Pilates Business Podcast

Stop Micromanaging: The Leadership Shift That Frees Up 8 Hours a Week

• Seran Glanfield • Season 24 • Episode 232

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On this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield tackles one of the biggest growth blockers for boutique fitness studio owners — micromanagement. If you find yourself redoing your team’s work, fixing small mistakes, or thinking “it’s faster if I just do it myself,” you might be keeping your Pilates studio stuck and draining your own energy.

Seran shares why stepping into true leadership is the key to building a profitable Pilates business that runs smoothly without you putting out constant fires. You’ll discover the systems, training strategies, and mindset shifts that allow you to let go of the day-to-day details, empower your team, and open up space to think, plan, and grow. Whether you run a Pilates studio, barre business, or boutique fitness brand, these insights will help you create the freedom and stability you’ve been craving.


Ready to step into your CEO role and build a studio that runs like a well-oiled machine?
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Speaker 1:

Are you constantly double-checking your team's work, fixing mistakes, or thinking I'm just gonna do it myself later? It's probably faster? Well, here's the truth. That's not leadership. It's more like micromanagement, and it's probably slowly draining your time, your energy and, for sure, your growth. So in today's episode of the Pilates Business Podcast, I'm flipping the script, because if you want a studio that runs without you constantly putting out fires, you need to stop managing every tiny little detail and start becoming the leader that your studio really needs you to be. So let's talk about how to step out of the weeds and into the CEO role your business has been waiting for. Well, hi there, I'm Saren Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real-life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio.

Speaker 1:

This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Hey there, friends, welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm so excited that you're here with me today. So much to dive into in today's episode. I think it's probably long overdue, that we talked about leadership, and I know that if you are like the studio owners that I very fortunately get to work with and speak to every single week, this episode might hit a little bit close to home, I know. As I kind of put the outline for this episode together, I was thinking to myself, hmm, I might need to take some of my own advice here a little bit, and so it is something that I think is we all, you know, I think comes up for many of us, and for sure I am in the same boat as many of you guys listening in, and if the reality is that you are teaching a lot, you're teaching maybe a full schedule, maybe beyond a full schedule, maybe you're managing your team, maybe you're answering emails, messages, texts, might also be folding towels, putting away all the supplies, coordinating maintenance and cleaning and the access to the Wi-Fi and the phone lines and everything else. You're also perhaps your marketing manager too, sending out emails, content for social media, all of the above right, and it's so much.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot involved in building and growing a boutique fitness studio business, and when something doesn't go right as it inevitably doesn't, perhaps more often than we'd like to think you probably swoop in and fix it because it's faster, and this is what I am also guilty of as well. You guys for sure I know that the members of my team will say I want to take that off your plate, and I'm like, yeah, no, it's fine, I got it, I got it. But the reality is that you know, if you're like me, you kind of want to get things done right and you want to see things fixed and moving forward, and all of that happened as quickly as possible, and sometimes we often, you know allow ourselves to believe that it'll be quicker if we do it ourselves. So perhaps you're the one who is rewriting the schedule three times, perhaps you're the one who is rewriting the training manual three times, perhaps you're even rewriting your email marketing campaigns three times, because maybe you don't trust someone else to do it, maybe you feel like it's faster if you do it, maybe you just don't feel like you have time to train someone else, and so I completely understand it. But I want to share with you a few things that might help you to get out of that kind of deep dark hole, because it's probably keeping you stuck. And I get it, you care a lot. You want things done well. You have high standards I know you do but that level of micromanagement isn't helping growth at all. It's actually keeping you stuck where you are.

Speaker 1:

You perhaps like me, sometimes the bottleneck is you in the business, and it's a horrible, horrible realization to come to, but it's also probably burning you out right, and it's training your team not to think for themselves, and it's probably holding your studio back from reaching the full potential of its growth as well. So I want to talk a little bit more about this with you, because it's something I've seen come up over and over again over the years that I've been coaching and consulting studio owners and alongside studio owners, and something that I think, like I said, is easy. It's a trap that we can often fall into, especially when there's a lot going on and you're asking perhaps your team of a lot already, and so what I've learned is that we do have to, from time to time, take a step back and see through the trees right and see where we might be able to perhaps make some changes that facilitate more growth, and sometimes just sometimes that is down to the way that we manage our time and our energy as well, because I firmly believe that there is most certainly a version of your business where your operations are smooth, where your clients are happy and where you have time to think, to plan, to breathe and, of course, to move your own bodies as well. And I think that when it comes to this type of situation that comes up and I think it's something that you know doesn't necessarily just get fixed and goes away. It's something that comes and goes sometimes in business. It's not a personality flaw, it's at all. Actually, it's just a little bit of a symptom of perhaps a lot happening in your business and your life. And I think a lot of folks tend to think that, you know, I'm just type A, I'm a perfectionist or I like to be in control, or we sort of put it down to a personality or a character trait. Right, but it's not really.

Speaker 1:

Actually it comes down to a couple, I think, probably two things One is perhaps a lack of trust in the team around you, which often is down to perhaps a lack of training, and number two is perhaps the lack of systems in your business. So if you perhaps don't feel as though your team will be able to do some things that you do in your business as well as you do them is probably because they have never been shown how and I know that I'm guilty of this. I know there's a lot that happens behind the scenes at Spring 3 that I have been doing for years or that have been happening for years, and as I hire a new team member, I do train them. We do take the time, obviously, to train our team members, but there are certainly some things that get missed for sure, as probably happens in your business too. Some things that may have sort of happened in the past that so clients that have gone and come back, or specific pricing packages that you only allow for certain people, or certain ways that you're certain ways that certain teachers teach in your studio right that they. There are things that perhaps only you know, and that's totally to be sort of accepted, given that you are the founder and the leader of your business.

Speaker 1:

But oftentimes, if you're finding yourself to be the bottleneck because you don't feel like you can hand things off, because you know that the people around you don't know how to do something, then that truly probably is the problem right, that your team simply hasn't been shown how to do something. Right, and so you get stuck in this loop of redoing things, or perhaps, if there's no system in place, you're reminding or reviewing, you're starting from scratch every single time, right, and the reality is is that if you find yourself in this place, you cannot grow your business because your time and energy and effort is stuck doing some of these tasks or handling some of these things that you know no one else can do, and no one else can also grow your business because they are not the leader of your business. So if your business can't run without you micromanaging many, many parts of it, then what you've probably done is you've created a job for yourself, not a business, and that job is feels like a job and it's probably taking a lot of time, energy and effort because you're not enjoying some of the. I should say. What is the fulfillment that comes when you are experiencing growth and taking action and making decisions and driving your business forward? Yeah, and so it's not about just sucking it up and doing more, but it's about letting go, actually in the right way, of some of these things, and when. I think awareness is the first thing, and then it's about deciding how you can delegate to your team, about how you can put systems and processes in place inside of your business that helps your team around you to take some of the responsibility and tasks ideally off of your shoulders, off of your plate, off of your schedule, so that you can open up not just your time but also your energy and focus for what comes next.

Speaker 1:

Right Now, leadership it always starts with clarity, right, and so once we've got some things off of our plate right, that gives you a lot more perhaps space mentally to think about what's next, and a lot of people think that being a good leader is about just being naturally inspiring or motivational right, but there is a little bit of research here that tells a bit of a different story, actually. So there was a report by McKinsey who's a global management consultancy firm from 2023, so not that long ago found that some of the best performing teams weren't necessarily led by bosses that were charismatic, but they were led by bosses who were clear and transparent and open and upfront, so they were able to set clear expectations, they were able to set clear roles and responsibilities for their team and they were also able to give set clear roles and responsibilities for their team, and they were also able to give very clear direction and feedback to their team. And this often kind of ties back into what I was mentioning a moment ago about the importance of perhaps training your team, because if your team is not aware that they need to be doing something, it might be down to a clarity around their role. It might be down to clarity around within your communication style, and if people are coming back to you asking questions, or if people are coming back to you because things haven't been done the way that you want, or perhaps even that's the reason why you find yourself doing some of these tasks, then perhaps the question to ask is have I made it clear what success looks like for them in this role? Do we have a process in place that guides them towards that point of what success looks like? So that's really kind of an important question, because far too often, especially in the sort of early days of growing a team, we often sort of training a team kind of becomes sort of this on-the-go kind of thing, on-the-job thing, and there's not a lot of structure there, and that's fine.

Speaker 1:

At some point, though, the structure is really important, right. So structure around what looks good, what looks like a completed task, what looks like a good result, for success at your front desk, for client follow-ups, for teaching a particular class in the studio, right, and what happens is the clearer that you can be about what those successes are, about those outcomes, then the clearer your team will be about what's expected of them as well, and that clarity creates confidence that they know what they're doing, and that confidence means that they don't need micromanaging right Now. These sorts of scenarios don't happen overnight. They do often take a little bit of reflection about what's in place right now, what might be missing, and as well as perhaps a little bit of work on the way that you communicate and again, like I said, some of these systems and processes that might need to be implemented, which requires you to perhaps get some clarity around what it is that you really want from your team. And that's kind of the starting point and that's often where we spend a lot of time talking things through inside of our Thrive strategy calls.

Speaker 1:

Now, systems are important. I mentioned already processes, procedures. We call them sops, standard operating procedures. These are absolutely fundamental and critical to the success of every single business. Um, I think one of many books, um, in sort of in entrepreneurial world, talk about the importance of systems, and you know my philosophy around business, especially your business, is that it runs like a well-oiled machine. Right, so that you're not constantly putting out fires, that not every day you're starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel. I want to see you build a business that is built on rock solid systems and foundations. Right, and this is so important because when you don't have processes in place, what often happens is that you become the fallback for the entire system, right? Which means, I guess, what I'm trying to say is that everything flows through you, and boy oh boy is that exhausting, right? But when you have some systems in place and these do not need to be complicated or complex, they can be simple, straightforward, step-by-step procedures your business will be able to run without your constant oversight, micromanaging and supervision. So what that means is that there will be some parts of your business that, yes, only you can do, but there are many parts of your business that other people can be responsible for. Okay, so there'll.

Speaker 1:

I'm just going to give you a couple of examples, okay, the first one that I think every studio can very easily implement is a checklist for opening the studio and a checklist for closing the studio. This is super simple. Every studio should have one. Everyone in your studio should be aware of it. Very simple to follow and very simple to put together. Okay, perhaps you also want to have an email template that is created for your front desk to share with people who are inquiring via email or via direct message or via text message or via chat right, and this is something where you can create some example responses that your front desk team can use straight out of the box, or something that you can use to train them on appropriate responses in your brand and brand tone.

Speaker 1:

Now, inside of Thrive, we give a whole list of different processes and procedures, as well as templates for what those processes and procedures look like in your studio, so you don't have to start from scratch, because what I know is that the sooner that you can put these systems into place, the faster you can open up your world to more time and to more energy. So these things might seem small, but what they allow is feed the people around you to do their job without you following up, chasing and texting every five minutes, and what we know from another recent study is that leaders who delegate effectively through systems save almost eight hours per week, so that's an entire day back in your week. So we know systems create freedom for you and for your team, which we love, right? And this is where I want to see you get to, where you have systems in place for getting clients, for retaining clients and for all the things that happen behind the scenes. And that's why, inside Thrive, we focus on these three pillars inside of your business and we focus on different systems within each of those pillars to streamline every single part of your business.

Speaker 1:

Now this is where we move to think about a little bit more about how you, as the leader of your business, can really shift from the person who is in sort of the doing and the day-to-day to being the leader, and this is sort of a shift from micromanaging to, perhaps, that leadership role. And I know how tempting it is. I already shared with you you know that I'm not perfect by any means when it comes to all of this, because it is so tempting just to handle it. And if you are one of those people who just likes to get stuff done, that you're not. You're an action taker. You are a fast, quick action taker.

Speaker 1:

You make decisions quickly, you move forward quickly then it can be often challenging for a team to keep up with you, honestly, but it also is important for you to know when you're doing that and when you can actually perhaps put things and delegate those things, because you know, we want to make sure that you're not training your team to always be dependent on you. You don't want to be the machine that gives all the answers. You want to be the team that facilitates your sorry, you want to be the manager that facilitates your team to be able to find the answers on their own right. So you know you don't. You know, just like when you're teaching, right, you're not ever moving your client's body for them, right? You're cuing them, you're guiding them, you're actually really. What you're doing is you're empowering them to move and move better.

Speaker 1:

And leadership is the same. It's about supporting your team and it's also a little bit about coaching them into a place that they feel confident, that they have the skills or the knowledge to make a decision right, rather than you know them, perhaps just running back to you every time something small comes up, right. So perhaps next time someone comes to you with a problem, you know, perhaps instead of defaulting to, I'm just going to take care of it. Right, I'll take care of it, I'll fix that, I'll do this right. Then try, you know, responding back to that person with a hmm, what do you think the next step is, or what do you think that should happen next, and encourage your team to perhaps be less dependent on you in that moment and more, perhaps, responsible for that next step, because once we start to incorporate these types of conversations with our team, you are then enabling them to perhaps go further down that problem-solving path before they bring you into the conversation, and so they don't just solve the issue.

Speaker 1:

These questions don't just solve the issue. They help to grow your team as well. Right, because it's all very well if we as the leader, or you as the leader, is expanding and growing and looking for ways to perhaps delegate, but we also have to bring the team up around us and so helping them to assess and to think more critically, to think more in a problem-solving way, to give them boundaries and guidelines around, where perhaps you can give them back that responsibility to proceed, you kind of wake. You can give them back that responsibility to proceed to pursue a solution to the problem, then you're going to grow your team's capability as well, and over time, you'll find that they will step into that and they will enjoy their role more, and they will. You will stop being the bottleneck and you'll find a business that you have that is full of people who are able to take care of things for you and take ownership right. And that's truly when you can start to scale. Because if you are the bottleneck in your business, if you are the one who is taking care of things, if you're the one who is the only one who can solve the problems, then you can't really scale your business because you will always, always, always, be the bottleneck. So when you can bring other folks up around you, allow them to problem solve around you, allow them to take initiative, to follow through and complete projects for you, that's what will free up your time and that's what real leadership looks like. So let's bring it all home, because I think there's you know when.

Speaker 1:

Perhaps what this all comes down to is that leadership isn't something that you become later or that you earn later or you get as a result of something. It's not optional, it's not a nice to have, but it truly is the strategy right. So many studio owners will say, okay, once I have more time, then I'll focus on growing my team, then I'll focus on training, then I'll focus on systems. Once I've hit this revenue goal, then I'll step back. But the reality is that you know that leadership isn't a result of your business growth. It's actually the cause of it, right? So when you lead well, you build trust within your team. When you lead well, you create clarity for those around you. When you lead well, you empower your team to run those day-to-day operations without needing that constant input from you, and that truly gives you such incredible space. And for the studio owners that I work with who have found that level of support within their team, who have utilized the conversations that we have inside of Thrive, the tools, the resources that we have inside of Thrive to develop their team into high performers oh my goodness then it just gives you so much more energy back and the weight that you might carry around with you of feeling that level of responsibility of having to do it all dissipates, right. And so when you have that, you get space space to think, to plan, to innovate, to get creative, to have fun and to grow instead of just surviving. So when you have that leadership in your business. You know that that doesn't just revolve around your teaching schedule, around your ability to work. Perhaps, if you want a team that takes ownership and runs with it and a studio that isn't perhaps just a passion project or a hobby, but a real, profitable and sustainably profitable business, then you cannot avoid investing in your leadership skills now, not later. So let's wrap it up Today we talked about micromanagement and how.

Speaker 1:

It is not about being controlling or an A-type personality or a perfectionist. It's usually a system, a symptom of poor systems or perhaps a lack of training in your team, and I will say that you don't have to become a different person, right? It's not about having this level of charisma. It simply often requires a level of clarity around what you want from your business, what you want your business to look like and who in your business is doing what. And the systems that you create inside of your business is what allows your business to function without you babysitting it right. And, as a leader of your business, you're not fixing everything. You're actually enabling others to fix things right.

Speaker 1:

So if this episode had you nodding along and thinking, okay, yes, this is probably what I need to focus on, then I would love to invite you to take the next step with me inside Thrive, because this is where we help studio owners just like you to step into your role as a true leader of your business. We help you to find the systems, to see where the systems could lie in your business and then to build the systems, to build out the structure and get the support that your business needs so that it's no longer dependent on you doing everything. So we'll show you how you can delegate with confidence to build a team that you trust, that you love to work with, and to build a business that is highly profitable and sustainable, so it's not burning you out in the process. So if you would like to learn a bit more, go over to spring3.com forward slash thrive and you can find more about what's inside the program and find out whether or not it's a good fit for you. All right, because you don't have to figure this out alone.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening in today. I will be back next week with more business insights and inspiration for you to build and grow your boutique fitness studio business. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day. You.