How Business Travel Can Lead to Personal Development  

The daughter of a friend of mine recently remarked, “Your job is so cool. You get to travel all the time. I want a job like yours.” This prompted some reflection. What is the enjoyable part of traveling for a job? Why do business travelers put up with the headaches of packing, unpacking and repacking, the hassles of lost or delayed luggage, the sleeplessness of jet lag and the seemingly endless hours of work?  The opportunity for growth that traveling professionals have outweighs the drawbacks.

Business Travel and Personal Development

Some positions require international travel from five to eight times per year, for one to three weeks at a time. This amounts to about 25% of time away from a home office. Business travel has become pretty routine for many professional women, and women logging in thousands of travel miles a year often forget that business travel may be viewed as “cool” by those who don’t travel for their jobs or who are thinking about their future career.

Is business travel a benefit or a burden? There are different perspectives on this. In some companies, business trips are the reward for a job well done. For example, salespeople who exceed their quotas may be sent to a tropical island for a few hours of meetings and a couple days of golf, dining and celebrating. In other cases, the travel is required to deliver a project and may mean over 75% of time spent away from home and family. Executing the work on the project may involve long hours and very little free time. In these cases, the travel can be exhausting and even damaging to health and relationships.

There is a type of business travel that falls somewhere between travel as a reward and a rigorous job requirement. Of course, there’s work to be done and a business benefit of the travel being paid for by the company, but there are also personal benefits for the traveler beyond the expense account. Think of business travel as part of a personal development plan. Dealing with airline delays and overbooked hotels develops patience and agility.  Having to communicate clearly and effectively with non-native speakers helps develop listening and presentation skills. Meeting with colleagues in their home city or country provides a chance to learn about different cultures and ways of getting work done, adding tools to one’s professional toolbox and building effectiveness in different situations.

Making the Case for Getting on the Road

Finding best practices carried out in other locations is a great way to build a business case for someone to travel to a new destination, learn more and then replicate what was experienced back at the home office. For example, a new job transpires and the opportunity to travel has not been mentioned. One effective way to make a business case for a face-to-face meeting is when there is a problem to solve, a “burning platform,” in which a specific result must be achieved quickly. Multiple and diverse minds working on a problem is more powerful than individuals working separately. However, even without “a burning platform,” one can still identify opportunities within an organization that could benefit from a “group think”.  The best way to find opportunities is to talk to people. Have a process that works really well and delivers great results? Find out who else in the company or network could benefit from leveraging the process. What problem are you struggling to solve? Seek out the experts in your company and create a plan of action to get a group together to solve the problem. Recognizing the need to make associations and develop a business case is valuable personal development.

The ability to see an opportunity and vocalize it is one thing, to convince management you are the person qualified to do the traveling is another. Speaking up and promoting one’s accomplishments is a personal development opportunity that will ensure the best person for the travel-related excursion is standing right in front of one in charge. For instance, perhaps a higher-up is unable to attend a business trip to visit a sister company.  Any driven professional woman should advocate for herself and proclaim her strengths and qualifications to management. With a confident proposal like that, she will hold the plane ticket in no time.

Embracing Local Cultures

Once landing in an unexplored domestic or foreign city, it’s best to adapt to local customs.  Every culture values some sort of handshake, a face to face meeting where two or more parties can sit across the table from each other. In some cultures, for example, business cannot be done without first having shared a few drinks. Researching customs and cultural norms prior to embarking on a trip can be proactive in preventing miscommunication or even a negative outcome of one’s visit to a foreign land.  Always have Japanese business cards on hand to give to your Japanese colleagues. This a fundamental condition of Japanese business etiquette. In addition to having them ready to give out, there are rules as to how to present them. Running late to a business meeting in Helsinki? Punctuality is revered in Finland, and one should make a phone call if running even 5 minutes late. Strengthening the relationship between cross-cultural colleagues by becoming educated on their business norms is profitable professional development that can mean the difference between success and failure of a business venture.

Business travel transports employees to exotic and wonderful places. Sipping Caipirinhas in Sao Paulo, cheering on the home team at AAA baseball games in Louisville, and dancing a waltz in a palace in Vienna are some perks to traveling while working. Business travel can seem “cool” and exciting, but one should remember that travel is not the goal itself. A company will only pay for travel if there is a business purpose. There’s a lot of work and plenty of inconveniences, but there are also rewards for the traveler. If one is open, observant and takes time to try new things, learning and personal development opportunities abound.