Genesis Health Clubs: Taking Culture to New Heights

A look into Genesis Health Clubs’ culture and how it’s fueling company growth.

Core values are ethics or ideals that guide you when making decisions, building relationships and solving problems. Every business has them. They’re typically proudly displayed on walls of facilities, and in some cases, that’s where they stop. 

But for Genesis Health Clubs, its five core values drive everything the business does: 

• MMFI — Make Me Feel Important
• Lead by Example
• Exercise Daily
• Staff is Family
• Invest in Our Members, Club and Team

“We live what we preach,” said Rodney Steven II, the owner and president of Genesis Health Clubs. “We all got into this business because of a love of fitness. If someone isn’t committed to exercise and evangelizing it to others in a positive way and constantly reinvesting in that lifestyle, they’re probably not the right fit for Genesis. We’re fitness fanatics, and we love to share it. It’s almost contagious, in the best possible way. We’re invested in our staff and members and making their lives better through exercise.”

Genesis Health Clubs has unique ways of living out its core values, especially Staff is Family and Exercise Daily. 

“We often take our team white water rafting and on fitness competitions through nature trails with heavy weights,” said Steven. “We’ve won city-wide tug of war contests, and we’ve even taken over 100 people to the summit of some of the highest mountains in the country multiple times.”

Steven said his team has always been big on competitions in their respective departments. To reward this competitive edge, the winners of each department would go on a trip to summit a fourteener, allowing the team to spend more dedicated time with each other.  

“It started out with trips of eight to 15 team members, then as we grew it went to 40, then 70 and our last trip was 135,” said Steven. “It’s an amazing experience being able to get away and do some extreme challenges with our team members, pulling together to achieve the same result.”

For Steven it’s simple: the closer you are with each other, the more you want to win for and with each other. It’s much more rewarding to work with friends and grow together in the business.

“We’re fortunate all of our leaders are still in the clubs and our joy comes from working with our staff and members,” said Steven. “When you truly lead with passion and sincerity, it’s easy for others to follow. We all embrace that environment because we are a product of it.”

Jose Riveros, the senior vice president of sales at Genesis Health Clubs, echoed this. 

“We’re in the people business first and in the fitness business second,” said Riveros. “At the core of our culture lies sincere love and care for our members and sincere love and care for our staff. We work hard to provide our members the health and fitness results they desire, and we work equally hard to help our teams achieve their life and career goals they desire. At the end, we also play hard with tons of events and social opportunities for our members and tons of team building and fun experiences for our teams.”         

However, Genesis Health Clubs’ leadership and culture isn’t just built on a foundation of extreme outdoor outings. It’s also centered around care and compassion for the team. Steven said it’s important to know what’s going on in your team’s lives so you know what drives them and can figure out how to make their lives better. 

One way they do this is every year they ask for nominations around the company for team members who need help around Christmas time. If a team member is struggling and can’t afford a good Christmas for their kids, the company helps. 

“Everyone has hopes, dreams and struggles,” said Steven. “You’re able to really help a person become the best version of themselves if you understand what those are.”

Mike Woody, the national tennis director of Genesis Health Clubs, has witnessed Steven do this firsthand.

“At first I thought it was a cliche that we used Staff is Family as a core value,” said Woody. “However, that changed quickly as I saw it evidenced with our president and owner Rodney Steven as he’s personally guided team members to get out of their poor family and/or financial situation, or inspire a member or teammate to change their health goals to live a longer and vibrant life. The vision of our owner and president has left an indelible mantra for me to follow — don’t let anything get in your way to make yourself and the people you impact great. That’s a message that drives me.”   

Having this keen knowledge of the Genesis team and dedicated guidance from the top has made a direct impact on not only the company’s culture but also its growth.

What started with one location in Wichita, Kansas, has grown to over 60 locations in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kentucky and Florida — adding nearly 20 locations alone since 2019.

With that much expansion, passing on the culture and standards the brand is well-known for would seem to be a challenge. However, Steven said it’s been learned across their locations by employees experiencing it. 

“Culture isn’t something that happens overnight, and we always learn something new from each and every acquisition,” said Steven. “Sometimes it’s best to try not to rock the boat too much and let them see our culture through action and experiences. It usually clicks when they’re having the time of their life on some crazy adventure they never thought they’d do.”

For Lindsay Randall, the executive director of organizational health at Genesis Health Clubs, the increased intentionality behind the company’s culture has helped it make a lasting impact on both staff and members. 

“As we’ve grown pretty rapidly over the past 10 years, we’ve realized the importance of a more disciplined approach to building and managing our company culture,” said Randall. “We’ve defined it, built programs to help communicate it throughout the organization, and have begun the work of operationalizing it through refined systems and workflows.”

Randall explained as a team, they know who they are and what they’re here to do — that’s to build trusting relationships with each other and members so they can positively impact lives in the communities they serve through health and fitness. 

“Every day we come to work, Genesis team members, individually and collectively, have the opportunity to connect with people, build real relationships, and use our skills and talents to help people achieve goals and results that make their lives better,” explained Randall. “We don’t sell health club memberships. We sell results for life. We’re in the business of impacting lives, and that’s a pretty fun business to be in.” 

At the end of the day, Steven has set an example of living out the core values. More than just a plaque on the wall, the five values are an expectation of every single employee from executive to front desk. When carried out well, the company, the employees and the members see significant growth, and it’s clear Genesis isn’t slowing down anytime soon. 

“The future belongs to those who believe in it, and we believe,” said Riveros. “Genesis’ tremendous growth has transformed many of our employees’ lives based on the opportunities that have been created through our growth. Our consistent growth means more and better for our teams. We have a bias for producers and performers and truly reward them for their efforts.”