Maintaining a positive work environment ensures that your staff come to work with a positive and productive attitude. Happy staff leads to happy students. This in turn leads to a better learning environment for the students. Children can feel energy, as they are very in tune with their emotions. If you have a staff member who is having a bad day and is wearing it on their sleeve their demeanor will be reflected in their teaching. This behaviour impacts the attitude they bring into their lesson and can also effect the behaviour of the children. It takes effort to maintain a great working environment. Even if the teacher is saying all the right things, they still have to be aware of their body language, tone of voice and facial expressions. These are cues that children pick up on!

The river flows both ways. As a swim school owner or supervisor you have to ensure that you create a welcoming and warm environment for your staff so that they can come to you without hesitation. Having open lines of communication allows you to work as a team and in a case where a staff member is having a bad day, they can come to you for a reset or support. As a swim school owner or supervisor you have to make sure that you don’t let a negative attitude from your staff affect you. It is part of your duty to make sure that you are able to address the situation as well as being approachable so that the staff member can come to you to discuss what is bothering them.

You can advise your staff to leave their outside problems at the door but in case they bring it inside your environment then you have to make sure there’s a strategy in place to address the issue, as it can be a reflection on your business.

Attitudes and energies are all intertwined. A staff member with positive energy will show more productivity, be genuinely engaged and get better results!

Advanced Swim Tip of the Day

During the breath phase of your strokes make sure to exhale underwater your air fully through the stroke cycle so that when your mouth breaks the surface for a breath you only need to breathe in!