The job of a private club General Manager/COO has changed faster in the last five years than in the previous twenty, and the skill set required to do it well has changed with it.

This isn’t a soft, generational-complaint story. It’s a labor-market story. Clubs are chasing a shrinking pool of hospitality talent, competing against employers who never used to be their competitors, and trying to retain people who have more leverage than any generation of club employees before them.

What “Managing a Club” Used to Mean

The strongest club managers and department heads were generally built around a fairly consistent set of traits:

• Command & Authority. A clear chain, a clear organizational chart, and a manager who directed rather than collaborated.
• Technical & Procedural. Understanding and enforcing service standards, protocols, and club etiquette consistently.
• Discretion & Formality. Polished, buttoned-up, somewhat distant professionalism was interpreted by the Team and the Membership as competence.
• Stability Over Reinvention. Long-tenured managers were valued mainly for consistency; the job was to protect tradition, not challenge it.
• One-way, Infrequent Feedback. An annual review, delivered top-down, was considered sufficient management of talent.

The disciplines above are still valuable in the Club environment where member expectations are high, but on their own none of them are enough; and when taken too far, they can actively work against employee retention.

What’s Being Asked of Managers Now

Mentoring has moved from a “nice to have” to a core competency. McMahon Group’s 2025 Excellence in Club Management Award coverage specifically highlights leaders recognized for “approachable leadership and mentorship,” with staff loyalty and multi-year tenure cited as direct outcomes of that style — not as a coincidence, but as the point. Clubs are now explicitly rewarding managers who can develop people, not just direct them.

Team-building and culture-setting are now measured deliverables, not soft extras. Culture, communication style, and “lived values” are things candidates now actively evaluate before accepting a position. This means a General Manager/COO’s ability to build and sustain a healthy team culture has become a recruiting asset in its own right, not just an internal nicety.

Creativity and vision are expected, not optional. Club leaders who are reinventing programming around new member expectations like flexible athletic offerings, clever social programming, and boutique wellness are highly regarded. The manager who simply maintains what already exists is increasingly out of step with younger committee and board members who are asking, “What’s next?”

Empathy and workforce literacy are now leadership requirements. Clubs that build in flexibility and smarter scheduling without compromising service standards are positioning themselves as employers of choice, while those that don’t are losing people they can’t easily replace.

Technology fluency has entered the core skill set. AI and recruiting technology are now explicitly part of the conversation industry-wide, and clubs that lag on modern systems (scheduling, communication, member-facing tech) are increasingly behind the times.

It’s a Job Seeker’s Market & Job Seekers Are Specific

This is the part clubs sometimes underestimate: today’s hospitality talent, especially early- and mid-career staff, are not simply looking for a paycheck. They are evaluating clubs against a checklist that includes:

• A visible, credible career path. Candidates want proof (not a promise) that the club has promoted people from within.
• An inspiring leader with a real mentoring track record.
• A culture of creativity, where new ideas are invited.
• A culture of transparency, where decisions and expectations are communicated openly.
• A culture built on current technology, not outdated systems that make the job harder than it needs to be.
• A club that functions as a community pillar where the work feels connected to something larger than a shift schedule.
• Work-life synergy with a balanced relationship between the job and the rest of life.
• Meaningful work with a sense of purpose, not just tasks.
• Collegiality and genuine friendship among teammates.
• Reasonable expectations paired with real accountability.
• Demonstrated care for health and mental well-being, not just a benefits line item.
• Frequent, specific feedback rather than annual reviews, with timely and specific input delivered throughout the year.
• Competitive compensation that complements everything listed previously.

The Biggest Shift: Empathy as an Organizational Capability

Empathy has stopped being an individual manager’s personality trait and become something the club itself has to build institutionally. It needs to be apparent in scheduling practices, feedback cadence, promotion pathways, and a Club’s willingness to actually understand what its workforce needs rather than assume it already knows. As fewer young people enter hospitality, the industry’s job is not just to recruit harder, but to build a culture of respect, appreciation, and professionalism strong enough to keep the people it has.

NCA Club Trends – August 2026

Richard M. Kopplin, Kurt D. Kuebler and Thomas B. Wallace III are partners at KOPPLIN KEUBLER & WALLACE. Richard can be reached at dick@kkandw.com. Kurt can be reached at kurt@kkandw.com. Tom can be reached at tom@kkandw.com.