. In this formation the lion would be met with horns from any angle. The oxen knew that survival depended on the group as a unit.
On the occasion that the Oxen where separated in 4 corners of the field the Lion took them down 1 by 1 and t thus the demise of the Oxen.
Similar in concept is a different animal, Humans. Sparta was like no other force in ancient Greece as its entire focus was military training and excellence. Its inhabitants included Spartiates (born and raised in Sparta) and Mothakes (non Spartan free men raised as Spartans). Spartan women enjoyed status, power and respect that were unknown to the rest of the world. If it wasn’t for the freedom and power the Spartan women had, Sparta would have fell to the Persians but a coded messaged was deciphered by the Queen of Sparta allowing enough time for their forces to get in position.
The Spartan army was the most successful for one reason and one reason only. Your only goal as a Spartan warrior was to protect the person to your left. Thus the force was impenetrable. No one on the Spartan army fought for them, they fought for there brothers and every Spartan would die for the person on their left. Leonidas the most notable of the Spartan leaders was highly respected and had many men willing to die for him, why? Because he lead from the front! He was the first into battle but the last to eat. Every Spartan knew that they were as important as the next warrior and where being led by a figure fighting for more than man.
Are you following a leader by choice or by rank? The person you answer to, is it because you have to or because you want to?
In your team, organization or business do you feel that you have freedom to be creative? Or if you go outside of the system/rules management will punish you? These are some fundamental questions that you need to ask yourself to assess if your in a position to do your best or are you limited by micromanagers and stringent systems?
Your in a world where no matter what business or trade you are in there are other business that would be happy to see you close or to take your clients/customers. Its nothing in particular about you, its just the way it is.
When you have so much danger outside of the business or team the others ready to pounce when you make one mistake.
Here is a strategy you need to employ if you want to thrive in any external environment. As the leader you need to eliminate all dangers within the organization so everyone inside your circle can operate at full capacity without feeling like they are being scrutinized. This requires the leader to show the team he is willing to sacrifice whatever he/she needs to for the team and to lead on the front lines, not from the back away from danger much like Leonidas and the team of Spartans. Once you have TRUST throughout your business/team will thrive. They will give feedback, ideas, work harder, have more fun, arrive early, leave late and the best part is they will look out for the person next to them because your all in it together.
Perspective
The primary reasons the majority of commercial gym personal trainers pull the pin on their business is because they don’t feel protected from management. They are locked into a rental system and thrown in the deep end. Approaching another trainer’s client is classified, as high treason and the punishment will be a public hanging. The only time you will see someone being mentored is when he or she is taking 50% of a young trainers income.
What if there was no rental system and you only pay 10$ per hour you use the gym, when you go on holidays you don’t pay anything but your clients can be covered by someone else awaiting your return? You will be held accountable for teaching something new to everyone every week to help yourself and team develop together. You will be allocated a primary role in the business that is completely yours to develop with 100% trust. Imagine the amount of trainers applying; imagine the atmosphere in the gym…sounds to good to be true right?
Skills and capabilities or tools of the trade may be part of the job and the more you can develop these the better but they are not what makes a trainer effective. Although you will need those skills they are not required to create an internal environment with so much force that everyone who walks the door has no option but to succeed. The ability of people to do remarkable things rests on the ability of people to pull together, look after each other and walk together.
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