“Could you give up champagne?” ​JJ​, my fierce and tiny trainer, asked? I didn’t even hesitate in responding, “Absolutely not!” — was she crazy?!?

She paused for a moment and said, “I know it’s part of your luxury brand, and you feel like it’s part of your identity, but it’s not helping you achieve your goals.”

Argh, I hated hearing those words, especially knowing deep down, she was right. Don’t you hate it when someone you trust on your team shares something with you that you don’t want to hear? I agreed to give it up for 100 days.

Why 100 days? If you want to hear more of why I gave up champagne, ​you can read our blog here​.

Did I miss the champagne? Surprisingly no. I slept better, built muscle, lost (a minuscule bit) of weight, confidently said no (even to some of my fave people and champagnes), and proved to myself we can do anything we put our minds to — especially if we trust the team around us.

Sometimes we need a truth-teller, an ​advocate​, and someone who can speak into our lives that we trust to help elevate the way we show up in the world as luxury leaders.

I do that for my executive coaching clients, and I have brilliant people I have chosen to be in my luxury support team who do that for me. ​You can see my luxury support here.​ Shout out to Jen, Sue, Tif, Pam, Mike, Nancy, and JJ who all keep me functioning allowing me to do what I love to do!

Your support team allows you to focus your time, attention and energy on your strengths to drive the business and achieve your goals. Sometimes, that means the hard-truths.

What can you Elevate in your team and leadership style?

Remember, luxury leadership is being the best of the best. As a leader you set the standard and influence how people experience you and your organization’s brand.

We can all agree, luxury experiences are the ultimate in exceeding expectations. Luxury experiences are often about anticipating needs people didn’t even know existed. That’s as true for your working environment as it is for your special vacation.

Leading at the luxury level requires a ​luxury mindset​, and to lead a team of people who are also willing to communicate powerfully, activate thoughtfully, and elevate continuously for your clients and your colleagues.

When I work with leaders — whether it’s 1:1 in our executive strategy work or when I am facilitating their retreats to develop strategic plans — I use our model of communicate, activate, and elevate as a framework to help them increase market share and competitive advantage by leveraging the talents of their team. You might know, my theme for 2024 is Elevate and that means business, health, fitness, relationships, and professional development.

Sometimes to elevate, we have to identify what is dragging us down, or preventing us from achieving our goals. We also have to ensure we have the right resources, tools, and team around us to achieve our big goals.

My suggestion for that is a quick review of the possible barriers or roadblock you are experiencing and identify any gaps you might have.

Schedule a 60-minute leadership appointment with yourself (don’t tell me you don’t have time, that’s rubbish, YOU are worth the time) and conduct a quarterly review; ask yourself these questions:

• What is your market size?
• What is your market share?
• Are these numbers where you want and need them to be?
• If not, why not and what will you do about it?
• Who is on your team?
• Do you have any talent gaps you need to fill?
• What do you read?
• What do you listen to?
• Do you share your learnings with your team from the books, podcasts, TED talks, and white papers to help develop stronger leaders?
• Who are your coaches?
• Who are your advocates?
• How does your leadership style impact your team?
• Who is on your support team?
• What level of support do you need?

Once you’ve done this exercise, you’re able to tackle the areas that need your attention the most, what needs to be communicated more effectively, and what can be elevated even higher to not only level up your own performance, but your team’s as well.

I’d love to hear the results of this exercise when you’re done, and if you have any questions about some of your findings — or need someone in your life to be your truth-teller about the results — I’m happy to help. Email me! 

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