In last week’s article, I wrote about a brainstorming session a few years ago that led me to identify my expectations for my coaches during group classes. I wanted those expectations written in concrete terms so I could communicate with my staff more clearly and get all of us on the same page. As I stated before, I believe there are underlying principles of coaching that are consistent regardless of coaching style, personality, or context, and I now have a basic document that functions as a "job description” for my coaches. Last week, we talked about the importance of timeliness, and today, we’re going to address effective communication.

When I first started teaching group classes after years of training clients one-on-one, I quickly realized that communicating with a class was an entirely different skill that I needed to acquire and develop. Working with groups necessitates clear and effective public speaking skills. Your success coaching at or owning an affiliate is largely predicated on your ability to communicate with groups to accomplish the training goals of a class in a way that engages every member.