THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF MELTON’S VIDEO “Is Your Team Fit?”:
Hey leaders, Tom Melton with Melton leadership. Every week I get a chance to work with some of the best business and ministry leaders in all of Denver who are on the path to better. I help these leaders and their teams connect,
clarify, and grow, because everybody wants to get better. So I have a couple of ideas that I think will help you and me to get on that path to better.
Back in the 80s there’s a lot of emphasis on individual fitness physical fitness and I certainly was aware of that. I grew up in sports and so I was always somewhat aware of it, but I made an effort to say I want to get better fitness but I always struggled just kind of being on my own. I’d start things and I’d quit… like a lot of people you could go on a diet, you could do some kind of exercise and something happened and you quit. But something happened to me that really changed a lot of that. That was at the Athletic Club that I was a member of, I tried this thing that basically was called “group fitness”. It was a aerobics class with a bunch of people doing exercises together and one of the things I realized is that I began to be successful at staying with that. And I reflected on what was unique and different about group fitness versus individual fitness and I thought of our organizations and our companies.
I wonder, could I ask you the question of how fit is your company. I could ask you that individually and you might have an answer but how about corporately and how do you get fit? Well what I learned in a group fitness class in fact I got so into it and got so much value in it that I actually became certified as a group fitness instructor, began teaching it and as I began teaching it, I realized there were four basic principles of what I call the four M’s of group fitness that I think apply to our
organizations.
The first one is that group fitness instructor models what everybody is supposed to be doing. It’s not somebody sitting in the background it’s not just a voice. I mean you’re up there in front and you’re doing the exercise. You’ve shown people what it’s supposed to be like.
The second thing in addition to them the modeling, was every group fitness room or studio has mirrors. And at first I thought well that’s kind of weird; is it just about vanity or whatever? But what I realized is the mirrors give feedback. You can see how you’re doing it. So even as an instructor and showing people the right position, look in the mirror and you can see if you can correct and you can become better yourself. But by being in a group setting it helps you with the mirrors.
The third piece I realized that was a part of a fitness experience was the music. In every group fitness class I’ve ever been in and taught, music was central. Abd what was the music? Well in in the class that people had the same rhythm some
people didn’t have rhythm and it showed up. And they tried to get better, but surprisingly that all the people were doing basically the same thing and there was an energy that came from that. I think in the business in the organizational world that music would be akin to a vision in a mission. Do we know what we have in common? Are we all on the same page? And whereas the music does that in the fitness class, a mission and a vision has that for the fitness of an organization?
And the final for the 4 M’s was that it was mutual. In other words there’s something powerful about a team but when you’re in a room with other people that are encouraging you. You work harder and I I still see that today that in the class environment, you actually are able to accomplish more, both much more individually but especially as a team.
I wonder how much mutual encouragement there is in your company or your organization. The four M’s of group fitness I would suggest to you that if you would apply those and take a look at them – the first is modeling… are you as a leader, are you modeling? The Second is are you giving feedback and do you get feedback? Are you giving feedback to your employees? Does your company get feedback from the market? The third is what is your mission/vision? Are you dancing to the same music, moving to the same beat? And finally, is there mutual encouragement both internally and externally. Who are you connecting with? Who are you connecting people with?
I believe that if you if you practice the four M’s of group fitness that you will be on the path to better.
I can tell you from my own experience – this is what I do every day with leaders and organizations and I also am still involved in a group fitness class – I can tell you that if you really are serious about being on a path to better with your team, I encourage you to put those four M’s into practice, and if you need help this is what I do with all varieties of organizations and teams. If you’d like help, if you’d like to find out more, contact me through my website at Meltonleadership.org.