As a business travel manager, you doubtlessly want to do a good job for the company.
It’s also probably safe to say that you want to do a great job for your employees as well.
One of the key responsibilities of a travel manager is to facilitate better, easier, more efficient corporate travel.
It’s also your responsibility to help keep the employees safe while they travel—and to make sure that they have everything they need to succeed at their objectives.
With all that being said, showing up as a strong business travel manager will require you to champion a wide range of skills and abilities.
And in this blog post, you’re going to learn about 5 of the most important traits to embody as you embark upon the journey of becoming the best business travel manager possible.
Table of Contents
1. Be Prepared
Whenever you’re sending employees or teams abroad to work remotely in other locations, you’re going to be spending resources and putting company assets on the line.
Therefore, it’s really important that you be mindful of the needed preparations that’ll be required to make these work trips go as smoothly as possible.
But in order to facilitate this, it’ll be important that you show up prepared and ready to do your part in the process.
There will also be a lot of planning involved.
Being prepared might mean doing a lot more work than everyone else in the front end so that the process can be less impeded and move smoother on the back end.
This is part of your responsibility as a travel manager.
2. Understand The Objective
As a business travel manager, it’s crucial for you to understand exactly what your objective is in sending teams to remote locations.
If you don’t understand this, then you can waste valuable company assets and resources by focusing on the wrong things.
Remember, leadership is partly a critical thinking exercise.
It’s really important that you figure out what needs to be done to successfully facilitate a successful work project, and then make decisions that will lead the team to that objective.
3. Listen To Your Team
Listening to your team is another foundational part of being a successful travel manager.
Listen, traveling can be a stressful thing.
Your employees and team members are getting ready to leave their homes to travel for the company—and they’re going to need you to listen and be understanding as they do it.
This has to come before your own convenience as an employee for the company.
As a leader, you’re going to have to take responsibility for this part of the mission.
A lot of managers like to think of their job as just being one where they tell other people what to do, instead of doing it themselves.
But this is completely the wrong way to think of leadership.
Leadership is actually a very sacrificial, service-oriented position where you serve your team.
If you’re not working harder than anyone else, as the leader, you’re definitely doing something wrong.
And listening to your team is an important part of that process.
4. Know The Landscape
As a business travel manager, hopefully, you have a certain measure of experience in this particular area.
If you don’t, then you should really start studying up to learn as much as you can.
You should also learn from people who know more than you do.
But knowing the landscape, and knowing how to help your team navigate potential pitfalls, is crucial.
What you don’t want to do is lead your team naively into disaster.
5. Secure The Best Possible Accommodations
Accommodations are your team’s home away from home.
This may mean securing blocks of hotel rooms, extended stay hotel rooms, or even short-term rentals.
But in any case, the goal is to find the best possible accommodations to help your team thrive while they’re out and about on the road traveling and working remotely.
This is a huge responsibility—and the travel manager must be up to the task.
So put in a bit of extra work on this, and make sure that you’re doing your due diligence.
Conclusion
There you have it.
How to show up stronger as a business travel manager—and 6 concise, strategic tips to make that happen.
You’ve got this.
Now get out there and get it done.