Tactic vs Strategy
About 2,500 years ago, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote “The Art of War.” In it, he said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Tactics and strategy are not at odds with one another—they’re on the same team. (And they have been for many centuries!) Here’s how we define the tactical vs. the strategic:
- Strategy defines your long-term goals and how you’re planning to achieve them. In other words, your strategy gives you the path you need toward achieving your organization’s mission.
- Tactics are much more concrete and are often oriented toward smaller steps and a shorter time frame along the way. They involve best practices, specific plans, resources, etc. They’re also called “initiatives.”
When I first started coaching I had a TACTIC but not necessarily a STRATEGY. I had a coach tell me once, “they need to be more afraid of YOU than they are of the skill.” For me, as a person, I just couldn’t do that. I never wanted the gymnasts to be afraid of me. Afraid of disappointing me? yes. But afraid of me?
No. As a coach I felt that if I can get the gymnasts to trust me and to believe in what we were doing. I wanted them to TRUST me, more than they were afraid of the skill. I SORT OF knew where we were going. I SORT OF had a long term plan. With experience and help I began to form a strategy.
What makes a good strategy?
A solid strategy reflects the core values of your organization. Generally it cannot be done alone. You must get others involved. Your other team coaches, your developmental coaches, the owner/manager of the gym. You should gather input from across the organization to ensure there’s alignment between the strategy you are developing and and other parts of the programs priorities. All strategies should be actionable.
When creating a good strategy, focus on the desired end result (the goal). Your strategy is the foundation for all activities within the organization, and how it’s crafted will guide decision-making as your coaches and teachers work to achieve those goals. For example, if your gym has a goal to have 5 level 10s, your strategy needs to include strong developmental program and offering staff education at training camps, clinics and congresses. You also need to think about how much time in the gym is needed. What will the costs of that be?
What makes a good tactic?
A good tactic has a clear purpose that aids your strategy. It has a finite timeline during which specific activities will be completed and their impacts measured.
A tactic for the gym would be to see what other clubs with a Level 10 team are doing. Map their processes and add your own “spice” to the mix to minimize waste and inefficiencies. The gym can clearly measure the success of the tactic by tracking the progress of the gymnasts as they move up in level.
Overall, the rule of thumb for understanding the difference between strategy and tactics is, “Think strategically, act tactically.”
- Strategy is based on extensive research, planning, and internal reflection. It’s a long-term vision, whereas tactics are short-term actions. For example, if your marketing strategy is to improve your gyms influence and performance in social media, then your tactics might be to determine the best channels for your gym and the most effective messages for your audiences. Strategies CAN change to adapt to new internal or external factors in an organization, but these changes shouldn’t be made lightly. Tactics can change based on the success of your strategy. It’s much easier to adjust tactics to course-correct than it is to overhaul your strategy, so make sure your strategic planning is thorough.
- Strategy and tactics work together as means to an end. If your strategy is to climb a mountain, one key component of your strategy might be to decide which side of the mountain you should climb. Your tactics would be the gear you’d buy, who you’d bring with you, your complete trip plan, how long it would take to get there, what season you’d go in, and so on. A strategy without tactics won’t ever be executed or help you achieve your goals.
- Strategy and tactics always have to be in-line with one another. You might be really be great teaching a particular skill (i.e. a tactic), but it’s only worth pursuing if it aligns with your long-term strategy. Thus, your strategy should inform which tactics your program will execute.
- The best strategy and tactics still won’t cover EVERYTHING. Because resources are finite, choosing the right strategy and corresponding tactics ensures your efforts are directed toward achieving your vision in the most efficient manner possible.
Can Your Gymnastics Business Survive a Recession?
According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (the official arbiter of U.S. recessions) the last recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, and thus extended over eighteen months. The average recession lasts about one year and the normal range is 6 to 18 months. Expansions last longer than recessions, almost six years on average, but the length of an expansion has varied widely from one to ten years.
Although data shows that expansions and recessions do not occur at regular intervals, there are many who believe that we are overdue for a recession. It has been 10 years. In an attempt to boost growth, President Trump passed massive tax cuts, scaled back regulations and boosted government spending in his first 2 years in office. The result is a large-scale stimulus that appears to be causing growth to rise but at a cost: It has also triggered an unprecedented expansion of the federal deficit. Recent trade wars and threats of trade wars has not helped consumer confidence.
The IMF predicts U.S. growth will hit 2.7 percent in 2019, a level of growth that hasn’t been achieved since 2006. But the IMF also predicts the United States will be the only advanced economy in the world to have its debt-to-GDP ratio get worse in the next five years as the government budgets become even more unbalanced, adding to the debt.
The current expansion of the economy, which hasn’t necessarily felt record-breaking for many gym owners, has been a long but slow recovery from the Great Recession and financial crisis that struck a decade ago. Growth has averaged about 2 percent a year, far slower than the 3.6 percent annual average during the 1990s expansion, and wages have grown well below the usual pace in good economic times.
The consensus among the world’s top economic forecasters is that the United States is in for good times through 2019 and possibly into 2020, but that will probably be followed by an economic hangover of sorts. Not only is growth expected to slow, but it could end up being weaker than it would have been without all the stimulus because the U.S. government will have a harder time spending any more money to try to aid the economy, and the large debt that already exists will cause investors to buy U.S. Treasurys instead of investing in the private sector where it would be more likely to boost growth.
While many economists agree w that the short-term picture looks promising, they don’t believe it will last beyond a few years. CBO anticipates growth slipping back to 1.8 percent by 2020, while the Federal Reserve forecasts 2 percent by 2020.
How can you recession-proof your gymnastics business?
As an industry based on a children’s activity- we are sometimes the last ones to feel the pinch. Parents will stop other things before they let it affect their children day to day activities. Maybe one less vacation a year. BUT when they do stop- they are hard to get back into the gym.
There are steps you can take to ensure your gyms survival and some may help you even thrive during economic tough times.
1. Protect Cash Flow
Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business; to keep your gym healthy, cash needs to continue flowing through. Now no matter how tough times get, having cash flow out of your business will never be a problem. You need to have some cash on hand as well. When things are going great you can always count on next months tuition to cover the some unexpected expense. But during tough times you need a plan.
Most small businesses have some form of a line of credit: an agreement between a financial institution—generally a bank—and a borrower to provide a certain amount of loans on demand. Many banks today have more money than borrowers and report that only about 40% of the existing lines are drawn. Many businesses do go out of business during a recession and it is for one fact: they run out of capital.
If you can increase your line of credit NOW and establish new credit facilities even if you don’t need them now. You may later.
As long as your gym exists, you will have expenses. But the harder times get, the harder it can be to keep the cash flowing in. Protect your business by implementing strategies to keep the cash flow moving.
2. Review your equipment needs NOW and Management Practices
See what can be done to get equipment (with out financing it) now. BE SMART- do you really need this or is it a luxury item? Most gym owners don’t watch new costs too carefully during good times. Why bother, if you are flush with cash? The problem is that new expenses can add up quickly. And by the time a recession hits, it may be too late to make changes. Here is the golden rule:
Don’t buy something unless your gym really needs it.
That doesn’t mean you can’t splurge here and there. You can, as long as you do it in moderation and carefully.
Just because you’ve always ordered something from a particular supplier or done things in a particular way doesn’t mean you have to keep doing them that way – especially when those other ways may save you money.
Trim existing costs
Look at your existing costs and eliminate unnecessary expenses. Leave no stone unturned. If possible, outsource non-essential functions. In many cases, this strategy saves you time and money. And when recessions hit, outsourced resources are the easiest to trim.
What is outsourced will vary by gym. Just keep whatever functions make your business special and competitive.
3. Focus on Core Competencies
I have seen many articles on diversification as a strategy for small business success. But too often gym owners simplify the concept of “diversification” to “different”.
Just adding other programs or services to your offerings is not diversification. At best, it’s a waste of time and money if it is not bringing in NEW or different clients. Worse, it can damage your core business by taking your time and money away from what you do best and/or damaging your brand and reputation.
Drop the extras and focus on what you do best that is most profitable to recession-proof your business.
4. Develop and Implement Strategies to Win the Competition’s Customers
If your gym is going to prosper in tough times, you need to continue to expand your customer/client base – and that means drawing in customers from the competition. I DO NOT TREAT THE OTHER GYM IS TOWN AS COMPETITION. Your real competition is all the other activities kids can do.
How can you do this? By offering something more or something different than the competition does. I am preaching to the choir when I say that gymnastics is a base for nearly every sport. Can you SELL that in your area.
I had a parent signing up their daughter for class while their son stood there. I asked if their son was going to be taking classes. “no” she said, “he is playing soccer”. I went on to explain all the benefits of a one day a week boys class. How that was going to help him.
Research your competition and see what you can offer to entice their customers into becoming your customers.
(Providing better customer service is often touted as one of the easiest ways to outdistance the competition.)
5. Make the Most of Current Customers and Clients
We’ve all heard the old adage that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The bird in the hand is your customer or client and he or she is an opportunity to make more sales without incurring the costs of finding a new customer.
Even better, he or she might be a loyal customer, giving you many more sales opportunities. If you want to recession-proof your gym, you can’t afford to ignore the potential profits of shifting your sales focus to include established customers.
6. Don’t Cut Back on Marketing
In lean times, many gyms make the mistake of cutting their marketing budget to the bone or even eliminating it entirely. But lean times are exactly the times your gym most needs marketing. PLUS- traditional media is also hurting and may be able to offer you a good deal.
Consumers are restless and looking to make changes in their buying decisions. You need to help them find your gym and choose YOU rather than others by getting your name out there. So don’t quit marketing. In fact, if possible, step up your marketing efforts.
7. Keep Personal Credit in Good Shape
Hard times make it harder to borrow and small business loans are often among the first to disappear. With good personal credit, you’ll stand a much better chance of being able to borrow the money needed to keep your business afloat if you need to.
To recession-proof your business, keep tabs on your personal credit rating as well as your business one and do what’s necessary to keep your credit ratings in good shape.
There’s absolutely nothing that will make your gym one hundred percent recession-proof. But implementing the practices above to recession-proof your business will help ensure your business survives tough times and might even be able to profit from them.
Tips To Be A GREAT Leader
I was reading the online edition of INC magazine and came across the article. Good lessons for all of us. I have edited it to make it more friendly for our industry.
The worst leaders are remembered for what they did to their people, the best for what they did for their people. It’s as simple, and as tricky as that.
Tricky because as a leader it’s easy to focus solely on tending to the business and your career, forgetting that tending to your people first will take care of both.
Over my career as a head coach and gym owner o I’ve learned that delivering the “for” is as important as delivering the forecast (again, they aren’t mutually exclusive). It’s what good leaders, and good human beings, do. However, even with the most altruistic intent, you can miss doing the kind of things that epitomize your number one role as a leader.
To care.
Here are the five most powerful things you can do for your people to do right by your people.
1. Build a MOAT around them.
MOAT stands for Managing On Absolute Trust, and it’s a must. Isn’t it what you would want as an employee? To know your boss trusted you and your decisions? To carry this idea further I pictured building a moat around my people as a key part of my job. They know I have their back. Doing so creates an empowered island where they are free to choose how they rule their kingdom (their event, their groups, their classes) without interference.
They’re protected from outside interference and yet there’s always a drawbridge to my help and assistance. I’d cross over that drawbridge upon request or would proactively do so to provide coaching and nurturing (thus, they were never “on an island”, as the negative connotation goes).
Finally, moats are reserved for protecting and growing important assets. Picturing the moat around my people reminded me to reinforce that they’re valued and valuable, worthy and worthwhile.
2. Give them the best feedback they’ve ever gotten.
It’s not a high enough bar to merely invest the time it takes to give feedback. Any leader can do that, although clearly not every leader does. Research from Officevibe (an online leadership learning platform) shows that two-thirds of employees want more feedback, and 83 percent say the feedback they get isn’t helpful.
The best bosses go beyond and thoughtfully plan out and deliver insightful, actionable, even brave, feedback.
Think of the best feedback you’ve ever gotten and replicate what had to be true for you to have gotten it. It required insight into you as a person and nailing a fundamental truth about what makes you great (that you should do more of) or what was holding you back. It took time, careful observation, and the giver of the feedback caring enough about you to get the feedback spot-on, delivered in a way you could hear it. Start here.
3. Care about their career as much as you care about yours.
Start by having crystallizing career conversations. Help them identify what they want to do in their career, not what their supposed to want to do. Get clear with them on what it takes to get where they want to go and discuss options without setting unrealistic expectations.
Then advocate for them ferociously, find ways for showcasing their talents in ways that will give them a career boost.
4. Get the skeletons out of their closet.
This means getting employees to share their most closely held performance weaknesses; the things they know they need to work on but are afraid to admit. I think I am a pretty good all around coach. BUT- I am NOT the person you want coaching dance for girls or pommel horse for boys.
This puts learning in overdrive, but can only happen if you have a foundation of trust in place (which will be there if you’ve built a moat). Maybe they don’t like to speak in front of large groups or feel they stink at vault.
5. Teach them in teachable moments.
Continuing with the theme of investing in their development and growth, be on the lookout for teachable moments when learning is most powerful. Moments like the day after a terrible competition or when a plan does NOT come together. In those moments, coach.
Most importantly, do these things right because they’re the right things to do.
FAILURE IS AN OPTION
I was reading an article by Joyce Russell in Forbes Magazine- FAILURE IS AN OPTION IF WE LEARN FROM IT. There were so many good examples we can learn from this.
Remember in the movie Apollo 13 the Commander at the NASA mission control center said: “Failure is not an option?” We often think exactly that when at the gym. We try to portray an image of how we have it all together and are always succeeding.
I had lunch the other day with one of the first gymnasts I ever coached. We were talking about how I did what I did and how I managed to coach at such a high level at a relatively young age. I told her my goal was to always just stay a day or two ahead of them. Everything in the gym was a gamble. I just had to place my bets carefully. I knew I was going to make mistakes. I just needed to remember the lesson and move on.
There’s plenty of advice noting that a failure is definitely an option. Talk to ANY coach of ANY sport who has been coaching for a few decades. They will tell you that the lessons learned from failures are more important than the lessons of success. Talk to any venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and they will tell you that if you are an entrepreneur then you needed to have failed (and bounced back) a number of times before they even consider your pitch. Likewise, most CEOs will point out times over their career that they have failed and what they have learned from those experiences. In fact, many say that sharing their vulnerabilities enables others to more closely identify with them.
Yet, today, young adults are having more and more trouble dealing with the slightest failures – getting an A- on a project or missing a few items on a test seems to be devastating for some of them. Getting negative feedback from a coach seems to shatter some gymnasts self-esteem.
Clearly, we want our gymnasts and other coaches to succeed, but we also want them to learn that failure is a part of life and what’s most important is how to bounce back from those failures. We think of resilience as a gymnast’s ability to bounce back from, learn, and flourish during obstacles and adversity.
You can’t develop resilience with just success in your life. You have to experience setbacks in order to build resilience, but the good news is that your resilience gets stronger each time you overcome challenges or obstacles. But, we have to understand what happened from our failure – reverse engineer it to see what we can learn from this experience. We have to understand what failure means in terms of new opportunities. Our leaders and workplaces can help us with this.
As coaches, we shouldn’t shelter gymnasts from failures, but rather help them see them as learning opportunities within a safe environment. This is easier said than done. Our tendency is to immediately reprimand or place blame, rather than explore what happened and what they can learn from it. And yet, enabling them, especially younger gymnasts, to learn what happened and how they can move on is critical for building their own resilience and later success!
We need to teach coping strategies in our gyms as well. We need to help the gymnasts develop the right attitudes, behaviors, and a strong social support system. It’s more important than ever before since the world has gotten increasingly more complex. At the gym, we could help them learn a variety of strategies such as:
- Helping them to build stronger connections and relationships so that they have a support group. Setting up mentoring relationships so that they have others to talk with.
- Building a culture of giving or doing for others. There is plenty of research on the benefits of volunteering or focusing on others, which enhances one’s own happiness. Many gyms have programs for giving back to their communities. Getting gymnasts and coaches involved in these “give back” programs can really add to their own feelings of happiness and worth and often put things into perspective for them (i.e., my failures are not really that big in the larger scheme of life”).
- Teaching them mental agility and toughness. Teaching them how to confront the problem and learn from it. Also, mindfulness is a powerful tool that people are practicing to deal with the increasing stress at school or gym.
- Teaching them how to reframe the situation or think about it differently by pausing, reflecting and trying to understand what they are experiencing. Talking about it with others can help.
- Sharing gratitude stories. Getting them to focus on what they are grateful for and what positive aspects may have come from the failure.
- Helping them cope by teaching life skills of getting the right amount of sleep, hydrating and eating healthy to balance out what they are doing in the gym and make sure that they can handle what life throws at them.
You only have to turn on the news to see that adults and children alike are having more trouble coping with failure. As leaders at the gym, we can build cultures to strengthen the resilience of the gymnasts we work with by letting them fail and bounce back stronger than ever before. Failure can be an option if we use it to learn life lessons.
Questions to Ask Yourself
What are you preparing for?
This time if year I see many coaches working to up the skill level of their gymnasts. Are the skills they are working on- for fun? That is OK. I fully believe that gymnastics still must be FUN. Will these skills go into next years routines? The year after? Is it the right skill for this particular gymnast?
Does what you are doing in preparation for performance really connect to the actual performance?
Is your training making the athletes better or just making them tired?
How do you know your training program is having the intended results?
Do you have any “tests” over the next few months to see if you are going in the right direction?
Ultimately how do you measure your performance as a coach?
USGCOA SUMMIT. October 4-6. Las Vegas
USAIGC – IAIGC LETTER
USAIGC-IAIGC
BELOW IS AN E_MAIL TO USAIGC_IAIGC ADMIN FROM
JK GYMNASTICS. THIS LETTER CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF USAIGC-IAIGC INTERNATIONAL CLUB OWNERS ASSOCIATION.
Good morning, Paul & Mary,
I’m reaching out to share our experience this past weekend at the UK International Invitational in Milton Keynes, hosted by Chiltern Gymnastics. This was the first time that our club was able to attend an international competition, and we were blown away by the experience . We brought 11 competitors, from Copper 1 through Silver, to the event. It was a fantastic experience for our athletes and our coaches.
We loved having the opportunity to connect with coaches from different countries, both our friends whom we met last year in Orlando and new coaches who were not at Worlds. We discussed training styles, skill requirements, and our passion for the sport. It was wonderful for our athletes to meet other gymnasts, compete on different equipment, and receive feedback from new judges. It opened our girls’ eyes and allowed them to see that though our countries may have many differences, the sport is very similar around the world.
Many of our athletes had never been out of the country prior to this trip, and we cherished the opportunity to spend a few additional days exploring London, the English countryside, and notable sites such as Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. We were impressed by how well the competition was run by Chiltern. Their coaches, especially Brian, went out of their way to help us make travel arrangements and feel welcomed the entire weekend.
Overall, the trip sparked an appreciation for this wonderful international league that we are a part of, and a desire to find ways to facilitate more international competitions in the future. We are already in conversation with Gymfinity International in Germany about the possibility of attending a future competition at their club and we would love to see a future World Championships hosted in England.
Just wanted to share,
Amanda Head Coach
Going The Extra Yard.
Last week I wrote about customer service. In gymnastics we need to do something to stand out against the competition. Whether that competition is another gym, another youth sport or recreation activity.
The other night while closing up the gym the front door wouldn’t close properly. I was able to figure out that a hinge had broken. We had had a pretty windy couple of days and I am sure the wind just slammed the door open breaking the hinge. I was able to get the door closed and secured and have a plan for opening the gym the next morning.
The door (and probably the hinge) are going on 25 years old. I knew I was going to need to replace the 2 doors in front. It being 9:30 PM I had to wait until morning to begin making my phone calls.
I got in touch with a company 2 towns away. All Door & Lock. Their receptionist said they would have someone there within 2-3 hours. Less than an hour later their tech came in. Took measurements, talked about what my options were for the door and then headed back to the shop to work up a quote. 45 minutes later I had a phone call that said the door I needed was going to take 4 weeks to come in. They knew that this was going to be a problem so they were sending a another tech back to the gym to jury rig the hinge so that we had a working front door.
When the tech showed up he got right to work doing his best at keeping the door mostly closed most of the time so that my customers did not freeze in out lobby. Although it says April on the calendar- It was snowing here!
The bill came today for the work done. I was not worried about the cost. It is simply the price of doing business. The bill was at least 20% LESS than what I thought it was going to be.
Now I am thinking- What can I do in my facilities to offer this kind of service?
- Make sure my customers are called/ e-mailed back in a timely manner
- Deliver what is expected When it is expected
- Find solutions instead of problems
- Offer a service that people are happy to pay because it exceeded their expectations
Discipline
So often when we think of discipline we think in terms of rules or other factors driving us to do something. To coach like a champion that is not what discipline is. You must practices self-discipline to do what is necessary, often what is uncomfortable to do what needs to be done. There is no need for discipline to be imposed from outside. It comes from within in the form of self-discipline.
For a gymnast self-discipline means that you have ownership. It is your decision, your choice. When you are in the gym at a meet no coach will drive you forward, it must come from within. You must do it on your own. You must control and channel your emotions. You must draw on the hours of practice and execute what you have practiced.
Coaches, you must set your rules. Live by those rules. Be the best you, you can be. That takes self-disciple and control. It takes discipline to say no to distractions that will take you away from goal. The easiest way to practice self-discipline is to make the things that are necessary into habits. Creating habits alleviates the mental burden of always making decisions. Get comfortable being uncomfortable all the time – that is the champions choice.
Just Doing It Is Not Enough
Just doing it may work for Nike selling shoes but in no way does it represent what needs to be done to grow and develop an athlete. Unfortunately, today I see too many young coaches and gymnasts athletes “just doing it” with no concern for intensity, quality of movement or intention. As coaches we must not allow athletes to just do it. We must teach and motivate them to do it better every day. Every day, every session the goal should be to do it better. Coaches must teach athletes to hold themselves accountable to personal excellence and commitment. Effort does not take talent or ability therefore the goal each day should be perfect effort. We must also be careful as coaches to not to fall into the trap of “just doing it.” Challenge yourself the same way you challenge your athletes.