Let’s be honest, who does not enjoy travelling? Being able to meet new people, explore different cultures, collect experiences and create endless memories with your loved ones are some of the best parts of travelling.
Whilst having an amazing experience, we are going to take you through a series of reflection pieces on how travelling can provide you with 6 valuable transferable skills into your personal and professional journey. You may be surprised at how versatile these skills are!
Networking
It is pretty common practice to utilise our communication skills in order to complete many tasks, whether it is asking for an attraction recommendation, sharing travel stories or even booking a tour. By doing this, we are evolving the attribute of networking. To be a powerful networker, we need to be comfortable communicating our thoughts, ideologies and facts whilst also being effective listeners, demonstrating empathy and displaying adequate non-verbal skills. These are key qualities we readily develop whilst travelling and which can be applied during our professional journeys. Interacting with fellow travellers and integrating with locals can enable us to become far more comfortable and confident in building professional networks, for example, meeting new people at networking events.
When connecting with fellow travellers, sharing our experiences and highlighting similar interests, we are also gaining a deeper understanding of the person behind the story, often in a short space of time. This is a key element to nurture whilst in a professional setting. Being able to relate to our colleagues on a personal level whilst also having a professional relationship allows us to effectively collaborate, but importantly enjoy working together. Having a positive work culture should be at the pinnacle of our working ethos and will help drive our careers.
I am sure many of us have interacted with locals whilst travelling, truly making an effort to embrace and understand the culture. At times there could be a language barrier, hence we must improvise, learn key phrases in advance or even utilise translation websites. If you have explored any of these areas, you are developing a life-skill whilst travelling which can be utilised to develop your career.
These experiences can translate into the working environment, for example; presenting our data/research to a team in a formal and persuasive manner and accounting for a vast array of technical literate level colleagues in the audience, whilst appropriately delivering our material. In order to truly engage the listeners, we must ensure that we pitch the presentation across all viewers persona, adapt to the environment, and aim to have an open body language. This will become more familiar as we develop our skillset under the umbrella of networking and lead the way for successful presentations in the future.
Team Player
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs.
Let’s take an opportunity to really reflect on the quote by Steve Jobs, highlighting that the success of any business achieving great things are always completed in collaboration by a team and never a sole individual. Can you reflect on a successful project in your professional and personal journey and truthfully state you achieved this in complete silo, or did you coordinate and work as an effective team player? Drop a comment below or email us as we would love to hear from you!
More often than not, we are team players working as part of or perhaps leading a team.
When we are travelling, there have undoubtedly been times when we have encountered situations such as being part of a group that has different activity agendas, cuisine choices, or even being with a partner who has a different preference on a specific situation. To effectively come to a conclusion, we must appreciate other opinions, understand their desires, respect their viewpoint and whilst displaying these traits, it is important to actively listen. It would be inefficient and ineffective for us to assist with solution finding without having fully digested the information presented. By taking this developed skill and applying it in our careers, we are likely to notice a drive in efficiency and higher quality output.
Being mindful of others around us is a practice we should all appreciate and incorporate in our daily activities. It will allow us all to have a peaceful, harmonious and positive relationship, both in our personal and professional setting.
Key aspects to take from travel learnings into our professional setting:
- Establish and utilise each team member’s strength
- Draw on previous experience that others may have and allow them to openly share this
- Outline an agreed method of working
- Understand team members communication preferences and aim to incorporate them
- Respect the thoughts and opinions of others
Executive Decision Making
If we didn’t display executive decision making characteristics in making plans prior to and during the travels, chances are we would never get to a position of even departing for our trip! So, it is safe to say there is already an element of this skill within us; however, we will explore how this is elevated further during travelling and how it can be implemented to develop our careers.
This also ties in with being a team player, as communicating with others and effectively problem solving also require executive decisions to be made. During our travels, when balancing information to arrive at a result on a particular activity, dining choice, route option or any other scenario, we are applying logical thinking, acting mindfully and being considerate of others. Nevertheless, a decision must be made in order to move forward and get the best out of our travels.
Applying the principle of analysing information, respecting other views, arriving at a decision with a concrete rationale allows us to become well-rounded, trusted and reliable professionals. This can help with making decisions in the workplace, such as strategic decisions, recruitment decisions or even financial decisions. In making these decisions, we should be mindful of how we deliver the information, as both verbal and non-verbal delivery are equally important. These are key traits that we must display in our professional journey in order to excel in our careers, as executive decision making lies at the pillar of driving business forward.
Agile
As a result, of COVID-19 we have already shown a degree of agility in our personal and professional live, having been forced to collaborate with teams globally whilst working from home and continuing to drive our projects forward. In relation to travelling, it is also common that plans can change due to unforeseen circumstances. In these situations, we need to have an agile mindset to adapt to the situation, be creative and develop new plans in a timely fashion to maximise our travel experiences. Being able to “think outside of the box” and highlight our creativity also drives innovation. Therefore, by applying these skills in a professional setting, we are able to develop ourselves as well as the business, delivering on the ultimate goal of progressing our careers.
Along the way, we may find that we network with fellow travellers, perhaps decide to stay longer in one location or are forced to change plans as a result of bad weather, for example. As a result of having an agile mindset, we are therefore able to easily adjust our original schedule. This principle can be applied in a professional setting, in project management, and either leading or working as part of a team, as obstacles will inevitably occur, causing us to change tact. It is important to not be discouraged from this situation, but to act in an agile manner, work effectively and keep the end goal in sight.
Additionally, agility helps us to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and try new activities on our travels, for example, bungee jumping, abseiling or being adventurous with local cuisines! Taking this principle and applying it within the professional setting can be extremely useful for our career. We may be a lot quicker to volunteer to deliver presentations, lead on projects or even go on secondments with our new found confidence.
We should ensure to utilise the resources we have available, network with experienced professionals, and learn from one another. Having an agile mindset will allow us to reach our key milestones effectively. To assist, we have developed a FREE career development road map for you:
Open Minded
When travelling, the most effective way to learn about the location, get advice and top tips is to network with locals or other travellers, and more importantly be open minded to receiving this information. Ensure to respect others views on their preferences and recommendations, not judging their opinion and being courteous for their assistance. Having exposure to different cultures in our travels for example makes us more likely to be respectful and have an awareness of cultures, faiths and religions and appreciate the importance of diversity in the workplace. This is particularly important as diversity and inclusion goals are becoming a higher priority for employers.
It is important to allow others to freely express themselves, communicate their views and suggestions. This is incredibly translatable to the working environment as we should all aim to allow everyone to bring their best selves to work and feel appreciated. This is only possible by embracing and practicing an open-minded culture. From this, we will be able to maximise efficiency, output and boost the team morale. As previously highlighted, having a positive and open work ethos is incredibly powerful and you will be rewarded as this allows you to develop your career.
Ensure to apply an open mind in projects and teamwork through accepting challenging feedback, overcoming obstacles and stress testing proposals in a professional manner. Being open minded goes hand in hand with agility to drive innovation.
Time Management
The final key skill we will highlight from travelling that can be implemented in a professional setting is time management. The principle of time management works in a similar fashion to executive decision making. We would not have progressed very far with our travels if it was not for our already effective time management as otherwise, we may have missed our mode of transport to reach our destination, not booked our accommodation, or allocated annual leave to name a few situations.
The majority of people have a return ticket booked when they travel or have secured a means of return on departure. All the pre-activity formalities need to be completed in a timely fashion and adequate location research needs to be done in advance of departing to maximise time at the destination. This could include locating the top sunrise/sunset spots, best local restaurant reservations and quickest routes to a recommended attraction. In order to achieve all of these, we are required to implement effective time management by planning ahead, building in buffers to our schedules, and being realistic about how much time should be allocated to a task.
It is imperative that the attribute of time management is displayed during our personal and professional journey as we may at times be handling multiple tasks at once with different deadlines, or have multiple meetings to attend in a day.
To assist with this, we should prioritise our tasks, review our progress periodically, assign time blocks to complete activities and be open to request assistance if required. Being an effective professional requires utilising the time available and maximising output during a given period.
We have covered 6 valuable travelling skills that will develop your career
To summarise the 6 travelling skills that we have covered are:
- Networking
- Team Player
- Executive Decision Making
- Agile
- Open Minded
- Time Management
From these skills and reflecting on travel experiences, we are confident that the above-mentioned skills can be translated into your professional journey and that you can demonstrate the following elements:
- Ability to be a confident communicator
- Respectfully work as part or lead a team
- Take appropriate lead to make decisions
- Be adaptable to evolving circumstances
- Allow you to broaden your perspective to new scenarios
- Balance multiple elements during working practice whilst performing above and beyond
Enjoy your travels and always reflect as every experience you encounter is part of your personal and professional development. These events have the ability to develop your career significantly.
Get in touch to share any additional skills.
