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Pop quiz: what’s the most important personality trait to succeed as a fitness guru and personal trainer? What is it that elevates a run-of-the-mill gym instructor to super-successful personal trainer?
If you’ve read my even just one of articles on becoming a personal trainer such as how much does a personal trainer earn here on Personal Trainer Training you may be thinking of becoming a fitness pro but before you leap into your new career there’s a fundamental question you need to ask yourself. do you have the traits, attributes and personality to be personal fitness trainer? Do you have what it takes to be an great personal trainer?
After a quick straw poll of trainers, clients and gym owners, I’ve to come up with the following must have top 10 personality traits.
PATIENCE
Patience is the companion of wisdom, to borrow the words of a Saint, and never has a truer word been said than when teamed up with personal fitness training.
Many people turn a personal trainer because they know they don’t have the will-power to achieve their weight or fitness goals themselves and want someone to prod, poke and push them along the way. Goals will be missed so if you don’t possess patience by the proverbial bucket load to keep your clients on track a rethink of career choice may be in order.
POWERED BY PASSION
Enthusiasm and excitement are contagious. If you’re passionate about health, fitness and helping others become fit your clients will come flooding back. And if you don’t eat, breath and sleep fitness expect your clients to cotton on and drift away.
Great personal trainers are fanatical about the fitness industry and love helping others reach their health and fitness targets, working out and supporting and nurturing their clients. Just take a look at what an Olympic medallist coach said of uber trainer Nick Mitchell “he is certainly one of the best personal trainers that Europe has to offer. Besides walking the talk his passion and enthusiasm, and depth of experience keeps him at the forefront of the industry…”
If your passion and enthusiasm match Nick’s you’ll attract and keep clients and stay keep ahead of the game.
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COMMUNICATION CRAFT
Perhaps the numero uno personality trait for a personal trainer is to master the art and craft of communication, verbal, written and non-verbal.
Communication skills are vital in just about every aspect of life but for personal trainers who lead, direct and encourage others they’re a critical skill.
As the former CEO of Ford cars Lee Iacocca said, “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere” and as a personal trainer you may be the most certified, qualified and experienced in the world but if you don’t have rapport and listening skills to truly understand what your clients want and then explain how to get them there you won’t last long.
BOUNDLESS ENERGY
Energy is a double whammy success criteria for personal trainers.
As a fitness professional you’ll project vibrancy and energy to clients when going through their workouts but you’ll also need energy to succeed in business.
In the dark days when the cash isn’t flowing or you lose key clients it’s commitment and energy that’ll get you through. Energy, fueled by passion, belief and faith, will help you overcome business set backs and push through the dark days every small business owner faces.
EMPATHY
Another personality trait you must have as a personal trainer is empathy.
Closely allied to communication skills, empathy - the ability to understand another individuals emotions and feelings, to be able to put yourself in another persons shoes - is a core attribute of successful personal trainers. You’ll be pushing clients well beyond their comfort zones and the ability to care, share and feel their pain and sympathise with them along the way to help overcome their fears and doubts is priceless.
However, empathy doesn’t mean giving clients an easy ride, many of the top trainers (Dax Moy for example) while oozing charisma and empathy have a reputation for pushing to the limit and not taking no for an answer.
HONESTY & TRUST
They may not know it but your clients will want you to be brutally honest with them if they are to achieve their goals. Everyone, me included, have the best intentions when it comes to becoming or staying fit and it’s your job to hold them to this and if this means spelling out a few honest but hard truths your clients may not want to hear them so be it. You’ll be loved when they finally achieve their goals and reach targets they never thought possible but don’t be afraid of their feelings along the way.
No I’m not talking about having a criminal conviction. What I’m talking about here is personal conviction – absolute belief in yourself and the power and effectiveness of your training programmes. If you don’t believe wholeheartedly in what you are asking and doing why should you expect your clients follow you and more to the point pay you.
Conviction, like charisma, is one of an Intangible elements but which inspires confidence.
HUMOUR AND SENSE OF FUN
You’ll often have to push clients well beyond their comfort zones and at times this can create awkward moments, humour is a key skill at these moments to release pressure. Being able to laugh and chill out with them is a important trait to maintain your relationships.
Hollywood celebrity trainer Mike Ryan said that one reason he has so many clients is they like to have a beer with him for example.
THE DOUBLE C – CHARISMA & CONFIDENCE
A hard personality trait to pin down, charisma is defined as many things and like energy, you’ll want bags of it not just make your clients feel good when in training but to make your business a success.
“Lack of Charisma can be fatal”
Artist Jenny Holzer
Communication Coach Carmine Gallo interviewed over two dozen of the most charismatic leaders for his book 10 Simple Secrets of the World’s Greatest Business Communicators
- Passion
- Boundless energy
- Articulating a bold vision
- Animated speech
- Confidence
- Using clear and concise language
- Having fun
We all have some of these present in our personality already, they just just need polishing to transform us into a highly charismatic people, other skills can be learnt ). There are plenty of guides to developing charisma on the Internet, try A step-by-step guide to charisma on BBC News for starters.
Time for a reality check. If you’re not organised running a small business of any kind won’t be for you, let alone personal training where you’ll also need to keep detailed client progress records.
If your small business takes off you can hire a PA or secretary later to help out but in the short term you’ll need to have an overload of organisation abilities. Good record keeping, diaries, contact management and note taking are all vital. There are plenty of tools to help on the Internet and give you an edge if you’re not a natural – Google “organisational tools”, for starters I’d be lost with Google Docs, 43things, Zoho and Evernote. There’s a great article on how personal trainer Chad Williams uses Evernote as tool to help his clients here.
The lesson and take-away from this is: being a super-successful personal trainer is about more than just technical health / fitness skills and ability. You need a lot more besides and a key determining factor is your personality and the traits I’ve listed here.
The good news is that even if you don’t posses these traits you can change. Organisational abilities, empathy, and the eight here can be practiced and mastered and in time will becoming part of your personality. Google any of the above personality traits and you’ll find websites on how to develop the skills in this area. Go ahead now.
Before you go: Do you agree or disagree with this list? What do you think are the key traits for success as a personal trainer? Add your thoughts below.
Picture credits: Energy picture Johnny Jet, Jumping, Hamad AL-Mohannna
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