Martial Arts Business Magazine Resources for Running Your Martial Arts Business
Operating a martial arts school is a team effort. Lots of different people are involved into making your business goals a reality. But sometimes, managing a lot of different people can turn into a complicated mess. A lot of people have different perspectives, that’s why keeping things on tract is such a huge hassle. Have you ever experienced being in a team that started as excited and full of energy but lost its focus as time passed by? The main problem is not the insufficient amount of energy, we’re just people, and we get tired eventually. The main problem is, everybody didn’t focus enough and got side tracked, because their vision wasn’t united.
Be a Chain
Think of it like a chain. Every single link on that chain is important. All of the links must be strong, none of them stronger or weaker. All of the links in must be the same, and they should share a common goal and vision, and that is to form a strong chain. You employees are the links and your whole team is the chain. All of you should share this common goal so together, you will be unified and be effective.
This also teaches us the importance of equality. When a very strong team member disappears, what will happen then to the team? The team members should be all of equal importance. So when someone is missing, the project is not delayed too much. Yes, it is also good to have superstars and over-achievers, but if you let their vision dictate the totality of the project, it will be in total distraught in the occasion of their disappearance or absence.
Share Everything
Some companies hold gatherings, picnics or dinners for everybody in their company. This means that people from marketing get to mingle with the people in sales. Company get-togethers aren’t just simple leisurely breaks from work, they become opportunities for employees to talk what they do in the company. When they talk about what they do, they are also letting other employees know their contribution for the goal of the company. Knowing what everybody does makes a simple task seem bigger, because no matter how small your contribution is, if it’s collected, it becomes bigger and more important. This is where the concept of collaboration takes place. When everybody feels like they are contributing to something important, their focus will be better.
Just remember that a single strong link will not do too much good. Strengthen each link, and make a chain. Share your goal, and have a unified vision, because this is one of the most effective ways on making sure that your business stays on track.
Operating a martial arts school is a team effort. Lots of different people are involved into making your business goals a reality. But sometimes, managing a lot of different people can turn into a complicated mess. A lot of people have different perspectives, that’s why keeping things on tract is such a huge hassle. Have you ever experienced being in a team that started as excited and full of energy but lost its focus as time passed by? The main problem is not the insufficient amount of energy, we’re just people, and we get tired eventually. The main problem is, everybody didn’t focus enough and got side tracked, because their vision wasn’t united.
Be a Chain
Think of it like a chain. Every single link on that chain is important. All of the links must be strong, none of them stronger or weaker. All of the links in must be the same, and they should share a common goal and vision, and that is to form a strong chain. You employees are the links and your whole team is the chain. All of you should share this common goal so together, you will be unified and be effective.
This also teaches us the importance of equality. When a very strong team member disappears, what will happen then to the team? The team members should be all of equal importance. So when someone is missing, the project is not delayed too much. Yes, it is also good to have superstars and over-achievers, but if you let their vision dictate the totality of the project, it will be in total distraught in the occasion of their disappearance or absence.
Share Everything
Some companies hold gatherings, picnics or dinners for everybody in their company. This means that people from marketing get to mingle with the people in sales. Company get-togethers aren’t just simple leisurely breaks from work, they become opportunities for employees to talk what they do in the company. When they talk about what they do, they are also letting other employees know their contribution for the goal of the company. Knowing what everybody does makes a simple task seem bigger, because no matter how small your contribution is, if it’s collected, it becomes bigger and more important. This is where the concept of collaboration takes place. When everybody feels like they are contributing to something important, their focus will be better.
Just remember that a single strong link will not do too much good. Strengthen each link, and make a chain. Share your goal, and have a unified vision, because this is one of the most effective ways on making sure that your business stays on track.
I think a martial arts school / academy is a great contribution to any community. Martial arts has many benefits for many people from young kids to adults. For kids, it builds self confidence, discipline, a sense of purpose and prevents early obesity. For adults it has those same benefits, but it can also teach you how to defend yourself should you find yourself in a bad situation.
I and the whole Martial Arts Business Magazine family agree with everything you’ve just said. Just imagine a world where communities have their own martial arts school, what a great world that would be.
Thinking of your team as a chain is a very good analogy but as you mentioned there are times when a link might be missing and when that happens you have to be able to close the gap with the other links to continue to work as a chain. Very interesting post and relating it to a martial arts school was very interesting as well because you don’t think of it as a business really.
This was a very good post and it was full of great information. You had some analogies that really fit the concept well, I never thought to use the chain as an image of a team before. I appreciate the work that you have put into this and was wondering if I can use this a training tool, I am head of human resources and always looking for material like this.
Scott I couldn’t agree with you more, I don’t think that was the entire gist of the post but I get your meaning. I myself am taking Kenpo and loving it. I wanted to learn how to protect myself as I am a single mom and I don’t own a gun. Your post was great and taught me a lot about business and being able to be successful in it, thank you.
I have been a part of several start up businesses where the team got off to a good start, but as time went on, some members for whatever reason lost focus or showed their weaknesses which the manger did not recognize when they were hired. Sometimes, the failure of a team can be a result of lack luster management. As a result, I have seen these start ups which I have been a part of fizzle and go defunct.
Yup, I agree. Managers really do have the responsibility to make a team work. It starts from hiring to the actual managing of the team.
All the reputable companies I have ever worked for hold an annual (or more frequent) company picnic and it is during such events that coworkers get to know each other on another, more personal level because they also get to meet and interact with their friends and families. As much as I prefer not to get too chummy with coworkers, I have to admit that these outings do help build unity and comorodory.
Yep! They sure do! I love company outings, you get to meet a lot of people, and the free food doesn’t hurt either. 🙂
I love the chain analogy that you used here, you often here that phrase “you are only as strong as your weakest link and that is so true but I never really sat down and thought about it in order to come to the same conclusion as you have spelled out for us here in your blog post. Very unique and fresh way to describe team work. Thank you .
You said so many thing that were right in this post that I can’t begin to point them out but the best analogy I have heard someone use for the day to day business world is the one of the chain so you using that really stuck out for me and I look forward to seeing the next post you do. Thank you for taking the time to post this.
Well Thank you very much Judson!
There is often controversy about whether or not the practice of martial arts leads to positive or negative psychological changes in the participants. Some martial arts, such as judo, were developed with this goal in mind. If martial artists are concerned with becoming better people and reducing violence in themselves and in society, they should also be prepared to defend their ability to practice the martial arts against social pressures and legislative bans or limitations.
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