Six Ways To Be A More Effective Executive From A Compassionate Fitness Business Leader

According to the Global Leadership Forecast of 2021, 92% of employees rate leaders’ compassion as a critical factor in their effectiveness. Compassionate leadership is using your head and heart to inspire and influence others. While many leaders are eager to embrace an empathetic approach in their workspaces, they don’t know where to start.

I recently sat down with Lindsay Junk, president of YogaSix, a rapidly growing yoga brand with close to 200 locations open around the country, to hear her career story and get her leadership wisdom. Junk explained how her unexpected arrival in the yoga field helped her grow her passion and develop a philosophy of compassionate leadership. YogaSix is one of eleven brands owned by XPonential Fitness, the largest global franchisor of boutique fitness enterprises.

Before leading YogaSix, Junk worked for other fitness brands, including Gold’s Gym, and later joined Yogaworks. Junk is a lifelong athlete with a fast-paced approach to fitness, so embracing the slower-paced practice of yoga took some time. Despite her initial reluctance to yoga, once she began working for Yogaworks, she attended classes consistently to understand the practice better. She began to recognize the ways yoga was helping her calm down, move slowly, and learn to breathe. After a couple of months, she saw the benefits of this practice on her holistic health, including helping her be a more present, patient Mother to her son.

Junk’s experience informs how she is dedicated to making YogaSix accessible to a broader audience so everyone can benefit. One way the company pursues this vision is to give people the resources they need to open a yoga studio in smaller, less populated areas of the United States. In addition, Junk saw the barriers many people face when attending yoga classes, such as experience, age, and language. YogaSix trains its leaders to make yoga less intimidating to beginners and offer classes for different people. In one YogaSix class, participants of different ages, body types, health situations, socio-economic backgrounds, and fitness levels can be found.

Junk had always been competitive and faced many challenges to her initial approach to leadership. She humbly began to do the work of reassessing the kind of leader she wanted to be. As Junk practiced more yoga and reflected on her style, she began to see leadership as less about “telling people what to do” and more about building relationships with others and helping them grow. She generously offered six action steps she has gained throughout her career in compassionate leadership:

1. Take the time to learn how your employees and coworkers are motivated. Not everybody is motivated in the same way. For example, one person might be driven to learn a new skill, earn a raise in pay, or land a leadership position. Knowing how your team members operate will allow you to better understand, guide, and value them uniquely and help them flourish.
2. You don’t need people on your team who are just like you. Embrace and seek out differences! When you have an eclectic mix of interests, talents, and experiences on your team, you can problem-solve from different angles, often leading to more thorough solutions.
3. Create an environment where your team knows it’s okay to fail, try something new, say something different, and challenge ideas. Encourage innovation and trust. Verbalize that you don’t want people to just agree with you because you’re the boss, and then model openness and humility when they offer a challenge or bring new ideas.
4. Meet people where they are, helping your team get comfortable with their positions and ensuring they have the necessary resources and opportunities to grow. Don’t just assume your team members will be able to do everything asked of them right away. For example, someone may need extra help and encouragement in public speaking. Pay attention to and hold space for those needs.
5. Practice self-compassion, recognizing that, even as the boss, you don’t always have to be correct, and you can change your mind. Your job is ultimately to use your resources well and create a flourishing environment for your team to be their best selves.
6. Recognize that connection is a vital piece of a flourishing workplace. Employees often want their work to offer stability and the ability to experience belonging. Check-in with your team members regularly about this area of their lives and provide opportunities for coworkers to be relational.

Take a minute to assess your own ability to be a compassionate leader here.