Are you a trusted teacher?

You're teaching pole. Everything is going great. All you hear is praise and things seems to be going well. Or are they? Are there really no problems or are folks afraid to share them with you?

How would you know? Look for voicing disagreements.

If no one ever disagrees with you

It might be because:

  1. they are afraid to do so
  2. they think you won't do anything to address the feedback
  3. something else

It is highly unlikely that everything is 100% perfect.

A checklist for your leadership abilities

Fill this in and check your results below:

  1. When was the last time a person voiced a disagreement with your teaching?
  2. When was the last time a person told you a cue you teach may be unsafe, or you might be missing a cue?
  3. When was the last time someone corrected a move you do or offered a better move? e.g. a student sharing a better warmup move.
  4. When was the last time a student told you a class was “too easy”, “too hard”, “difficult” or “boring”?
  5. When was the last time a student talked with you about enjoying similar class of another teacher? About another studio?

Ideally, you'd aim to receive at least one of the above feedbacks from each student monthly or every 2 months. If you receive feedback from say 80% of your students, but there's 1 or 2 that don't share, you may be missing an opportunity to improve.

How to ask for feedback?

  1. After class 1:1 ask some folks: “was this class too easy or too hard for you?” make a note of who responded. I do this in the waiting room after class.
  2. Talk about classes in other studios and benefits for trying multiple instructors – every instructor has cues that others don't. Encourage students to share those cues and ideas with you. This is information is gold in both building rapport, safety, and improving your instruction skills.
  3. Designate a student you have rapport with, connect with them after class to ask for moves they like and things that were easy, hard and their experience with the class. You can ask them a variety of questions e.g. “is there any music that you'd like to hear?”, “do you have any feedback on warm-up or the rest of class?” and the like.
  4. From time to time, every 6 months ask a question 1:1 from folks who've been to your classes often: “what are my blind spots?” Then just listen, don't defend, don't explain. At the end say “thank you” and write it down.
  5. When talking with folks 1:1, tell them you talk with others 1:1 and “I've received some feedback about the class, wondering if you noticed the same issues”. This makes it easier to open up.

How to follow-up on feedback

Do this and folks will want to provide more feedback over time:

  1. Thank people.
  2. Tell them what you'll do with it. e.g. “I'll put it in a list, review it later, and implement it over the next few weeks”
  3. Do what you said
  4. Tell people that you did it. Thank them again. Address them by name.

Asking for feedback, doing it, and telling folks that you did it is how you get folks to trust you more. Be reliable.

Hope this helps! LMK what your tips are in the comments and what I missed!