The Studio CEO: Business Coaching For Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners

How to Stop Being Your Team's Problem Solver (And Start Building Leaders)

• Jackie Murphy

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Is your team constantly bringing you problems instead of solutions? Do you find yourself answering "What should I do?" multiple times a day? If so, you've accidentally trained your team to stay dependent on you—and now you're the bottleneck to your own growth.

In this episode, we'll break down the "Incomplete Tasks / Bring-Me-Problems" employee pattern and show you exactly how to fix it through better leadership, not harder work.

You'll learn:

  • The 3 studio-specific examples that show you have this problem (unfilled sub requests, upset members, incomplete strategies)
  • Why your team doesn't even know they're doing this (and how to illuminate the pattern without shame)
  • The exact script to re-establish expectations around 100% ownership vs. 60% completion
  • The 3-part ownership framework to teach your team how to own tasks from start to finish
  • How to coach instead of correct (and why solving problems for your team keeps them dependent)
  • The difference between assignment mode and ownership mode—and how to help your team make the shift
  • When and how to close the loop with accountability (without micromanaging)

This episode is for yoga and Pilates studio owners, boutique fitness business owners, and any entrepreneur managing a team who wants to scale without being the constant problem solver.

Listen now to learn how to build a team of leaders who bring you outcomes, not problems.


Work with Jackie Murphy


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their role as CEO. If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously, and scale to new heights without earning out, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights, and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team, and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. Hello and welcome back to the Studio CEO podcast. I am Jackie Murphy and today we're diving into how you can stop being your team's problem solver and really build a team of leaders. Let's talk about something that is probably happening right now in your business. If you have contractors, employees, or even full-time employees working with you. This thing is probably driving you absolutely insane, or at the least, it's a little annoying and frustrating. And that is when your team keeps bringing you problems, not solutions, not completed tasks, but problems. Hey, I got a quick question about this, or I'm not what sure what to do here. Or can you just tell me how you want this handled? Every single time you hear this from your team, you're going to stop what you're doing, switch gears, and solve it for them. Because it seems faster in the moment because you already know the answer. Because if you don't, then it won't get done the way that you want it to get done. But here's what's actually happening: you are slowing your team down and you're training your team to stay dependent on you. And the cost, it's not just the interruptions, though those are really real. It's that you can't scale. You are the bottleneck to your own growth and you definitely can't step away. Also, it really inhibits your ability to think strategically because you're constantly switching gears and solving problems that aren't meant for you to solve. This is what I call the incomplete task, bring me problems employee pattern. And today I'm going to show you how to break it, not by working harder, not by micromanaging, but by leading differently. This is about teaching your team to own outcomes instead of just completing assignments. And when you do this, you'll have a team that genuinely supports you instead of drains you. So let's talk about what this pattern really looks like. I'm going to give you some examples that you can identify if this is happening in your business. But before we do that, I just want to name this. If this problem is happening right now for you as a leader, there is no shame, judgment, or condemnation happening from me on my end. You probably got into the current business that you're running because of a passion for what you do, for teaching Pilates, for teaching yoga, for teaching meditation, for teaching teacher training, whatever it is. And because of that, you most likely have not spent intentional time developing your skill set as a leader and learning how to manage to motivate to grow a team of people underneath you. And so if this is happening, it's not because you're bad or did something wrong. And it's not because your employees are bad or did something wrong. It is simply showing you a lack in leadership skills, which is exactly why I created the Grow Mastermind to be able to teach you how to effectively manage a team of people in a way that boosts morale, but also actually supports the business so that you aren't spending more work managing people instead of actually growing your business and working on your business. So here's how you can identify if the problem is happening in your business. Example number one, let's say your teacher has put out a request for a sub and a couple of days have gone by and no one has answered. If the teacher texts you or your manager, and this is not the process or policy, hey, I put out a sub request a few days ago, but no one has answered. What should I do next? Ding, ding, ding. You have this problem in your business. Example number two, let's say you have someone running client services for you and you get a message from your client services person. Hey, we have an upset member who says that we double charged her. How do you want me to handle this? Ding, ding, ding. This problem is happening in your business. Example number three. Let's say you have a business manager because listen, the person who's running your marketing and sales is probably not the same skill set or talent as the person who's operating your team of teachers. That's another podcast for another day. You have a business manager, and your business manager comes to you and says, Hey, I've been thinking about how we could get more private clients. I've started a list of ideas, but I'm not sure what the process or the pricing should look like. What do you think we should do? Ding, ding, ding. You have this problem in your business. Every single one of these examples is a 60% complete task being handed back to you. They started it, they touched it, but they didn't finish it. And most of the time, they don't even know that they're doing it. They think they're being helpful. They think that they're checking in. They think asking questions shows they're doing their job. But what they're actually doing is outsourcing decision making to you. And your job as a leader is not to shame them for this, it's to illuminate the pattern. This is the first step. Here's exactly what I want you to say to illuminate the pattern for your people. Hey, I've noticed a pattern I want to bring to your attention. I am getting a lot of tasks that are about 60% complete or questions that start with, what do you want me to do? instead of a proposed solution. I don't think you're doing this intentionally, but I want to help you grow into someone who can fully own task from start to finish. So we're going to shift how we approach this together. End of quote. Notice how you're not scolding, you're not frustrated, you're naming the behavior, and you're setting a new expectation clearly. This is leadership. The next thing that you're going to do is re-establish expectations so that everyone understands 100% ownership of their role or task means 100% completion. Most employees think done means I touched it. I posted about the sub-requests. I started the list of ideas. I acknowledged the upset member. But that isn't done. That is just started. As a leader, your definition of done has to be crystal clear and communicated. Here is what 100% ownership looks like. You bring solutions, not problems. Meaning, if something is broken, don't just tell me it's broken. Tell me how you think we should fix it. Number two, you make the best decision you can with the information that you have. You don't wait for me to tell you what to do. You use your judgment. You follow the SOP standard operating procedure if one exists, or you create one, but if it doesn't. Number three, you complete the cycle. Not start it, not move it along, but finish it. Here is what I think you could say to your team. From now on, when you bring me something, I need it to be one of two things. Either 100% complete and you're just updating me, or you're bringing me a problem with at least one proposed solution that you believe will work. I am not your answer key. I am your thought partner, but you have to do the thinking first. End quote. That will be your new standard. And yes, some people will struggle with it at first because it's a new behavior, new pattern. That's okay. You're going to coach them through it, but you have to set the expectation first. So now it's about coaching them through it. You have to teach them how to fully own their role, their task, their job to 100% completion. You've named the pattern, you've set the expectation. Now you need to give them a tool to be able to do this a new way, a different way. Because most people don't know how to own a task from start to finish. They've never actually been taught. So here is a framework that you can use. First thing, identify the real problem, not the surface symptom, but the root issue. Example number one with the unfilled subclass. The surface issue is no one has signed up for my sub request yet. No one has taken my class. The root issue underneath that is we don't have a clear process for teachers to promote and fill their subclasses. So it's inconsistent and relies on me to problem solve every time. The root issue could also be that you do have a clear process that isn't being used or relied on by the team. Example number two, what's the root issue of the member that says we double charged her? On the surface, it just looks like, oh, we have a member who got charged twice. Underneath it is we don't have a clear protocol for how client services handles billing issues. So every situation, every refund request, every double charge, if you have those often, I hope you don't. Everything has to go to me instead of being resolved at the front desk. The root could also be that your teachers or your team isn't trained enough on your software to solve this issue in the moment with the client there, right? Like what is the root issue for your specific business? Number three, let's talk about the root issue here. This is an incomplete private client strategy. On the surface, it looks like I've just got some ideas about how to get more private clients, but I'm not sure what to do next. The root cause is we don't have a process defined for acquiring and converting private clients. So we're inconsistent and we're missing opportunities, i.e., leaving money on the table. You want to train your team to always be asking, what is the root problem here? What's actually happening that's holding us back? Or what do we need in place next time so that this small surface level problem doesn't slow us down as a team? Then step two is that you want to teach them to propose a solution and not just bring the problem to you. Bring you the best idea or best ideas for solving it. And this one you really have to build trust to show them it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be the right solution, but it has to be something. So you're gonna train your team to ask themselves, what do I think is the next best step and why? So let's go back to example number one, the unfulfilled subclass. The next best step, the solution they could bring to you is I think I should try these three things. Post again and tag everyone. Text five teachers personally to see if they can cover the class and see if the owner is willing to pay time and a half to get this class covered. If that doesn't work, then we'll probably have to cancel the class. Right? Like I have gone through four different solutions, four different things to try in order to get the class covered. Example number two, the upset member. Here's what I think the solution could be. Here's what you could do. I think I should pull up her account, verify if there's a double charge, issue a refund immediately if there was, and send her a follow-up email apologizing for the inconvenience with the free class credit. Then I'll document what happened so we can catch the billing issue before it happens again. Boom. Example number three with the incomplete private client strategy. The solution your employee could bring to you would say, I think we should create a three-step process. First, build a wait list by promoting privates in the group classes and on social media. Second, create a simple intake form so that we know what our clients are looking for. And third, match them with the right instructor and follow up within 24 hours. I'll draft the intake form and promotional copy so we can review it together before I launch it. Done. Now you're having a strategic conversation, not a dependency loop. Do you see how fast the team would start to move? How fast your business could start to move with this structure. Step three to this framework is own the outcome. You're gonna train your team to start asking themselves, what does finished look like? How will I know when this is complete? And this is where most people can drop the ball. They're gonna start something, but they don't define what the end is. It's actually a lot of what I do with my clients. What's our goal here? What do you want to accomplish? When do you want to accomplish it by? And so you're gonna have your team ask, what does done look like for this task? Example number one, the unfulfilled subclass. Done means either the class has a sub for it, or I've canceled it 24 hours in advance and moved all the students who were signed up. I'll let you know either way that it's handled. Example number two with the upset member. Done means the member has been refunded, received a follow-up email, and I've also documented the issue in our system so we can prevent it from happening again. I'll also add a note on her account so that any staff member who interacts with her knows that we handled it. Example number three with the incomplete private client strategy. Done would mean we have a documented process, an intake form that lives in our website, promotional copy ready to use, and I've trained the front desk team on how to handle private client inquiries. I'll give you a walkthrough once it's ready to launch. That, my friends, is real ownership. So when you go to your team, you can tell them every time you bring me something, I want you to walk me through these three steps first. What is the real problem or the root problem? What is your proposed solution? What does done look like here? If you can answer those three questions, you're ready to bring it to me. If you can't, continue working on it. This framework is going to train leaders who are confident in making decisions for your business. And that is gonna free up your brain to make the decisions and do your work that's needed to grow the business. The more they practice it, the less that they're going to need you. All right, so here's where the real work is gonna happen. Your team member is gonna come to you with a problem and no solution. It's going to happen again for sure. And the old you would just solve it, make the decision, and move on because it seems faster, because you already know the answer, because you can. But the new you is going to take a moment and coach them first, shift into the role of transformational leader. And here's what that's gonna sound like. Example number one with the unfulfilled subclass. The teacher comes to you and says, No one has signed up yet. What should I do? Instead of saying, Okay, here's who I want you to text and here's where I want you to post again. No, you're gonna say, What is your recommendation? Or if I weren't available, what would you try? Okay. Example number two with the upset member. They come to you and they say, We got a member who was double charged. How do you want me to handle this? And instead of saying, you should pull up her account, you should refund her, and you should send her this email, you're gonna say, What do you think is the next right step? Walk me through how you will handle this. Example number three with the incomplete private client strategy. Your business manager comes to you and says, We're missing revenue with private clients. I'm not sure what the process should be. What do you think? Instead of being like, okay, here's what I think the private client strategy should be and our price point. Can you do this? You're gonna say, hmm, you've been thinking about this. What is your best guess for what the process should look like? What would make sense? And yes, when you do this, you are going to rewire their decision-making muscles. And at first, they might freeze and they might say, I don't know. And that is when it's your job to confidently help them step into leadership. I know you don't know for sure, but if you had to make the decision, what would it be? What's your best guess? I know that you're the right person for this job. What do you want to try? You're not asking them to be perfect, you're not asking them to always get it right, but you're asking them to show up as a leader. Because here's the truth: if you keep solving problems for them, they're never going to learn to solve the problems for themselves. And you'll be stuck as the bottleneck in your business forever. So coach first, guide them second, and solve only when it's absolutely necessary. Over time, they're gonna stop needing you to solve because they'll trust themselves to figure it out. But here's the deep issue underneath all of this. Most employees are gonna operate in assignment mode. Tell me what to do, how to do it, and I'll do it. And then I'll come back and ask for what's next. But what you need and what your business needs to scale is ownership, leadership mode. I take responsibility for the outcome, I think through obstacles, I make decisions, and I finish what I start. That's the difference between a team of employees and a team of leaders. And your job is to literally help them make the shift from employee to leader. Now, in order for you to do that, you have to be okay with letting them make decisions or letting them fail, letting them make the wrong decision. You have to trust that your business is more solid than one off decision. And you have to trust that you hired the right people based on their skill sets, their talents, and their ability to make decisions. And that requires you to lean back and know that your job is to create transformational leaders, not just to get things done. So you can tell your team, hey, I don't want to just assign you tasks. I didn't hire you just to do the things I tell you to do. I want you to own your role, your outcomes in the business. That means when I give you a project, you're not just here to check boxes. You're thinking deeply through what success looks like. You're anticipating obstacles and you're making decisions that move us all forward. And I'm here to support you. And I know you can be that kind of leader. It's going to totally reposition their role, give them confidence to go from just an executor and help them become a decision maker in the business, which in return is going to get them more excited and more bought into what you're doing overall. Everything will change with this. Once you've done this, you've set the expectation, you've caught up the pattern, you've taught them the framework, you've coached them through it. If they're still bringing you in complete task, you're going to close the loop with accountability, not from emotion, but just really professionally. You're going to identify what's missing. Hey, I noticed that this thing came back to me without a proposed solution. What do you think stopped you from coming up with a solution this time? Right? It's just curiosity, questions, and naming it. You're going to reconnect the expectation. Remember, I really want you to be a leader in this business. That means 100% ownership. So next time, will you bring me a solution here? And then give them a clear next step and deadlines. I need you to go back, think through a solution, and bring me your recommendation by X date and time. Now, with this, you're always going to make sure that you're reinforcing the process that you've set up, not with anger, but with clarity. And if you continue to see this, let's say you keep seeing people bringing you problems and incomplete work, then you want to ask them. This tells me something's off. Either my expectation isn't clear, or you're just not in the right role to own this level of responsibility. Which do you think it is? Let's figure it out together. This is not micromanaging. This is holding the standard really, really high. And after that, if someone still isn't meeting the standard with clarity, coaching, and support, that's data. And that is really when you're going to have to have the leadership skill of coaching someone out or moving them to a different role that fits them best. So here is what I want you to know. This is like the most important piece. You can't miss this. You have to celebrate when your team gets it right. Ownership grows when it is recognized. So when someone brings you a fully completed task or a problem with a proposed solution or makes a decision without looping you in, say something, acknowledge it. The way that you handle that billing member issue without needing me was so helpful. That's exactly what I want. You identified the problem, you solved it, you documented, you followed up. That is such good leadership. Keep going. Or when a teacher gets a sub for their class, say, hey, I noticed you filled your subclass without asking me. You tried multiple strategies. I saw you staying proactive and you got it done. That's exactly what I want on my team. That is what I want to see more of. You're going to reinforce the identity that you want them to step into. And the more that you do this, the more they will internalize it. Because people are going to rise to the standard that you set and the recognition that you give. All right, to summarize all of this, employees who bring you incomplete tasks are not a problem and they're not bad. The problem is most likely unclear expectation, low self-trust, and a lack of structure that teaches them decision making. You're going to fix the pattern with clear expectations, defining what 100% ownership looks like, the simple three-part framework that we went through for ownership. You're going to coach them instead of answering their questions. You're going to hold them accountable to following that framework and coming to you with solutions. And you're going to positively reinforce them when they get it right. If you lead like this, your team will stop bringing you problems and will start bringing you outcomes. And that's when you will finally be like, deep sigh, deep relief. I have a team that is supporting me, supporting the business. And now we can really scale. That's when we can really run. You get to really be the CEO instead of the problem solver. You don't need to go change your entire team today. What I would do is pick one person on your team this week and have this conversation, set the new expectation and teach the framework and then watch what happens. All right, my friends. I will talk to you in the next episode. You've got this.