Dana Zificsak, CTIE
Introduction
When we first learned of COVID-19, we could not have imagined the effect this pandemic would have on our entire industry. As the Agency Development Manager, it is my job to develop resources for our agents’ professional growth, which will bring overall growth to the agency. This paper will discuss the three phases in agent support, which were influenced by the research associated with positive psychology, that our agency leadership team implemented to support our agents in the crisis.
The Leader’s Mindset
Leaders set the example for the company. While optimism is what we aim for, it does not mean we are always wearing rose-colored glasses. It means that we have to step back, assess, look at the big picture, and be a calm in the storm. Robert Iger explains,
Optimism emerges from faith in yourself and in the people who work for you. It’s not about saying things are good when they’re not, and it’s not about conveying some blind faith that “things will work out. It’s about believing in your and others’ abilities.1
It is on the leadership of the agency to lead in optimism. The agents need to feel confident in our ability to focus on what matters in order to set the tone of how we move forward. Additionally, Lee Cockerell, explains the attitude a leader exudes is contagious. A great leader, according to Cockerell, never stops looking to solutions for problems, when others would give up.
Like great parents, great leaders don’t wear the effects of bad days in front of others. It not only hurts your reputation but triggers worry and fear among your employees, rather than optimism.2
It took a lot of perspective-taking to handle the cancellations, date changes, commission losses, worried clients, and worried agents. It was an extremely challenging time for every person in our industry. It was a challenge to keep my perspective in check and have an optimistic view of where our industry was heading.
Being in a management role, I knew I had a responsibility to my agency owner, my colleagues in leadership roles, and my fellow agents. I am a trained educator and after 10 years in the classroom, I knew I needed to research. I listened to podcasts, watched videos, read books and articles on the topic of leading through a crisis. In my research perspective taking and positivity were themes I saw and heard again and again.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a lot of adversity for the travel industry. These changes were fast and drastic; however, evolution has made us very adaptable to change and even extreme circumstances.3 Shawn Achor explains,
Adversities, no matter what they are, simply don’t hit us as hard as we think they will. Just knowing this quirk of human psychology—that our fear of consequences is always worse than the consequences themselves—can help us move toward a more optimistic interpretation of the downs we will inevitably face. 3
The fear of the unknown with this pandemic was a heavy stressor. Throughout this time our agency leadership team collaborated and organized to help agents adapt, serve their clients, and grow their professionalism. I can hear Kelly Clarkson singing, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” right this moment.
The Three Phases of Handling a Crisis
Detailed below are the three phases we implemented for adapting to the crisis of COVID-19. To note: Since we are an agency of independent contractors all of the below activities, webinars, challenges, were an optional resource.
Phase 1: Acknowledgement
Recognizing that the first round of cancellations due to COVID-19 had a major impact on agents’ mindsets, we wanted our colleagues to know we were all in this together. We knew that the agents needed to regroup, our first action was to set up small group Zoom chats. We had a number of time slots, and experienced agents who volunteered to lead small groups. The objective of these conversations was to allow agents to vent, share some survival tips and let them know they are not alone. Optional discussion-guiding questions were provided for group leaders to start the conversation. The feedback from the groups was very positive, sometimes you just need to talk to people who “get it.”
We also held a teambuilding Zoom call with all agents who wished to attend. We utilized Kahoot to play an agent trivia game and it provided a connection and fun in a time when unknowns about the immediate future of our industry outweighed the knowns.
Wrapping up this phase was a webinar I prepared titled, “Put your Oxygen Mask on First.” Just like how flight attendants tell us to always put our masks on before helping someone else, I see a parallel in that we need to take care of ourselves.
This webinar had three objectives:
1. Using our vulnerability to grow our courage and power through this pandemic. For this I referenced Brene Brown, who is the expert on vulnerability and her advice started with, “Owning the feelings and embracing the suck.” We needed to normalize discomfort, put the situation in perspective, make realistic goals, and then survive coming out of this experience with new skills, new ideas, and new habits.4
2. The role positive thinking plays in how our brain functions. We watched a video clip from a Ted Talk with Shawn Achor explaining this phenomenon.5 Discussion was had about ways to develop positivity during a pandemic and we referenced an article from Forbes with 9 strategies to consider. A few of the strategies were: practice random acts of kindness, limit your news intake, and check-in with others.6
3. The presentation ended with a discussion on mindfulness and meditation.
In addition to agency-led resources, we utilized our consortium’s hosted webinars and those from travel experts.
• Travel Leaders Series with Mike Marchev, recordings in Agent Universe for Travel Leaders members
• Travel Research Online: Grounded. What’s Next? Our Team of Experts Speak Up
Phase 2: Service is the new selling
Customer service skills became our goal after “putting on our oxygen masks.” Our agency owner, Jen Kistler, and I developed a webinar on service and what that looks like right now. We asked our agents to see how they were connecting with clients and featured a good number of those ideas on the webinar.
The content of the webinar featured ways to connect with clients right now and then we went into specific skills to improve our customer service:
• Best Practices from Nancy Friedman, the Telephone Doctor
o Answering your phone effectively 7
o Five Frustrating Voicemail Messages 8
• Dealing with the Unhappy Client and problem solving—advice from our agency owner, Jen
• Tips for reconnecting with past clients
A good number of our agents attended a live webinar Jen and I planned with Nancy Friedman, who is a customer service keynote speaker. Her presentation on Golden Nuggets of Customer Service served as a valuable reminder of skills that build trusting relationships with clients. She
promoted the power of positivity and that one can hear a smile on the phone.
Our consortium, Travel Leaders, has provided us with ample resources and guides for the knowledge and information needed to help our clients navigate through this time. In practice, the COVID Toolkit, which is in Agent Universe, proved to be a very helpful tool in content created for connecting with clients and resources.
The following tools from their portal were extremely beneficial:
• Talking points on the facts of the virus, updated periodically
• Preferred supplier change and cancellation updates
• Marketing toolkit with ready-made graphics
• The Armchair Explorer series with content ready to be sent to our clients.
In working with clients, agents were mastering what can be controlled and what they could not control. There was no way they could control the pandemic and its effect on: destinations, cancellations or know when things were going to re-open. Even though they had no control on these items, it was their job to monitor and communicate with clients.
However, agents could control connecting with our clients:
• Being authentic, building trust and being available for them
• Take advantage of resources provided by destinations and suppliers, to better understand their knowledge base
• Improving our skills for their benefit
In positive psychology, this process is called regaining control, one circle at a time. While we could not regain control over the entire COVID-19 situation, by identifying and focusing on what we could control and putting our energy there, we could then feel as if our efforts were having an impact, thus regaining a sense of control.3
Actions that can be taken to regain control:
• updating their voicemail messages and how we answer our phone.
• the content sent to clients.
• relationships with clients.
• choosing to broaden knowledge by reading articles, taking courses, and attending webinars
Through regaining control, it allowed for agents to contribute in a place where they felt overwhelmed by the unknowns. Throughout the pandemic there was so much out of agents’ control. Utilizing this technique brought purpose.
Phase 3: Taking Action
We had presentations, discussions, webinars, and lots of talking in phase 2. Now, it was time to take action.
Catherine Heeg highlighted Five Sane and Social Ways to Conquer COVID-19 in a Travel Institute members-only email newsletter: 9
(1) Communicate consistently.
(2) Give your fans a ‘mental holiday.’
(3) Keep yourself busy and productive.
(4) Geek out on analytics.
(5) Stay positive.
These points were helpful in thinking of how we can assist agents in moving forward.
Our marketing manager, Melissa Sanchez, and I had a brainstorming call and we decided to do a Marketing Challenge. If agents participated, they were entered to win a little prize at random.
Our challenges included:
• Video challenges to connect with their audience
• Social Media “check-up”
• Graphics and using Canva
• Authentic posts with either photos or video to showcase their personality
Agents would share their posts to inspire each other and share tips. It was a productive environment. This also falls into the category of controlling what we can control, which can help our mindset shift to a more positive outlook.
During one of the assignments we realized that our logo and design usage was in need for some further education. We brainstormed, planned, I created slides to showcase the rules we need to follow. Jen then hosted a webinar utilizing my slides to illustrate how the rules look in use. This was a great positive because then everyone had a little refresher on logo usage policies.
The final support came in the form of revising our 2020 goals. At the time it was May. And we still had the second half of the year to focus on. I hosted a vision board workshop on Zoom, to re-frame the rest of 2020. Jack Canfield shares:
A vision board is a visualization tool which refers to a board of any sort used to build a collage of words and pictures that represent your goals and dreams.
By representing your goals with pictures and images you will actually strengthen and stimulate your emotions because your mind responds strongly to visual stimulation… and your emotions are the vibrational energy that activates the Law of Attraction. The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words,” certainly holds true here. 10
Prior to our Zoom call, I went over the supplies that would be needed, how to visualize goals and re-set them for the rest of the year. Those who participated were “inspired.” I recorded a tutorial for those who could not attend live so anyone could have the opportunity to participate.
Our workshop was a great time to see each other, talk about plans, and think positively to what is on the other side of this crisis.
Agents who participated shared:
• “It was really good to catch up and loved the motivation to actually think about what’s still to come for 2020!”
• “Vision board complete and ready to finish 2020 strong!”
• “This was such a nice time and exactly what I needed!”
Conclusion
When COVID-19 started, we all had a choice. We could choose to let the crisis take over, focus on the unknowns and uncontrollable factors, or, we can be courageous, pause, take perspective, acknowledge what is under our control and keep going.
Success is about more than simple resilience. It’s about using that downward momentum to propel ourselves in the opposite direction. It’s about capitalizing on setbacks and adversity to become even happier, even more motivated, and even more successful. It’s not falling down, it’s falling up. 3
As Shawn Achor so brilliantly shares, we can use a crisis as an opportunity to grow. With evolution on our side, we come out of any crisis stronger, smarter, braver, and resilient to “fall up.”
References
(1) Iger, R. (2019). The Ride of a Lifetime. Random House. (87, 229)
(2) Cockerrel, L. (2008). Creating Magic 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney. Crown Business. (pgs. 236-238)
(3) Achor, S. (2010). The Happiness Advantage How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life. Currency New York. (pgs. 119-127, 136-137)
(4) Brown, B. “Brené on FFTs”. Unlocking Us. Podcast audio, March 20, 2020. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-ffts/
(5) Achor, S. (2011, June 3). TEDxBloomington – Shawn Achor – “The Happiness Advantage: Linking Positive Brains to Performance” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/GXy__kBVq1M
(6) Arruda, W. (2020, March). 9 Ways To Stay Positive During The Coronavirus Pandemic. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2020/03/15/9-waysto-stay-positive-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic
(7) Friedman, N. (2020, February 26) 5 Points to Answering your Phone in the Most Effective Way. The Telephone Doctor. Retrieved from: https://nancyfriedman.com/2020/02/26/5-points-to-answering- your-phonethe-most-effective-way/
(8) Friedman, N. (2016, October 12) 5 Frustrating Voice Mail Messages [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/ghNKCtzMcwQ
(9) Heeg, C. (2020, April 3) 5 Sane & Social Ways to Conquer COVID-19. Travel Institute Friday 5 Newsletter. Member-only website and email.
(10) Canfield, J. (2015, December 4) How to Create a Powerful Vision Board. Jack Canfield: Maximizing your Potential. Retrieved from: https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/how-to-create-an-empowering-vision-book/
