Knowing what sets you apart from other health and fitness professionals can help you attract your ideal clients to your business. There are people out there looking for your unique abilities and personality. The clearer you are about what your leadership style is, the better you can communicate it when marketing and the higher your confidence rises.

Numerous personality assessments are available to help you understand your leadership abilities, which can, in turn, help you positively influence people and create a satisfying career. The three leadership styles described below can help clarify your ideal fitness industry role. While some people are a blend of all three, others lean strongly toward one or two personas.

Read over the descriptions and rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5, according to how much you identify with each of the three styles. Choose 1 if you don’t feel aligned at all and 5 if you’re completely aligned, using 2, 3 or 4 respectively. Go with your gut reaction and first instinct, and don’t analyze your answers too much.

Researcher

If you love learning, are always seeking the next continuing-education course or certification, and can be found with your nose buried in fitness books, you lean this direction. Do you enjoy investigating your client’s needs in great depth? Are you generally more introverted than extroverted?

Some health and fitness professionals prefer to be envisioning, reading and writing all day long. Having clients is simply your excuse to do all this research. This is important to recognize and structure your career around. Creating opportunities to utilize these skills is crucial to your happiness and success.

Use your research skills to impress clients with knowledge, set long-term goals, write, perform administrative work, or become a well-prepared and effective presenter.

Coach

Do you tend to be more extroverted than introverted? Are you comfortable being in the spotlight? Coaches are upbeat and natural public speakers. They’re often group fitness instructors, teachers, presenters and leaders of sports teams. Their attitudes are contagious. The key to a fulfilling career is cultivating opportunities to showcase these skills in front of people who are eager for change.

Use your voice and winning attitude to inspire others during the work week, so you feel like you’re really making a difference in people’s lives.

Team Player

Are you a people pleaser? Do you enjoy listening to others’ needs and aspirations? This is a great trait to have when attempting to meet clients’ goals and desires. If you enjoy collaborating with others and are fairly extroverted, then it’s important you surround yourself with people who enjoy partnering in fitness endeavors.

Use networking and your ability to make friends and create deep bonds with people to feel more connected with your work. You might enjoy leading a fitness team as a manager.

The Blend

You might feel you possess a blend of two or three of these leadership styles. Is there one that is completely misaligned with you? Sometimes it’s easier to see who you are not than who you are. Take a minute to write down all of the words and descriptions that resonated most with you.

Think Like Your Inner Child

Remember not to overthink this process. To keep it simple, contemplate what you enjoyed doing as a kid. I played teacher and hotel manager, which molded me into a successful business owner, presenter and educator. I also wrote in a journal and sent letters to pen pals from an early age, so it’s no wonder I love creating content! I also enjoyed exploring, which explains my need to pursue new challenges constantly as a career entrepreneur.

Survey Other People

Ask five people who know you well to tell you what they feel your strengths are as a leader. You’ll find that the same words—such as ambitious, likable, grounded, confident or caring—come up repeatedly from the different people you talk to. Thinking about what each of these individual’s leadership strengths are will also help you to see your own more clearly.

It’s Time to Get Ahead

Finally, consider how you can align your career to maximize your natural leadership strengths. Write out your thoughts or journal about what direction you want to go. There are many routes to the same destination of career fulfillment. You simply have to step forward mindfully and a more aligned path will undoubtedly appear before you.

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