| Friend,
Burnout sucks.
And I'll be the first to tell you that, after 30 years in the martial arts, there are times when I get sick of the dojo.
Of course, there are always ways to inject new excitement into your own training.
When I get bored with my training routine, I'll usually change where I'm training at (like take my training outdoors), find new training partners (people who can show me new things), or simply start learning something new.
But what do you do when you're sick and tired of teaching classes?
Now, I know there are people who are going to read this and say, "What the heck, Mike... how can you ever get sick of doing your dream job?"
Well, believe me, it will happen at some point in your career as a martial arts instructor and school owner. Unfortunately, it is the nature of our business to have A LOT of routine and repetition in our work.
And that can get old, fast.
Years ago when I took a Myers-Briggs personality test I discovered that I require a lot of fresh stimuli and variety to keep me interested in my work.
So as you can imagine, after about ten years of teaching front stance and low block to white belts, I got pretty darned bored.
Because of my tendency to lose interest in things that are routine, I've developed several strategies to keep myself motivated and interested in teaching martial arts.
I'm going to share those with you over the next couple of emails. And while they might seem pretty basic and intuitive, believe me - they work!
So, here's the first way I found to keep myself motivated when I was facing burnout as a martial arts instructor...
DELEGATE!
I am horrible at delegation - just awful at it. Because of a strong perfectionistic streak, I prefer to do everything myself.
This is a TERRIBLE habit to have as a martial art school owner (or any kind of business owner, for that matter). Trying to do everything yourself is a sure way to: - Overwork yourself and burn out quickly...
- Overextend yourself, diluting your effectiveness...
- Ensure that your school's growth is limited to 75 to 100 students, max...
In short, learning to delegate tasks is the first thing you need to do to avoid burnout.
And, it's something you need to do early on in order to ensure that you are able to stay fresh, focused, and motivated to show up and teach awesome classes, each and every day.
Start training your replacements now if you haven't started already. If you're running a school solo, I always suggest finding someone to replace you in the office first, because you can't be in two places at once.
Then, find someone you can train as an assistant to take over about half your teaching schedule each week. I like to make sure I teach at least one class for every age and belt level every week, to keep my finger on the pulse of my school.
So, I like to teach half the classes each week and let an assistant teach the other half. And, we switch which classes we teach at random intervals (this keeps your students on their toes!)
(Note: I explain all this in detail in Small Dojo Big Profits, and also in the member course material at MAbizU.com).
This is the first step you need to take to avoid burnout, and I suggest you start working on it as soon as you can afford to hire help around your school.
Incidentally, delegating and training people to replace you is also a prerequisite to the next step in preventing burnout, which I'm going to talk about in tomorrow's email...
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
P.S. - Often instructors are afraid to train an assistant, because they've heard horror stories about assistant instructors breaking off and starting their own studios, taking half the school's students with them...
So, I suggest hiring people who are NOT entrepreneurially motivated. I also suggest that you let your staff members know from the very beginning that if they ever want to start their own martial art studio, you will help them make that happen. That way, you can avoid ever developing an adversarial relationship with your staff members.
P.S.S. - Yes, you can use non-compete agreements, but they are notoriously difficult to enforce in court, and the validity of such agreements varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Be sure to speak with an experienced local business attorney about such matters, and have them draft your non-compete agreement if you choose to use one.
P.S.S.S. - Also, remember that loyalty has a lot to do with keeping people happy. Treat your employees well, and you'll likely avoid ever being in the position where you've trained your own competitors. |
