The High Cost of Fear in Spa Management
by Douglas Preston

Anyone who has had even brief experience in spa management will be an expert in reciting the challenges the position brings: unreliable employees, weak sales, customer and therapist retention–just for starters. That list is usually reviewed with a tone of hardened frustration and defeat. And rightfully so, as the competing expectations of spa producers and managers expand faster than solutions are found and implemented. When I’m called in to analyze and correct the performance of a spa business, one of the first conditions I look for–and almost always find–is the virus of fear that’s paralyzing management and employees. It’s everywhere. You can revise the service menu, give raises, and rewrite the mission statement, but without uncovering and treating the prevailing institutional fear in company culture, you’ll make no more progress than if trying to cure an infection with chicken soup. There’s some short-term pain relief, yes, but the silent threat continues to grow and grate at the foundations of the business affected by it. This predicament is one of the most expensive and debilitating that your company can have because everyone involved suffers from it in some way.

The Roots of Institutional Fear in the Spa
Let me present a rather unscientific but experientially accurate analysis of this fear problem in the spa workplace. See if some of the following might be unpleasantly familiar to you:

The spa employee (therapists)
Who is this individual we have hired to service our spa customers? What are their values, beliefs, strengths, and impediments in fulfilling the role as spa employee? What were their career expectations with regard to being a service professional, and how well does that jibe with your own?

Aestheticians and body therapists, while performing distinctly different services, often share many personal characteristics and ideas as they launch their careers in this field. Among these is that their work will be conducted in a more unstructured, independent environment; that is, on their own terms. Freelancing, independent contracting, booth renting, and control over methods and tools are built into this expectation. Independent people want to dictate their own working schedules, including days of the week worked, hours per day, how much time they’ll spend per treatment, and how often they’ll shut down for “personal time”; (vacations, classes, crisis, etc.). They also want to decide what to charge for their services, for better or worse. But many of these professionals either discover that professional independence is more difficult than is desireable or tolerable. Lacking prior experience in their disciplines, and having been primed by success exaggerations from training schools and working therapists, many spa professionals will seek an alternative to going it alone—at least for a while. A spa may seem the ideal place to get further education, experience, and for peeling off valuable customers when the time’s right.

Often with these professionals the idea of selling retail products or even suggesting upgrades in services with customers is unwelcome. They may recoil from “pushing” products or from assisting clients in any way that could possibly be construed as aggressive or “unprofessional”. Once an employee has been permitted to work in a manner that doesn’t threaten their comfort threshold the routine becomes locked-in, guarded by both personal philosophy and stubborn resistance. Some cosmetics and spa equipment manufacturers who must sell to spa professionals unknowingly reinforce dysfunctional attitudes, and promote sales that stress their idea of quality over efficiency or economy. The therapist, now fortified by biased beliefs and well-practiced service routines, may be more inclined to change employers rather than adjust to any changes in company policy, products, or service protocols. The cycle will likely repeat itself at the new place of employment. Obviously, this is a very expensive approach to building a stable career.

The fears that inhibit professional performance
My years of educating spa professionals, both as employer and business consultant, have revealed a consistent roster of negative, self-limiting perceptions and disabilities. Each can trigger responses that attempt to soften the fear or panic they produce. Common among these are:

While a fascinating subject for the scientific researcher interested in statistics, my informal surveys conducted with teams of spa employees in seminar settings show some interesting results. Up to 20% of each group randomly sampled report having at least one of these conditions. If coupled with the behaviors common among those with diminished self-esteem (which could be the offspring of dyslexia or ADD) then we could postulate that such individuals might pose particular objections to workplace requirements that could expose the problem. They can become expert in concealing their difficulties. It is important to recognize that neither dyslexia nor ADD are indicators of intelligence any more than depression or mental fatigue are. They are, however, obstacles to the full use of one’s learning faculties.

A spa service profession may be especially attractive to people with the above symptoms because of the way in which it is mastered. Service professions utilize a more practical, hands-on approach to learning rather than the conventional academic method heavy in reading and writing assignments. At my spa we conduct a simple reading and writing test for all employment candidates. The goal isn’t to determine who’s the more highly skilled in this area, but rather to show management how to best train this individual. Many spa employers express frustration with employees who must repeatedly be given instructions on methods and policy only to discover that the information isn’t being retained. Moreover, managers become exhausted answering repetitive questions from employees who could easily find the information in the company manual. It is not recognized that many of their staff members are disinclined to approach written material with any real confidence. Questioning has become the stand-in for self-reliance.

The spa manager
Spa managers are finding themselves faced with some very daunting objectives today. They must keep staff and ownership happy, struggle to maintain functional work schedules, resolve interpersonal disputes and customer complaints, plus swarms of other critical tasks. Time is always in short supply. Priorities are difficult to set and stick with. Ownership is continuously worried about the financial bottom line. The spa manager is the junction for all of these competing demands, and the person expected to successfully handle them. They are also culturally constrained in their ability to fulfill their responsibilities. Many spa managers cite the following apprehensions and frustrations as the cause of operational shortcomings:

A manager shackled with critical business demands but lacking the keys to make meaningful changes will be severely disinclined to act unilaterally. Fear of reprisal from out-of-touch spa owners can cause the manager to freeze in indecision, or to make policy choices that appease employees over more sound options. Fear of employee exodus can cause the spa manager to become overly permissive with regard to enforcing work schedules, vacations or personal time, compensation, and other high-cost demands. Fear of professional credibility can reduce a manager’s power to dictate service prices, timing, and products used by and sold in the spa—“How can I tell an aesthetician how to do her work when I’m not one myself?” Fear of angering customers can prompt the spa manager to become excessively lenient in quality disputes, prompting costly knee-jerk compensation of services and refunds or, even worse, defensive arguments with the injured party. And fear of job loss will encourage many to simply conceal the real issues in the company in an attempt to prevent upsetting anyone. At this point management has become neutralized altogether.

Ownership
Business owners, whether working in the spa or outside of it, can contribute substantially to the environment of fear. Frightened and tense over financial disappointment and mounting expenses, an owner might be tempted to place unrealistic improvement demands on staff and management. Often these increased expectations arrive without the means with which they can be accomplished: training, tools, and funding. Managers are now under compounded pressure to elevate sales, reduce employee turnover, and trim operating costs, while already struggling to meet their present goals. Further hampering the value of existing sales is the fear of setting service prices at levels needed to support the cost of operating the business. Few spa owners that I have worked with actually knew how much to charge for services in order to make ends meet. Most pricing is based on “going rates” for the market area, or the untested notion that a given price was the highest customers would pay. But this often proves to be an owner’s self-valuation rather than a reflection of their customers’ spending limits. When we don’t believe in ourselves, how can we convince others to?

Another destructive influence is the frantic spa owner who vents anger and spreads insecurity openly among employees. Doom and gloom have no useful place in a business but have enormous power to demoralize, hasten job turnover, and cripple management. Many an owner has reported to me that a chief reason they don’t want to invest in “expensive” employee training is the fear that once they’re trained they’ll take off and open a competing business nearby. This is perhaps the most irrational approach of all to operating a spa. When training is withheld, everyone loses—customers, employees, and the owner as well. It’s like telling a child that you won’t allow him near a bicycle until he learn to ride one first. It just doesn’t make sense. There is always risk in a business investment, Attempting to limit risk exposure through the denial of vital employee training will automatically convert that risk into certain disaster. There are better approaches than this.

Turning it all around
It’s evident that rampant fear in the workplace, especially when expressed by all levels of operations, can have a hazardous effect on quality and company culture. Service and retail sales will stumble, customers won’t return, and cooperation among the staff will amount to little more than defensive camps built around shared grievances. We can shut the place down, fire everyone and start over, or apply even harsher direct management, but none will solve the problems inherent in the typical spa working body. What’s needed first is the full recognition of the problem and a commitment on the part of all to disclose the real conditions affecting them, and an agreement to work out meaningful solution. This is a big job for any individual but especially for a group who have unique needs and abilities.

Where to begin
Start with a series of team meetings facilitated by a neutral and skilled leadership expert or business consultant. All spa personnel, including ownership, should be speaking on a level playing field in an atmosphere of support that’s free from the risk of ridicule or punishment. The facilitator will set up an agenda that first seeks to uncover the facts concerning company frustrations, fears, and perceived or real limitations. The idea here is to determine exactly what is affecting the company’s performance, particularly from the individual’s perspective. This meeting must not attempt to resolve disputes, digress into arguments or blame, or to set any new policies! Pent up steam must be vented creatively, that is, in a controlled, positive, and carefully directed manner. It’s the end goal for everyone together that ultimately matters here. One-on one meetings with staff and management should follow that explore more deeply the beliefs and sentiments of employees and managers. Hopefully they will be encouraged to disclose freely now that the wall of silence and resentment has been breached.

The company can now begin to set new service and sales goals, quality targets, and morale improvements based on the actual rather than the perceived characteristics and abilities of employees and managers.

Training
Most spa employers will discover that step-by-step, hands-on education will be far more effective with employees than “read it and do it” methods. A protocol sheet or manual will get little attention from people who do not enjoy reading. This is a doing profession! Test quality and comprehension through practical reviews, not just oral or written tests, and do it frequently. Invite specialized trainers to teach positive communication techniques to employees. There are some excellent management training tools available in video and workbook format on this key topic. Self-esteem building workshops can help everyone in the spa recognize personal roadblocks to achievement, and provide valuable techniques for overcoming negative, debilitating self-concepts. Many of these are offered in the spa and salon industry today. Exasperated managers and owners will do well to learn how to skillfully and consistently praise employees for their truly productive efforts—one of the most highly prized aspects of employment among spa professionals. Bosses can be too keenly focused on the mistakes and misdeeds of employees to recognize their real, ever present qualities. We must remember that for everything that goes wrong in the workplace thousands of things are going right, right now! This is how we’re able to so quickly spot the flaws, because they appear on a generally clean surface. Failure to notice and report what’s good over what’s not is a potent morale killer in any workplace. Sadly, with most managers, employee praise, the cheapest and most desired benefit we have for them, is parceled out like diamonds—rarely and sometimes insincerely. Most employees value recognition above pay, so when the praise isn’t there they’ll resort to asking for more money more often.

Perhaps the key to correcting the costly fear in spa management is found in understanding that fear is the primary source of our everyday problems. Whether it’s poor sales, resistance to change, or following directions, fear is the boundary for options and potential in most people. The good news is that with empathy, patience, and a plan to conquer personal achievement blocks, fear can be relegated to its rightful place, as protector instead of gatekeeper.

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