Melissa Xides was named president of Exclusive Resorts earlier this year after nearly three decades in fashion leadership. She says the leadership lessons she learned at brands like Bergdorf Goodman and Kate Spade are guiding her new role.courtesy of Exclusive ResortsAfter nearly three decades in executive roles at Bergdorf Goodman, Kate Spade, Tory Burch and Gap, Melissa Xides is bringing the leadership lessons she developed in fashion to a very different kind of business. Earlier this year, she was named president of Exclusive Resorts, the invitation-only luxury travel club with a $1 billion portfolio of private residences around the world. Founded in 2002, Exclusive Resorts has spent more than two decades building a loyal membership by offering something that goes beyond a vacation rental. Members pay an initiation fee and annual dues for access to more than 400 private residences. Members can also participate in rare journeys (African safaris, Formula One weekends) and curated experiences centered on passions like photography and culture. Dedicated Vacation Ambassadors handle everything from itinerary planning to restaurant reservations.Earlier this year, parent company Exclusive Investments launched The Exclusive Collective, expanding its portfolio of luxury travel brands to include now includes onefinestay and Inspirato. Exclusive Resorts is also expanding its own portfolio, most recently adding homes in destinations like Martha’s Vineyard, Aspen and Nova Scotia.Exclusive Resorts gives members access to more than 400 private residences around the world, along with curated travel experiences and dedicated Vacation Ambassadors. Pictured here: Bradbury Farmhouse in the Cotswolds.courtesy of Exclusive ResortsThroughout her career, Xides has built a reputation for guiding brands through periods of change. “What I have developed is a knack for coming into a brand at an inflection point, where it needs some transformation while preserving what makes the brand so special,” Xides told me in an interview.Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and chairman of Exclusive Resorts, believes Xides is the right person to help guide the company’s growth. “Melissa is an exceptional leader who understands that the future of luxury hospitality is built on personalization, trusted relationships and memorable experiences,” Case told me in an interview. “As a longtime member and investor, I know she is the right person to lead Exclusive Resorts into its next chapter.”Matt Marcotte, author of Built on Belief and a former colleague who worked with Xides at both Tory Burch and Bergdorf Goodman, says that’s exactly what has distinguished her as a leader. “Melissa has an extraordinary ability to connect strategy, operations and customer experience in a way that creates both business results and lasting loyalty,” Marcotte told me in an interview. “The respect she has earned throughout her career comes not only from what she has accomplished, but from how she has accomplished it.”Here are five pieces of career advice Xides has learned while helping grow some of retail’s best-known brands and how she’s applying those concepts to luxury travel.Exclusive Resorts offers members access to experiences ranging from golf retreats to African safaris and Formula One weekends. Pictured here: Fox Harb'r Resort, an oceanfront destination in Nova Scotia.courtesy of Exclusive Resorts1. Leave While You’re Still CuriousMany people wait until they’re burned out or unhappy before making a career change. Xides believes that’s often too late. When she left Bergdorf Goodman after seven years, she wasn’t looking to escape. She was looking to grow.“It wasn’t that I was unhappy,” she says. “It was sort of like, ‘What is it that I want to learn and how do I get out of my comfort zone?’” The move meant leaving an industry she’d spent nearly three decades helping shape for one where she had everything to learn. But rather than viewing that as a risk, she saw it as an opportunity to stretch herself.What ultimately convinced Xides to make the leap was recognizing that the skills she’d spent her career developing—building relationships, understanding customers, creating memorable experiences—could translate to a different business. “I thought there was a lot of similarity,” she says.A pier at Montage Palmetto Bluffcourtesy of Exclusive Resorts2. Don’t Assume You Have All The AnswersOne of Xides’ first priorities in any new role isn’t making decisions, it’s asking questions. When she joined Bergdorf Goodman, she spent her first 90 days meeting with roughly 900 employees, from sales associates and restaurant staff to alterations and housekeeping. The goal wasn’t to explain her vision. It was to understand theirs and to learn what made the 125-year-old institution special.She brought that same approach to Exclusive Resorts, spending her early months visiting properties, meeting employees in the field and speaking with more than 150 members. “That’s the fun part of the job—I don’t come in with any preconceived notions,” she says. “I’m on a fact-finding mission, listening to as much as I can about what makes the chemistry of this club.”The living room of Silver Peak Hideaway, an Exclusive Resorts residence in Aspen, Colorado.courtesy of Exclusive Resorts3. Grow The Team You InheritOne of Xides’ leadership principles is that a new job shouldn’t mean a new team. Rather than surrounding herself with familiar faces, she prefers to invest in the people who already know the business. At Bergdorf Goodman, all 12 of her direct reports remained with her throughout her tenure.“I don’t love to bring new people in,” she says. “I really love to retain and develop the existing teams that are there and make sure they’re ready to evolve and be modern and future-proof the business.”For Xides, investing in employees is the foundation for delivering exceptional service. “The teams are also my members,” she says. “If I have an expectation of how we treat the members, it starts with how we treat our employees.”Highlands Lodge is one of several Exclusive Resorts residences in Aspen.courtesy of Exclusive Resorts4. Protect What Makes A Brand Special For many executives, a new leadership role comes with pressure to make an immediate mark. Xides has built her career taking a different approach. She traces the philosophy back to her years helping scale founder-led brands including Kate Spade and Tory Burch. As those companies expanded rapidly, she learned that successful growth wasn’t about reinventing a brand. It was about preserving the qualities that made customers fall in love with it in the first place.That same mindset shaped her approach when she arrived at Exclusive Resorts. Rather than reinventing a company with more than two decades of history, she first wanted to understand what members and employees already valued. “I’m not trying to make my own mark,” she says. “I’m really trying to hone in on what was there already.”James Henderson, CEO of The Exclusive Collective, says that Xides’ philosophy is one of the reasons she’s such a natural fit. “Luxury, at its best, has never really been about products or places. It’s about relationships, knowing someone well enough to anticipate what matters to them before they ever ask,” he told me in an interview. He adds: “Melissa understands that instinctively. At Bergdorf Goodman, she helped steward one of the great relationship-based businesses in the world, where loyalty is built quietly, over time, through trust, taste and extraordinary care. That sensibility translates beautifully to Exclusive Resorts, because the business we’re truly in is not travel, it’s taking care of people and the lives they’re trying to build around the people they love most.”The lighthouse at Fox Harb'r Resort.courtesy of Exclusive Resorts5. Know What to Change (And What To Leave Alone)One of the hardest parts of leadership is deciding what deserves to stay and what needs to evolve. Xides encountered that balancing act almost immediately at Exclusive Resorts.While touring one of the club’s homes, a longtime member walked Xides through every detail of the property, including one feature he was determined to protect. “Don’t move that table by the pool,” he told her.She laughed, but she also had some news for him. “I had to tell him, ‘Dr. Maloney, I hate this couch. It’s got to come out. We’re removing the couch—but we’ll keep your table by the pool.’” The exchange captured one of the hardest balancing acts in leadership. “How do I listen to what they love, but then also politely push a little bit too on that evolution?” Xides says.It’s a balancing act Xides has encountered throughout her career and one of the most valuable pieces of career advice she has to offer: Listen carefully to what people value while knowing when it’s time to move things forward.MORE FROM FORBES:ForbesHow A Former Luxury Hotel Executive Is Reimagining Cruising For A New GenerationBy Laura Begley BloomForbesMeet The Fourth-Generation Leader Reinventing One Of France’s Most Iconic Hotel CompaniesBy Laura Begley BloomForbesFrom Dishwasher To CEO—How This Leader Is Shaping The Next Chapter At Viceroy HotelsBy Laura Begley Bloom