My entire life has been about leadership.
I wager yours is also. Constantly, eternally, maybe even simultaneously, we are either being led or leading. Forever, we juggle with necessity, formality and duty in a never ending cycle meant to create something great from nothing at all.
People sort of meander about their version of leadership. For one reason or another, some of us find comfort following instructions and teachings rather than creating and giving them. Others, like myself, find a more active leadership role more engaging for a multitude of reasons. I can’t speak for others, but when it comes to myself I just can’t stand to watch another human make the wrong decision or fail at something they truly wanted. Watching someone you care for, really anyone for that matter, fail just hurts more than failing yourself. From a very young age, I wanted to carry the burden for those I care for. The best way I have found to do this is to call the shots without fear of what comes next. For me, leadership is not about getting credit; it’s about accepting hardship.
When I stumbled upon Coach Glassman’s videos some five years ago, I drastically wanted to be led. I wanted to gleam the knowledge and charisma this man had. I wanted desperately to continue and multiply his work. I fell in love with programs at the box from day one because I would follow Coach anywhere, and this is the kind of leader I have always wanted to be. A leader who creates leaders wherever he goes.
When I entered my box gym life I was already training athletes for years and I loved it. However, I wanted to do more for them…for everyone. Yet no matter the no-sleep shenanigans I created, I simply could not add hours to the day. Box programs, thankfully, awarded me an incredible training method, allowing me to reach more humans at one time than I had ever dreamed. Programs at the box immediately widens the net that needs to spread across an unending sea of pain. But it still wasn’t enough. To truly help EVERYONE. To truly feel valued when I finally leave this earth, I could not focus on training ten athletes better. No, I had to focus on training ten trainers who could each train ten athletes. Then I needed to multiply that number more and more everyday.
Within the box that I own, we have grown four affiliates from within. We have certified over thirty athletes and the population of our town is less than 30,000 people. Not to mention we are one of three boxes within a two-mile radius. The goal is not only training athletes, it is training trainers to train athletes, and here is how we do it.
Live it
You could read this first step and stop reading. Employ it, and the rest may just take care of itself. Living box programs must precede teaching the programs. Otherwise, a successful box is a pipe dream at best.
From day one I have bled all over our bars, struggled through workouts that I hate, stayed late, showed up early, and everything in between. I have created, and prescribed a nutrition plan that I follow to a tee, and even have an upcoming book hitting shelves soon. I have expectations for what every human can be, and every human that walks through our door is another friend I can save from the mediocrity of this planet. First by example, second by faith. I know I’m not special and that I am broken just as every human is in this stagnate planet we call earth, but if I can do this little thing I love, then you can too.
The first step to building tremendous trainers is living the Affiliate program the way it was created, not a silly version of it that fails to express it’s originality, and capability for unprecedented change. The first step in building awesome trainers is to be more like Gandhi who said, “I would never ask anyone to do something I would not do myself.”
Break the mold forever
Sometime down the road, I realized I was really hard to get along with. When they made me they certainly broke the mold…. hopefully, they threw that shit away.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a good trainer and can reach out to gobs of people exactly the way they need, because I am willing to read much more into what they are giving than just the way their body is moving. However, no matter how awesome you and I are at communicating, we will inevitably fall short with some people. When you finally come to terms with the fact that you may not be the best man for the job, all that remains is finding someone who is.
The last thing you want is a carbon copy of you parroting back your quippy one-liners and attractive antidotes. Emerson went so far as to say, “envy is ignorance, and imitation is suicide”, and I agree.
Not only should you be constantly on the look out for amazing, yet different, personalities who could lead a congregation through fire, but also you should do everything in your power to enhance the differences between you and every other trainer on your staff. Imitation is only flattering to the one being copied; to everyone else it’s lazy.
If you’re not confident enough to let someone else speak in their own uncensored beautiful voice, then you’re no leader, you’re a dictator whose regime will fail when a true leader comes to town. The only similarity necessary between you and your trainers is the passion for making people better.
Teachers don’t lecture
The Bible explains that teachers, above all, will be held to a higher standard. It doesn’t ever talk about lecturers, because someone who lecturers does not teach.
Box training, well all training really, is about others. It’s about everyone except for the guy running the show. It’s about the experience. Maybe I should have started with this but leadership at its best is service. The best leaders are the best servants. The best box trainers realize that they are nothing more than the biggest servant in the box. They are there for everyone else, and no one is there for them.
The third and final step to trainer creation isn’t making someone fall in love with hearing their own voice; it’s instilling the very real fact that training is serving, not demanding. You teach by serving your students in the way they need to be served. Maybe it’s running around the block with them. Maybe it’s scolding them about another senseless food faux pas. Maybe it’s backing off.
There is probably a whole lot of other day-to-day, operational handbook blah blah blah’s that go with this, but I am not that guy. I am a trainer who loves people, not a businessman that found training. The best day of your life is when you realize it’s not all about you; it’s all about them. The second best day is when you realize that you can’t help them all, that even Jesus had disciples, and that great leaders teach others how to lead greatly.
– Josh Bunch | Practice CF
Your reading the bio of someone that values change. Someone that understands that today, he is an unforgiving zealot, and tomorrow he will be a demanding hypocrite. Josh Bunch understands that to grow, means to say, “I was wrong”, more than you say, “I know”. Josh Bunch values the fact that to become more, everything must change and we can never be addicted to “our” way, we need search for “the” way. Like Emerson said, “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Oh, and jb is a professional writer, long time CrossFit affiliate owner, and 12 year exercise educator, with a background in nutrition.