Daniel Katz, CTIE
Winter 2019 was the end to what was an incredible year in the travel industry. As the new year began leadership across the industry were preparing for an even more successful 2020. What happen just a few weeks into the near year would change the world, the industry, how we do business as well as our personalities and brain function. In March 2020, the travel industry came to a halt in just a few days and the world had to adjust to a new way to lead teams during a time of crisis COVID-19 was taking over the world, leaders in the travel industry were scrambling to creatively find new ways to lead their teams while keep their businesses from failing. Teams from all over the travel industry we’re now working from home with lots of uncertainty to the future of their jobs. Travel consultants, business development managers, airline employees and many others were faced with the biggest challenge in their careers. Waking up each morning to adapt to innovative technologies and having to overcome many new challenges. Over the course of two years many businesses closed while others were able to weather the storm. However, as the industry emerged from the darkest of days, companies were extremely motivated and ready to start up again. Business moving forward would look quite different than it had in the past. Technology advancements are now shifting our business faster than ever before but can we keep up? Is technology helping us be more successful or is it negatively impacting productivity and over-influencing our thoughts and views? We need to slow down, clear the clutter and as the great motivational speaker Rick Rigsby says in his award winning and extremely motivational book; Lessons from a Third Grade Dropout, “get back to the basics”. (Rigsby, 2006)
Across most sales industries leaders have interactions daily , in person, with their sales teams as well as parts of their leadership team. In today’s current landscape, there has been a leader shift in daily interactions. Leadership must find the proper way to communicate with their teams based on where they are, who they are and how they work. In today’s travel industry we now see many more people working from home while others people still choose to work from their offices. A debate taking place today in many organizations is, can employees be as productive at home as much as they are at the office? I believe that the productivity depends on the type of personality that the employee has. However, in the travel industry it is imperative we still find ways to interact with clients face to face. Building strong relationships through face to face interactions with clients, colleagues and suppliers will most likely always have a more successful outcome than via technology.
Having leaders in place who understand they will need to adjust their coaching styles based on the skill levels of their employees and personality characteristics is needed to create a functional team. For instance, we might see that a new employee or Rookie is not as productive at home as they would be in an office with their leaders who can manage their training. Leaders will want to work side by side with their Rookies to ensure that they have all the information they need to be successful in the future Captains, unlike rookies, might be just as productive at home as they would be in an office. Leaders must understand that when coaching the Captains, who are experienced and have shown they can perform at high levels, they can’t ignore their input and they must make time to visit with the captain to listen to their feedback. When coaching an Everyday player or a Key player their personality should be looked at very carefully. Doing a DISC assessment on these people will help leaders to determine if working from home, working in an office, or a combination of the two would be best for productivity and set the person up for their success.
Another change that we have seen is the age gap within the travel industry between the baby boomer generation (1946-1964) and the millennial generation (1981-1996) with very few people bridging this gap. The mindset, acceptance to change, technology, and work ethic are some of the largest challenges leaders will need to overcome. The use of technology in the travel industry has come a long way in a short time. The technologies of the past such as DOS based systems, dot printers, paper tickets, rolodex and fax machines have now been replaced with booking platforms are instantly updated, email, text, digital boarding passes and even facial recognition technology. Today’s leaders must adjust to using webinars, phone calls, and less face-to-face interaction than in the past. Teams have also had to adjust to the advancement in social media marketing and communication with their clients.
The daily distractions of social media have affected the efficiency of employees worldwide. Included in the social media distraction we can also see the use of the apple air pod and other listening devices that distracts from social interactions around the office. One of best ways to learn a skill can be from someone who has the experience in the role. If there is little social interaction it could leave gaps in the learning process for someone new in the organization. Social media has not been all bad, it has been an incredibly powerful marketing tool that many agencies are able to use to increase their revenue and see high ROI due to low-cost investment.
In a recently published book Digital Madness by Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D. we are thrust into an in-depth look at how social media and the advancement in technology are affecting our society. “Young people need to feel the sense of purpose associated with what they interpret as noble cause or quest; it quenches a real and important psychological thirst” (D., 2022) this is where the generational gap between baby boomers and the millennials continues to grow. Being a leader in today’s world you must be willing to adapt to the different styles of communication. As previously stated by Kardaras the younger generation needs to feel the sense of purpose or be working towards a cause. This thinking could have many younger employees questioning more of the tasks that they are asked to do. With an older generation many of these employees do not question the processes that they have been implementing for many years. Both generations represented are not wrong in their thinking, however, for a leader managing a team that has both generations could become challenging. One of the tools that is now available and extremely useful is the DISC assessment. Using this assessment with your team could help turn you into a very strong and well respected leader.
Understanding the DISC styles of your team is a useful tool to ensure efficiency, productivity, and proper communication to your team. For instance, if you are trying to lead an employee who is a high D, you may find that they are able to adjust quite well to the rapidly changing use of technology and influences of social media. A younger high D might be the one that will push leadership to continuously invest in technologies that are more efficient, and results focused. In this case the leader must be sure the employee feels heard and understands the organizations views and mission statement. On the other hand, a team member that is a high S or a high C could have an issue with the change in technology. Leaders must be sure that they are preparing these team members for any change that might be coming soon. In both S and C, we find similarities of people whom are set in their ways and like processes without much change. Any changes could affect how efficient they are and the results that they produce. Leaders must find a balance between these types of styles and making sure that everybody feels comfortable with the new technologies that the company is using as well as balancing new distractions. Understanding change management could make or break a team’s success.
One of the most important places to acknowledge many of the different styles would be during orientation of a new hire or continuing education for current employees. In recent years organizations have invested heavily in training platforms to educate their employees but this should not be the only way to train. Firsthand real-life training should not be replaced by a technology platform. To ensure successful training It is important that the trainer, leader and executive team communicates the vision, the mission and the values of the company. Having a clear and defined mission statement will ensure that all members of the team understand the goals and objective of the company. Members of this team will include the entire leadership team and the entire supporting team as well from the president of the company all the way down to the most recently hired employee. Today leaders need to make sure that they clearly defined their expectations no matter where their employees are located. Clear and defined expectations will increase productivity and reduce the number of distractions during business hours. With the increased use of social media and other technology outlets leaders must ensure they are leading by example. It can be extremely difficult when you have virtual and remote workers because you are not able to monitor what they are doing all the time. This is where consistent check-ins and clear mission statements are extremely important.
“As digital media has swallowed up our world via technology and all its social media variants, I believe that the evidence is clear that social media is shaping the architecture and framework of how our brains think, function, and process information into inherently limiting binary sorting machines” (D., 2022) Algorithms that are created by programmers can influence so much of what we think hear, see and believe. do we even have our own thoughts anymore? This should be a great concern for leaders across the globe. One Internet search one social media posting can shape someone’s mindset in a short amount of time. Prior to advancements in social media and technology views of your team we’re much more simple, it was easier to have your own team on the same page due to less outside influences. Managers and leaders must now acknowledge many different personality types, personal views and feelings. With so much more information at our fingertips it can be extremely complicated for a manager to bring multiple personalities together to be productive, accomplish their goals and have success.
However, social media and the advancement in technology has allowed us to do many great things in the travel industry. New platforms have been created to make booking vacations and business travel a lot easier. Managing sales teams has gotten easier with platforms such as Salesforce and WorkDay, two great CRM tools for sales teams. These tools allow salespeople and their managers to capture key information regarding their accounts and the interactions that employees have with them. With the amount of new data available every day leadership and their teams are able to work much more effectively to their common goal. Marketing teams can use social media to deliver messages to consumers much quicker than they ever had before. No longer do marketing teams need to wait for print advertising to be in front of the consumer, they can simply create a social media post and reach millions of people within a matter of seconds. A marketing team does not even need to create innovative marketing campaigns, if a social media influencer mentions your brand in one of their social media posts there is a chance it could instantly go “viral.”
Technology is moving information so quickly that leadership teams must always be prepared for an influx in business or crisis management. For example a reservations team for a major cruise line must have enough people working in their call centers and ensuring their systems are able to handle an increasing call volume due to a positive social media post from an influencer or a potentially industry changing event such as COVID-19.One positive or negative post from an influencer could increase the number of calls from the consumer to book or cancel their next vacation. One picture, one headline, or one social media post could shut down an entire industry and the world in just a few moments.
Will social media and technology advancements one day bring our world to a screeching halt? Can leadership change as quickly as technology is changing, can teams keep up with the ever-changing mindset of the consumer? Is social media changing buying habits of the consumer and can brands across the globe continue to evolve as quickly as social media forces it to. Leaders must take into consideration all of these different variables but must also keep an eye on their most valuable assets, their people, their team. A strong leader will be able to build a team around them and manage the many different personality types to reduce the distractions that employees will encounter every single day. By having a simple in person conversation and making sure that your team understands both the company vision and mission statement along with your expectations they can certainly achieve success. Technology, social media, and outside influences are not going anywhere and we must learn how to work with them and overcome their distractions and challenges. Showing teams how the technology can benefit them is something that should be done prior to implementing the new platforms. Finding a happy median in encouraging the baby boomer generation to accept technology, and the millennial generation to slow down with technology is imperative. Determining the best place for your employees to work is a conversation for all leaders to have but I believe one of the most important things to focus on is clearing the clutter of social media and doing as Rick Rigsby said “get back to the basics”. Leadership in a post pandemic world it’s something new for everybody if we take a step back to look forward we will certainly have success.
Works Cited
D., N. K. (2022). Digital Madness. New York City, New York, USA: St. Martins Publishing Group.
Rigsby, R. (2006). Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout. Thomas Nelson.
