I truly believe we all have our individual superpower, we just need to find and embrace it. To give you my personal answer first: I am caught between "being a mum" or "being a travel-fairy"; it depends.
But it's not easy those days to find your personal and professional superpower or purpose when being confronted with all the superlatives around you. No one does a normal job anymore, all of us are expected to be ninjas, rock stars, squirrels, evangelists, gurus or demi-gods. All companies are beyond experienced, most knowledgeable, super successful, have the biggest net-gain and break world records in sales, performance and profit quicker than many of us break our New Year resolutions.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the breaking free of job titles; I truly believe we need to stop thinking in hierarchy layers and stop putting people in boxes. It is equally positive to think big. But while our roles have changed and will continue to change, the human element is what will make the difference in this world of superlatives. No matter if you are a ninja, a mum or a fairy (or all in one), it is the relationship element, the ability to connect to others and to continue to learn that will make the difference.
Travel is a human to human environment and it will continue to be. Adapting to new challenges without losing this element will be the strongest power within everyone.
A shift in the travel manager's superpower
For more than the last decade, I have been a travel manager (if I strip out job titles). Looking back, the superpower of a travel manager was to really multi-task, to do all at the same time and be a real subject matter expert: to take bookings (yes, it sometimes was like that!), negotiate deals with travel suppliers, please the VIPs and to start to professionalise everything. There was a nice number of standard suppliers to work with, you knew them inside out and quite frankly, there was no need to work with anyone else than the people you did business with since years.
Being a travel manager and having this superpower was not a bad job, quite the opposite, it was a really nice one. But the industry evolved, particularly the first huge change in commissions being cut. All of a sudden, the superpower of the travel manager shifted from managing a profit centre to being able to manage a cost centre and with this, being able to show value. I realised my first colleagues struggled with this.
Also, as corporations were hit by the economic downturn, people requested more processes, documentation and value-add. We started to commoditise travel. The first gurus and evangelists appeared and preached their views and claimed sourcing a category or commodity always follows the same scheme, no matter if you source airline deals, office paper or hotel rooms. Service was really not important for a short period of time, neither has been the human element or the user/traveller, solely cost and the pure theory of economy of scale was king.
Globalisation did its part as well; everything needed to be managed in the same way, same process, harmonisation, no matter if you managed five, 10, 35 or 90 countries. Teams have been growing and leadership and soft skills have simply been presupposed. The superpower of a travel manager all of a sudden shifted from a very local, very prestige and comfortable role as subject matter expert into being a team manager (maybe even virtual and across cultures), a sourcing expert, a budget owner and builder, a tough negotiator and a digitalisation expert. Let's not forget travel managers are also expected to be able to sell as buying became the new selling: selling a programme into the own business, selling advantages to user groups, selling contracted partners to stakeholders. And finally, also sometimes being in a very uncomfortable position to balance the absolute cost pressure and the ever-growing demand for more freedom of choice, better comfort and the full employee value and embracing this tough place in the corporate world.
Reflecting all those changes, it is not surprising that we all struggled, or still struggle, with it. I think you can easily transfer this to any role out there in our industry. I can only encourage everyone to embrace those changes and take some easy steps to adapt the human superpower within you.
Finding your own superpower
1. Know it
- Be more than a subject matter expert. Know your company, know the goals. Translate them into your departmental goals and make it and you relevant.
- Be curious and look beyond your own department - the magic happens out of your comfort zone and when travel gets connected to business goals or broader initiatives like wellbeing or safety.
- Learn new things and adapt. Nothing is as constant as change. Only if you are able to build resilience, you will manage to cope with the new requirements.
- Get into the details of local nuances. Global and having standards is fine but respecting and accepting local needs and differences will make you successful.
2. Own it
- Take responsibility, also for new tasks and areas. New skills like social selling or communication are essential.
- Travel is a niche for most companies. Make sure you stay relevant and make a difference.
- Shift happens so be a builder in your own area and embrace what is coming.
- Stay lean (and mean) and cut out waste. It's easier said than done but with starting with A and having a clear plan helps reaching Z.
3. Solve it
- The next cost-cutting exercise? The next big re-organisation? The next big service challenge? They will come. Don't hide and be prepared; sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel for it.
- Co-create and ask for help. There are certainly partners/suppliers, colleagues or external resources out there who can help. Asking for help or support (in strategy, tactics or pure operation) is nothing bad or a sign of weakness. It helps you achieving your goals faster. Only the best realise that getting help and working in partnership will drive value.
Finally, in all of this, take the bot out of the human. There are repetitive tasks and things which easily can be automated and handled by technology. Use your unique human nature to build relationships, learn from others and create an environment enabling change and embracing new challenges. And maybe you want to change your job title…