The reluctant leader Barack Obama 44th President Of all modern political figures, Barack Obama is the one that is most often cited as being a reluctant leader. Obama’s journey [...]

Decoding British Politeness British Manners For a British person, the Twitter account of Very British Problems can be at once entertaining and mortifying. Entertaining, as they manage to nail [...]

The Art of Flattery - are you doing it right? how do you go from a seemingly off the cuff pleasant comment to persuasion? And if it’s so useful, how do [...]

Combatting negativity in the workplace Workplace Negativity The Negative Individual Sportsman John Brodie said: “There are certain times when an entire team will leap up a few [...]

National Hug Your Boss Day National Hug Your Boss Day Jurgen Klopp is a fan, so is Barack Obama, whilst Ken Nwadike thinks they are so powerful that he created [...]

Are you an Introvert, Extrovert or Ambivert? Introvert, extrovert, ambivert Our world favours extroverts, says author Susan Cain. Cain suggests we are conditioned from a young age to see introvert characteristics [...]

5 Tips for Closing a Sale The Journey I have completed, and sometimes endured, a wealth of training courses to enhance my sales abilities and develop my awareness of a client’s [...]

 George VI - The reluctant leader King George VI Always destined for greatness He was a natural leader, always destined for greatness. These are platitudes often heaped upon [...]

Radical Candour Telling it like it is... If you pride yourself on your care and consideration for colleagues and your ability to sidestep potential conflict, you might smugly consider yourself to be doing rather well. [...]

International Business Etiquette - Asia Etiquette in Asia Business etiquette is concerned with socially acceptable ways of behaving in a professional environment, and is so intrinsically linked to our culture that it’s probably something that [...]

Beat your public speaking demons A fate worse than death When academic Wallechinsky found that 42% of respondents had a fear of public speaking versus 19% that feared death, it only made us worry about [...]

Politician series: Theresa May It can’t be easy to be Theresa May. The comparisons to Thatcher, the near obsession with her shoe collection rather than her policies and the famous “bloody difficult” aspersions to name [...]

The new business buzzword: Servitization   Servitization is the moniker of choice in the UK and US for the focus on service in developed economies, and the theory is simple enough. Move from selling goods [...]

So um it begins like this   "You sound stupid" Sheryl Sandberg once told an employee that she sounded “stupid” when she said ‘um’ a lot during a presentation. The employee, Kim Scott, took this [...]

Developing your business.  Part III: Production   There are a number of routes you can take to develop your business, the correct one(s) will of course depend upon the unique characteristics of your business, market [...]

Developing your business. Part II: Product/service development   For business development to be successful we need to be clear about what it is, namely a consistent, considered approach to improving business growth through profits, product/service [...]

Developing your business.  Part One - Sales Business development is one of those terms that we all hear bandied about with reckless abandon but what does it actually mean? In real terms business development is [...]

You expect Me to serve You? Arrogance: a heightened sense of self-importance, overt pride and a behaviour of superiority over others. We might seek to avoid those we consider to be arrogant, but what if arrogance [...]

Are you from the dark side? Are you from the dark side? You have both light and dark personality traits If you’re a Star Wars fan you’ll no doubt be familiar with the [...]

Soft Skills Style Secrets: Greta Garbo We’ve looked at high profile names for whom the term ‘soft-skills’ could have been penned for but what about those in the limelight who struggle to reconcile the necessary [...]

Creating a professional image at work When ‘What to Wear at Work’ was sent to us from Jermyn Street shirt-maker T.M. Lewin, it got us thinking about a topic that is close to our hearts- creating [...]

4 ways of creating a happiness culture As in everyday culture, organisational culture is all about values. To a large extent, culture dictates what we think, how we are influenced by those around us and [...]

Well saved! 6 steps to service recovery Success as a business comes in your ability to provide first rate service, but what happens when something goes wrong? […]

Customer Service staff ‘getting their own back’ Have you travelled to America recently, or India? Ever wondered at the difference in the customer service offered in the host country to what you offer at home? [...]

Luxury is only luxury if… Dr. Yasmin Sekhon of the University of Southampton’s Winchester Luxury Research Group has undertaken a study (2015) looking at attitudes of second generation British Asian Indians towards luxury. We looked [...]

The 5 most difficult office archetypes. Let’s face it, we can all have an off day in the office. Maybe we’ve had a busy weekend, are feeling a little tired and grouchy, and have left [...]

Soft Skills Style Secrets:  Queen Elizabeth II On the 21st April 1926, our Queen, Elizabeth II was born. To celebrate Her Majesty’s 90th birthday, we look at The Queen’s soft skills style secrets. Elizabeth II [...]

Delivering luxurious customer experience Luxury exists in its own perfectly appointed bubble, a refined world set a little apart from the masses where buzzwords like engagement, sense of place, authentic experiences and customer honesty have [...]

Creating brand love There are different types of love each with its own characteristics, the love of a parent for a child, romantic love for a partner, even altruistic love and so too brand love [...]

The man who saved Britain. 6 leadership lessons from F. D Roosevelt Changing the opinions of others and bringing them on side with your plans and policies is key to success as a leader. On [...]

Charm; that intoxicating ability to draw others in and draw them out, to set another at their ease so completely that their interview nerves are eradicated, the skills to make another person feel like the [...]

On the 11th Feb 1975, Margaret Thatcher became Great Britain’s first and only female leader and was the longest continuously serving PM in the 20th century- 1979-1990. What can Thatcher teach us about the use [...]

30th January 2016; 65 years since the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, we ask what he can teach us about leadership. Mahatma meaning Great Soul “Those with self-control don’t need to control others”, so said Mohandas [...]

Paul Russell of Luxury Academy London considers how to improve customer service skills in your business. Eyes alert, smile ready, the advisor awaits the arrival of their latest customer, a customer that they will be [...]

Luxury Academy Managing Director, Paul Russell shares his new year’s resolutions and talks us through setting, and achieving, our own. January, a time to alter and change, emerging sylph like from the withered chrysalis of [...]

Ever wondered if your star sign has anything to do with how you lead?  Just for fun let's take a look! The attempt to link effective leadership to specific traits is not new, with aspects [...]

Even in the luxury industry, where it can look from the outside as if every day is Christmas Day, Christmas comes but once a year. As shops close and offices empty, as the last train [...]

Christmas, a time for giving something back to those we love, a time for creating precious memories and when it comes to luxury hotels, for strengthening relationships with customers. As merry groups of guests descend [...]

Today, December 15th, marks 125 years since the death of Sitting Bull. Holding an unprecedented position as leader of the Sioux, we consider his personal and team developmental leadership skills. Leader of the Sioux Sitting [...]

16th Century Image Management When considering the broad remit of a leader, managing personal image can often be the middle-child, a little forgotten with concerns of the first born and youngest demanding attention. With their [...]

On the 30th November 1874, Winston Churchill was born. 141 years to the day, we look at what he can teach us about leadership. Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; grandson of the Duke of Marlborough, chancellor, home [...]

Successful leadership isn’t about leading from afar Successful leadership isn’t about stamping authority, leading from afar, issuing directives that are all façade with no depth of understanding behind them. It’s a motivating force that comes [...]

Flex your networking muscles With a raft of professional connections at the end of our fingertips it is easy for us to mindlessly tick the networking box, yes of course we’re good at it- we [...]

The execution In the third and final in our series of marketing guides for luxury service providers, we look at the culmination of the preparation and planning- the execution. We consider how you can engage [...]

The plan In our last post we looked at the preparation aspects of luxury service provider differentiation, customer connection with the provider’s identity and customer experience management. This week we consider how the ideas generated [...]

The preparation Achieving standout in a competitive market is a long, often difficult journey for luxury service providers; how to differentiate, how to connect with customers in a meaningful way, and how to ensure positive [...]

Marcel Pagnol’s Provencal tragedy, Jean de Florette, tells the story of a Parisian who inherits land that his covetous neighbours, the Soubeyrans, had expected would be theirs. What confused the Soubeyrans was that the sophisticated, [...]

The most important relationship in the service industry is the one between employee and customer. And what first appeals can, over time, repel; customer requirements can morph from opportunities to enhance experience into tiresome problems, [...]

A uniformed doorman welcomes with a smile, plush carpet underfoot, a relaxed ambience, tasteful décor highlighting the luxury creations on display; welcome to the world of luxury where the affluent shop for everything from an [...]

The mentor mentee relationship comes in many guises and can be part of a formal structured programme initiated by the organisation or a more spontaneous arrangement developed between two people. Whether the mentoring situation is [...]

Life is a succession of risks. Every day of our lives we face a variety of risks, from crossing the road to flying an aircraft, most of which we take calmly in our stride. We [...]

As you go through life, you will be presented with three  or four major opportunities of one sort or another. By the time you are in your mid-20s, on average, you will have already walked [...]

Training is like sex and driving. Everybody thinks that they can do it and everybody thinks that they are going to be good at it. Managing Directors do it, Sales Directors do it, Personnel Managers [...]

What to think about before making your move. We all know or have met the old-style manager who’s been there, done it all, has the T-shirt AND the mug and is a great fan of [...]

Why is it that some people manage to balance a veritable heaped smorgasbord of items on their workday to-do list, items that are both varied and plentiful, whilst others appear to topple and sway under [...]

Britain has traditionally been synonymous with proper manners and correct etiquette but has the current predilection in the country for the vacuous celebrity lifestyle stolen our appetite for the once ubiquitous social arts? And might [...]

Not so very long ago, luxury was about things. Luxury had its signifiers in the material world,  badged and marked with unimpeachably luxurious names that had the power of instant recognition. They haven’t gone away; [...]

Checking out the mystery guest In hotels across the world, managers and their teams are hard at work, maintaining standards, improving service and adding value to their guests’ experience. But how to establish that these [...]

Like language, business and social etiquette and protocols evolve over time. Unlike language, there are no phrase books or handy formulations to learn and parrot when the occasion demands. Researching the customs of the country, [...]