Cindy Curley: The Player-Coach

FISA VIP Guest Profile Series: Cindy Curley

By Bonnie Lee Kushner

As the long-standing President of Orchard Hills Athletic Club for an impressive 16 years, Cindy Curley credits her hockey coaching background for her leadership style. In fact, Curley’s hockey career is just as impressive; she has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“My coaching background helped me to train staff and build a team,” Curley says. “I’m so grateful to watch my staff develop. Some have been with me for a very long time, and become leaders with their own leadership style.”?

?She says the secret to a successful work environment is two-fold: be coachable and take responsibility as a team. “I’ve surrounded myself with people smarter than me. We're not the best at anything, so what are people doing that we should be doing more of, less of, or maybe none of?”

?As for taking responsibility, Curley makes a reference to her hockey career. “At other jobs, a lot of people have been ripped apart for a mistake. But when I was a coach, we always said there are a multitude of reasons why a goalie misinterpreted a certain shot. It’s the same thing here. Something happens and it’s usually a breakdown in what we’re responsible for: the process. It’s not the desk person’s fault, it’s our fault. Employees know we have their back. It’s a team approach.”

?Curley takes that same approach when it comes to promoting women in our industry. It’s important to note that her time in hockey was in both women’s and men’s hockey, so not only did she find success in a rare sports environment but now takes that same experience into business.

?“In a team sport, there’s no individual anything. When you’re playing hockey, your job is to pass the puck to the person in front of you,” she says. “That’s the same in business. Instead of cutting each other down, support each other and provide opportunities. Both men and women; this industry has some amazing people that you can text or email and get an answer right away.”

?That is part of what she loves about the fitness industry. “People share. If we’re not sure about something, there are so many people smarter than me that I can call up and say how did you do that? I’ve got a bunch of mentors, whom I look to for advice.” She specifically credits a couple women in our industry as exemplary of exactly that: Jenny Hymer from MXMetrics and Jen Poljacik from Pro Fitness Program.

?At the same time, she notes, women tend not to ask for something they want. “You want a new position? Make strides and goals to get to where you want, and be willing to work hard for it. Also, we need to be open to redirection.”

?In fact, Curley herself is an example of that. Her background is actually in accounting, and she even worked as an accountant but didn’t particularly enjoy it. Her friend’s mother was the accountant for Orchard Hills, who encouraged her to take a different path. She took the plunge and started (first as an accountant) at the club. She quickly moved to assistant general manager, general manager, Vice President and of course President. She is now fully entrenched in the community and believes she will work there until she retires. “I’m so grateful to go to work every day and enjoy it,” she says.

?As for the future, Curley took an important lesson from Covid: the importance of mental health, and particularly treating members with empathy and patience.

“How ignorant were we on the importance of exercise on mental health? During personal training now we don’t emphasize so much on fitness results as we do on mental health results. Weight loss interests go with it but we learned a lot. It wasn’t in our face before but [our role as a health club] is a critical piece of people’s day that has nothing to do with weight loss or muscle gains.”

?The trends have shifted a bit in fitness as well, she says. “Not every exercise has to be so punishing anymore. Workouts are enjoyable, not so much high intensity. We are doing more stretching, mobility, recovery.” From a business standpoint – it's all about the software for her club. “What can we do with it to communicate with our members more effectively and make it easier on our staff?” she asks.

?And for the club, Curley is focusing on rebuilding community. Orchard Hills offers itself as quite the host; examples include working with the Shine Foundation (an organization for mental health well-being in adults and youth) and offering events for the Vanessa Marcotte Foundation (women’s self-defense classes).

?“This is a home for people. We want to build the club as more of just a great place to go,” she explains. “If exercise isn’t in your purview for the day then come have a cup of coffee! Drop your kids off with us and come have a break.”

It’s that sense of community Curley builds that drives everything she does. From coaching her team to supporting other people within the industry (she even mentions her largest competitor down the road and the wonderful work they do) she embodies the player-coach mentality of constantly seeking improvement.

?“I love change and this business is often evolving and changing. There are no two days that are the same so it’s the perfect industry for me,” she says. “With Covid it was ‘how do we keep our club afloat?’ But now it’s nice to be able to say, ‘Where do we go from here?’”