Communication lessons learned from the fitness industry

Everyone has experiences outside of work that contribute to their professional lives - whether you're aware of it or not!

Maybe it's parenthood, a side hustle, coaching a sports team, being involved in a community group, even just managing your own budget ... all those 'outside' activities are opportunities to learn lessons we then apply to our work.

Group fitness and personal training might seem like a world apart from my 'day job' of running a communication consulting and training agency.

But the reality is I've learned so much from both - and other experiences - that I've applied in different settings.

Teaching group fitness has probably taught me more about the power of the four C's of effective communication than 20-plus years in corporate comms ever has.

The four Cs are what I teach as the foundations of effective communication - they're almost like a checklist to make sure we're hitting the mark. And in group fitness, that's crucial! For many people, it's a new and uncertain space; but it can also be a risky space. In action at the gym, they look like this:

💡 Clarity: If you want people to move safely and get the most out of their workout, you have to be very *clear* - using language everyone can understand, and sometimes describing the same instruction in different ways until you see the 'oh, I get it!' look in someone's eyes.

💡 Concise: Get to the point, because there's very little time for people to take in the instruction and then do the move.

💡 Connected: Helping people build more awareness of their own bodies, connecting with each other, and connecting with their 'why' for working out.

💡 Considerate: You also need to speak in a way that's still personable and approachable. Not barking orders, but leading the room. And you need to be very aware that every person in that room has a story, needs encouragement, and should be praised for even making the effort to show up!

It's the same with any communication we develop - written or verbal. If you want a good chance of achieving your outcome, it has to be clear on what you want people to know or do, and why the communication is relevant to them.

It has to be concise, because that cuts out the fluff, and gets us to the point more quickly. Being concise is being respectful of people's time, and their intelligence. They see through the spin!

Your communication needs to be connected to the organisation's or the team's bigger 'why' - the purpose, vision and goals. Research shows performance and engagement improve when people see a line of sight between what they do every day, and the bigger picture. Communication should also help connect people and teams to each other - breaking down communication styles, roadblocks and silos, and helping to form mutual understanding that helps everyone do better.

And we need to be so considerate when we communicate. We are talking to humans, not robots. So not only do we need to consider the context and environment people are operating in, but also their communication needs, and how they might feel as a result of our messaging and the way it's delivered. Being considerate shows we care.

Group fitness has also reinforced the power of audience-led communication.

When I first started out as a group fitness instructor, I let my ego get in the way. When your ego gets in the way, negative feedback or people not showing up to class hurts hard.

But when you start taking on the mindset of showing up for others and not for yourself, things change. You reach more people in more positive ways, because everything you do is there to serve them. You become much more aware of how you teach, and you get better at it, because you want people to be able to easily follow and have a great experience. Those are the things that keep people coming back, and bring so much more enjoyment to the class.

These days, whether it's three people or 30 in a class, I'm just delighted they've made the effort to be there, and my goal is to make sure they have an incredible, fun experience that keeps them coming back - whether that's for mental, physical, or social benefits.

Similarly, as communicators, when we take an audience-led approach and deliver based on what they need, not what we think they need or what we want to say, we get significantly improved results.

Taking that mindset allows us to put on our 'audience hat' and consider the best ways to position and deliver a message. It helps us think about what else the audience might need to help them make sense of the message.

If we communicate in a way that's about them, not about the business, then we're onto something good!

So my question to you is - what are the lessons you've learned in other areas of your life that have proven invaluable in your professional world? I'd love to hear them!

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