Many leaders overcorrect in one of two directions. Some become highly encouraging but avoid accountability because they do not want to discourage people. Others become highly demanding but rarely encourage, believing standards alone should be enough. Both approaches create weakness. The strongest companies, especially in luxury, understand something more disciplined: people grow best when they are both challenged and supported.
That is not sentiment. It is operating reality.
Richemont’s latest annual report is unusually clear on this point. The Group says it wants to foster “a mature leadership culture which promotes responsibility and accountability,” while also creating “a sense of belonging” grounded in courage, empathy, curiosity, integrity, and solidarity. That pairing matters. It refuses the false choice between standards and humanity. It suggests that a serious company does not become stronger by choosing one and sacrificing the other. It becomes stronger by learning how to hold both at the same time.
Entrepreneurs especially need to understand this because growing companies are full of unfinished people doing important work under pressure. Teams need to know what is expected, and they need to believe that leadership is invested in helping them meet those expectations. That combination creates movement. In luxury retail, where the standard has to be lived in the boutique, in the workshop, and in the client relationship, this is even more visible. Cartier’s Academy of Commercial Talents is built around exactly that kind of logic. It does not simply recruit people into a client-facing role. It creates a path into the Maison, which implies both expectation and support.
Accountability provides structure. It clarifies standards. It communicates that the work matters, that details matter, and that commitments matter. A company without accountability becomes blurry. People stop knowing what good looks like. Performance issues linger too long. Strong team members become frustrated because standards feel optional. LVMH’s Métiers d’Excellence language captures this beautifully. The Group explicitly says it encourages mentoring and coaching while passing on skills from one generation to the next. That is not loose encouragement. It is disciplined transmission. The standard is real enough to teach, preserve, and insist upon.
Encouragement provides energy. It reminds people that growth is possible. It acknowledges effort, progress, and courage. It tells people they are not invisible and that leadership sees more than their most recent mistake. Prada Group’s sustainability reporting repeatedly frames training, education, and inclusion as part of how the Group protects its future. That is a useful way to think about encouragement. It is not decorative praise. It is an operating belief that people are capable of becoming more than they are today, and that a company should invest accordingly.
The key is that neither should cancel out the other. Encouragement should not soften standards into ambiguity. Accountability should not strip humanity from the workplace. The strongest leaders deliver truth in a way that helps people move forward rather than shut down. You can see this in the way luxury houses talk about education and transmission. Cartier’s broader commitments to education describe “building bridges” between internal and external ecosystems and encouraging curiosity, learning, and participation. That language is telling because it is developmental without being indulgent. It assumes growth requires both access and expectation.
This is one reason coaching matters so much. Good coaching sounds different from venting. It is precise. It addresses what happened, explains why it matters, and points toward what better looks like. It can be firm without being demeaning. It can be encouraging without becoming vague. You can hear that balance even in LVMH’s own job language. A recent store manager posting for Fendi’s described leadership as building “an encouraging and positive environment” while also using goal setting, performance monitoring, and timely feedback. That is the practical craft of leadership. The leader is not asked to choose between support and standards. The role assumes both.
There is also a trust dimension here. People tend to receive accountability better when they know it comes from someone who genuinely wants them to succeed. In that sense, encouragement prepares the ground for accountability. It establishes belief. Then accountability can function as refinement rather than punishment. Richemont’s reporting again is useful because it ties belonging directly to responsibility and accountability. That is a subtle but important point. Belonging is not presented as softness. It is presented as part of the environment that allows adults to be held seriously.
For entrepreneurs, building this balance into the culture pays long-term dividends. Teams become stronger because they know they will be held to standards. They become more resilient because they also know that mistakes can become part of development rather than reasons for dismissal or shame. That is part of why luxury houses invest so much in schools, institutes, and talent pathways. Hermès, Cartier, Prada, and LVMH all reflect, in different ways, the same deeper conviction: excellence is transmitted through high expectations carried inside a human system of teaching, correction, and belief.
At Sudsies, I think this is just as true. A strong service culture cannot run on accountability alone. If people only fear being wrong, they will become careful in the wrong way. They will protect themselves instead of improving the guest experience. But encouragement alone is not enough either. Without clear standards, hospitality becomes imprecise and execution becomes uneven. The real craft of leadership is learning how to tell someone, at the same time, “this is not good enough yet” and “I believe you can get there.” That is where growth begins.
If leadership wants both excellence and loyalty, it cannot choose between accountability and encouragement. It has to practice both well. In the best companies, those two disciplines do not compete with one another. They reinforce one another. Accountability gives the work seriousness. Encouragement gives the person energy. Together, they create the kind of environment where people do not merely comply. They develop.
Selected references and further reading
Richemont, Annual Report and Accounts 2025, on belonging, responsibility, accountability, and mature leadership culture.
https://www.richemont.com/media/ue1bjrjv/richemont-fy25-annual-report-en.pdf
Richemont, Non-Financial Report 2025, on belonging, continuous career development, and accountability.
https://www.richemont.com/media/3vwfatyf/richemont-non-financial-report-2025.pdf
LVMH, Métiers d’Excellence, on mentoring, coaching, and passing on skills from one generation to the next.
https://www.lvmh.com/en/join-us/lvmh-metiers-dexcellence
Cartier Careers, Academy of Commercial Talents, on creating a luxury retail career path through structured learning.
https://careers.cartier.com/actalent
Cartier, Commitments to Education, on supporting future luxury leaders through academic and institutional partnerships.
https://www.cartier.com/en-th/la-maison/cartiers-commitments/educational-patronage/
Prada Group, Sustainability Report 2025, on training, people development, and inclusion as part of long-term performance.
https://www.pradagroup.com/content/dam/pradagroup/documents/Shareholderinformation/2026/inglese/e_Sustainability-Report-2025.pdf
Fendi / LVMH job materials, on building an encouraging environment while using goals, performance monitoring, and timely feedback.
https://www.lvmh.com/en/join-us/our-job-offers/FEND04361
Cartier, Cartier Institutes, on passing down knowledge and innovation to teams and training new talent.
https://www.cartier.com/en-ae/la-maison/cartiers-commitments/educational-patronage/