Despite Chez Misko’s 22 years of fitness industry experience, he said there’s always something new to learn when it comes to resolving workplace conflict. “We work in a human business,” said Misko, the COO of Wisconsin Athletic Club, which has multiple locations in and around Milwaukee. “It requires a lot of emotional intelligence. There’s always more to learn.”
Despite not knowing everything, Misko did provide tips for resolving workplace conflict in a health club setting. The most important tip, is creating a positive company culture, said Misko. “The biggest thing to resolving conflict is trying to eliminate it from occurring,” he said. You can do this, “by creating a culture where conflict isn’t common.”
Misko’s clubs create this culture by encouraging open communication amongst all staff, from upper management to front desk employees. “We spend a lot of time making sure we have good relationships with our employees,” said Misko. “They feel they can come to us if they’re having issues.”
This is common practice at Gainesville Health and Fitness in Florida, as well. “We work very hard to create an environment of open communication amongst all of our staff,” explained Adrian Antigua, the operations manager of Gainesville Health and Fitness in Tioga, Fla., “We do this through daily coaching of our staff, regular team meetings and having social events outside of work to encourage employee relationships.”
If employees genuinely like, or at least respect each other, it can be reasoned that conflict would be less common.
However, it’s practical to expect workplace conflict of some sort to eventually arise. If the problem concerns a sole employee who’s exhibiting negative behavior, Antigua advised broaching the subject with that employee as quickly as possible.
“The best way to approach an employee exhibiting negative behavior is to do it right away,” he said. “It is important that when something negative is observed that it is made clear and understood why it is unacceptable and how it affects not only themselves, but everyone else around them too.”
Misko agreed. “If you notice anything you’re not happy with, the sooner you approach the subject the better,” he said. “Bad habits can be hard to change if they’re not addressed. Be clear and concise on your expectations.”
What if conflict arises between two peers? According to Misko, listening to both parties can be the best course of initial action. “Seek to understand, before you’re understood,” cited Misko.
In this situation, mediation can be beneficial. “It is important to remain un-biased in any situation if you have to mediate between two individuals, until you have heard both sides of a conflict,” explained Antigua. “If in the case that two employees are not getting along, we make sure to first separate the two employees and find out what the conflict is on both sides of the story. Most of the time this is the result of some sort of lack of communication between the two. We then have the conflicting parties get together and discuss each other’s issues to gain clarity on their situation and work out whatever problems they may have between each other.”
If that doesn’t work, using the same procedures used to de-escalate issues with members, can translate to de-escalating issues amongst employees. Courtesy of Misko, tips for de-escalation include: don’t take the person’s anger personally; understand why they’re mad; don’t defend your position; and never blame anyone. “We do a lot of de-escalating training,” said Misko.
Again, Misko stressed that if you’ve created a company culture of caring, conflict won’t be a common issue. “If you’ve created an environment in which people feel cared for, less problems will arise.”
By Rachel Zabonick
