One of my favorite leadership books of all time is The 5 Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell. It’s the simplest step-by-step formula I’ve found for understanding how to grow as a leader.
Today I wanted to talk about how it applies to being a Gym Owner.
Some gym owners truly have a good culture and amazing product. If they stay consistent for months and years they will build a million dollar gym.
And others often think they need a magic bullet like more leads or a new system and everything will be fixed. But they often are missing leadership skills.
Maybe they let their team walk all over them.
Maybe they need to lead themselves and raise their prices.
Maybe they need to spend more time getting clear on their vision.
This is the “unsexy” stuff that most entrepreneurs avoid because it’s not a quick hit of dopamine like coaching a session or making a sale. It’s the long term work that must be done for a business to thrive over the next 10 years.
The 5 Levels of Leadership is a great way to check yourself as a leader.
LEVEL 1: POSITION
You are the Gym Owner. People treat you differently because you own the place and your team does what you say because you’re “the boss”. This is the lowest and weakest form of leadership. If you are telling people what to do everyday, then you are stuck right here. If they can’t solve problems on their own, you are stuck here.
LEVEL 2: PERMISSION
The second level requires you to build a relationship. To get below the “job title” and get to know the person on a deeper level. What are their goals? What are their dreams? What do they do on the weekends? Why are they passionate about health and fitness? If you hire someone and throw them into a job without getting to know them, then take some time to build a relationship with that team member. Take them out for coffee. Get a workout together. Know who they are, what they like, what they don’t like. That way you can step up to Level 2 and be a better leader to them.
LEVEL 3: PRODUCTION
This is when your team really starts to shine. As driven entrepreneurs, it’s easy to skip level 2 and go from level 1 (welcome to the team) to level 3 (get to work and start producing). John Maxwell clearly states you cannot skip steps. You must do them in order. Once the relationship is built, now people are more bought into you and want to produce for you. Coaches start getting clients amazing results, sales people sell their faces off and managers drive culture and profits. People want to produce because they believe in you and the mission.
LEVEL 4: PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
This level is about reproduction. No, I’m talking about baby-making reproduction. 👶I’m talking about reproducing yourself by building up other leaders. You are replacing yourself. Things get really exciting when your team is equivalent to you or even better than you. That’s what Level 4 is all about. It’s about leaders creating leaders. A company will get stagnant without a strong bench of leaders. That means you have to “let go” of seats you currently hold to create upward mobility and opportunities for your team.
LEVEL 5: PINNACLE
This is not something I’m going to go deep into because it takes DECADES to achieve. The pinnacle of the 5 Levels of Leadership is where you have built a legacy. You are well known in the industry. You have impacted countless lives. You have consistently shown up for others. You have a history of building leaders. Again, don’t focus too much on this level because it’s what naturally comes over time.
I hope this brief overview of the 5 Levels of Leadership was helpful for you as a Gym Owner. If you haven’t read this book, I urge you to and talk about it with your team. Talk about where you are strong and where you can improve. If you are developing a leader, make this their leadership bible. It’s a book I revisit every year and still get takeaways from it.
