How to Lead a Team When You're Still Learning to Lead Yourself

Studio / Photo credit: Everybody Pilates 

Written by Seran Glanfield

You didn't sign up for a leadership seminar. You signed up to teach Pilates.

And yet here you are — responsible for a team of teachers, front desk staff, or contractors who look to you for direction, consistency, and vision. Maybe you love it. Maybe it terrifies you. Most likely, it's both.

Here's the thing no one in the Pilates world talks about enough: the skills that make you an exceptional teacher - deep listening, attentiveness to detail, commitment to a methodology - don't automatically translate into leadership skills. And most studio owners step into management without ever having been taught how to manage themselves first.

That gap? It's not a character flaw. It's just the reality of how most passionate people end up running businesses.

The good news is that you don't need to have it all figured out before you can lead well. You just need to be honest, intentional, and willing to grow - as you go.

The Leadership Myth as a Pilates Studio Owner, That's Holding You Back

There's a persistent belief that good leaders are confident, decisive, and unshakeable. That they always know what to do. That they project calm authority even when everything feels uncertain.

That version of leadership is a total myth.

Real leadership, especially in a small studio environment, looks a lot more human than that. It involves uncertainty, course corrections, and the occasional "I don't know, but let’s figure it out." The leaders who build strong, loyal teams aren't the ones who pretend to have all the answers. They're the ones their teams actually trust to find a path forward.

And, trust isn't built through perfect performance. It's built through consistency, honesty, and showing people who you actually are.

Know Your Patterns Before They Run Your Pilates Studio

Before you can lead a team effectively, it helps to understand how you show up under pressure. Because under pressure, most of us revert to patterns we learned long before we ever owned a business.

Some common ones for studio owners:

• The Avoider: Hates conflict, so difficult conversations get delayed indefinitely. Things quietly fester… the energy shifts to a negative place.

• The Over-Explainer: So uncomfortable with authority that every decision comes with a lengthy justification. Well-intentioned, but it can undermine your own credibility.

• The Perfectionist: Struggles to delegate because no one will do it exactly right. Stays stuck in the weeds and eventually burns out.

• The People-Pleaser:. Says yes to keep everyone happy, then quietly resents it. There are no real boundaries.

None of these are fatal. All of them are workable.

The goal isn't to eliminate your patterns - it's to recognize them before they make decisions for you. That pause between stimulus and response? That's where leadership actually lives.

Start by asking yourself honestly: What do I do when things get uncomfortable? Your answer will tell you more about your leadership style than any personality quiz.

Your Team Is Learning How to Read You

Whether you realize it or not, your team is paying close attention to you.

They notice when you seem stressed and say you're fine. They notice when you change a policy without explanation. They notice when you're inconsistent - warm and approachable one week, distant and reactive the next.

This isn't about performing constant positivity. It's about being aware that your energy, your communication style, and your behavior set the tone for everything that happens in your studio.

A few practices that help as a Studio Owner:

Name what's happening (appropriately). You don't need to share every detail of a difficult week, but a simple "I'm navigating a few things behind the scenes right now — it's not about any of you" goes a long way. It gives your team context and models emotional self-awareness.

Be consistent in the small things. Show up on time. Follow through on what you say. Acknowledge your team's contributions. Consistency in low-stakes moments builds the credibility you'll need when higher-stakes moments arrive.

Separate your mood from your management. This one takes practice. The goal is to be responsive, not reactive — to make decisions and have conversations from a grounded place, not a triggered one.

The Art of Leading Your Dream Studio While Still Learning

Here is something worth sitting with: you are not expected to be a fully formed leader before you begin. Leadership is a practice, not a credential.

Some of the most effective things you can do as a developing leader aren't complicated:

Ask for feedback. This one is underused and wildly powerful. Asking your team "What could I do differently to support you better?" signals that you're not operating from ego, and it surfaces information you genuinely need.

Acknowledge when you get it wrong. Studio owners sometimes fear that admitting a mistake will undermine their authority. The opposite is usually true. Owning an error — cleanly, without over-explaining — builds respect faster than pretending it didn't happen.

Invest in your own development. Read. Listen to podcasts. Work with a coach or mentor. Take a business course. The fact that you're reading this article is already evidence that you're doing this. Your team benefits directly when you grow.

Model the culture you want to build. If you want your team to communicate openly, communicate openly. If you want them to take ownership, model ownership. Culture isn't declared in a team meeting. It's demonstrated daily.

Difficult Conversations Are Not Optional

If there is one area where developing leaders consistently struggle, it's this: the conversations that feel uncomfortable.

Addressing a team member who's chronically late. Redirecting someone whose teaching style has drifted from your methodology standards. Letting someone go.

Avoiding these conversations doesn't protect your team. It protects your discomfort and it usually costs the studio far more in the long run.

A simple framework that helps:

1. Get specific. Vague feedback is easy to dismiss. "I've noticed the last three Monday classes started five minutes late" is more actionable than "you're always late"

2. Focus on behavior, not character. "This happened" is a conversation. "You're the type of person who..." is a conflict.

3. State what you need going forward. The goal of a difficult conversation isn't to vent; it's to get to a clear about what changes going forward.

You will not always get it right. The conversation will sometimes be awkward. Do it anyway. The willingness to have hard conversations is one of the most important things you can develop as a leader.

A Note on Perfectionism and Delegation

Many studio owners stay small, not because they lack vision, but because they can't let go.

Delegation requires tolerating imperfection. It requires accepting that someone else might teach a class differently than you would, handle a client interaction in a way you wouldn't have chosen, or structure their admin work in a format that doesn't match your system.

None of that is a crisis.

What matters is whether the outcome serves your clients and your studio's values. If it does, release the rest. Your energy is better spent on the things only you can do — vision, culture, key relationships, your own teaching — than on controlling every detail of how your team operates.

Trusting your team is not naivety. It's leadership.

Growing Forward

Leading a team while you're still figuring yourself out isn't a paradox. It's the reality for almost every first-time studio owner, and there's no shame in it.

What matters is that you stay curious instead of defensive. That you stay honest instead of performing. That you treat your own leadership development with the same commitment you bring to your Pilates practice — understanding that mastery is a direction, not a finish line.

Your team doesn't need a perfect leader. They need a present one. One who shows up consistently, communicates clearly, takes responsibility, and keeps growing.

That's you. Even now, in the middle of figuring it out.

Especially now.

About the Author

Seran Glanfield, founder of Spring Three and host of the award-winning Pilates Business Podcast, is a leading business coach and consultant to boutique fitness studio owners around the world. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Seran has masterminded the growth and development of hundreds of studios, becoming the go-to expert for those looking to scale their studios, transforming them into sustainably profitable, streamlined studios.

Seran’s expertise encompasses all facets of business management, including marketing, retention, sales, team management, pricing, and strategic growth.

A graduate from the prestigious London School of Economics, Seran is also a certified business consultant and both Power Pilates and Romana’s Pilates trained Certified Pilates Teacher.

To learn more about working with Seran and Spring Three, go to: www.springthree.com or follow @seran_spring_three