I took my Dad to see Tim Peake at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester the other week.
You know – the astronaut guy from 2016.
It was his birthday present from earlier in the year.
My Dad’s, not Tim’s.
It was really good.
One thing that really caught my attention was the selection process he went through to beat 8,000 other applicants for one of the six places on the ESA’s new astronaut training programme.
The process was a year long from start to finish.
Day 1, he said, was testing knowledge – aeronautical, mathematical, etc.
The rest of the year was testing what he referred to as “soft skills”.
The ability to communicate and get on with others.
Particularly in a cramped environment for a long time and with potential periods of high stress.
At one point they took them down into some caves for 2 weeks.
There was no natural light and they messed with their understanding of how much time had passed, how much sleep they’d had and how long was left
And then monitored how they got on with each other.
Which I found super interesting.
The ability to fly a shuttle or to be taught to fly one was almost a given for someone who was already a high level test pilot.
It was those interpersonal skills and the ability to deal with that ever changing environment that was the important bit.
As I kind of like to think, to a much lesser extent of course, it is in my job.
I remember being on a course many years ago where the course taker said “no Personal Trainer ever failed to build a personal training business because they didn’t know how to show someone how to do a press up”.
I remember how annoyed many of the other fitness professionals in the room looked.
The suggestion that all we did was show people how to do press-ups.
I got it though.
The ability to demonstrate exercises for people is almost a given.
It’s not, if you excuse the pun, rocket science.
People who show you some exercises then tell you to do them in the same way that we do are a dime a dozen.
In person here in Macclesfield.
Online for 20 years.
Free on YouTube for many years.
That’s not all that difficult.
Where I, and the rest of the coaches at RISE, come in………
Is in helping get people from the position that they’ve been in before, where they didn’t want to exercise………..
And where there were struggling to make consistent enough changes to their eating, sleep, drinking, and other areas of their lifestyle………
To actually do that on a regular, consistent basis………….
And to enjoy it and be happy that they’re doing it………
And to get the results that brings.
The soft skills that go into that are the things that I’ve always looked for in a coach.
All the coaches that have ever worked at RISE started as members.
Unqualified.
None of them went through a technical, exercise based interview process.
I got to know them over months and years………..
Became clear on the kind of person they were, their communication skills, their ability to get on with people, their empathy and understanding………..
And then at some point in a Session one day casually suggested that they might make a good coach.
And, if they were interested, directed them to where they could get qualified.
Hire for attitude, train for skill.
Teaching the right person how to take a Session at RISE isn’t mega difficult.
Getting the wrong person to fully empathise with members and be able to coach them in a way that helps them get results……. is.
Ultimately, the reason that so many of our members achieve amazing results where they’ve struggled before………..
Is not because of our technical skills in exercise instruction.
It’s those “soft skills”.
It’s in the coaching.
And the biggest difference maker between those that do and don’t achieve results in our programme is often……….
Willingness to engage in that coaching (or even to get started with it via www.myrise.co.uk/apply) .
And not just expect to turn out and do Sessions and for it to be different this time.
Much love,
Jon ‘in the Ocean’ Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
