13 reasons why travel is good for your career
Wanderlust bit me in 2007. 3 fully tattooed passports later, I am still in a perpetual itch to put on my wandering shoes and embark on a new adventure. We have been told that we should take breaks and come back recharged to our daily jobs. I feel that travel does a lot more for your career than just that. Here are 13 career skills you hone when you put on your travel boots :-
1. Organizing / Planning — Getting organized is important at all leadership levels. Bad planning on a trip would mean not having a map when you need it or running out of foreign exchange halfway through your trip. Seasoned travelers are adept at planning ahead and being organized. Travel requires so much planning & budgeting about transport, accommodation, sightseeing, food, money etc.
2. Adaptability /flexibility –In a VUCA world leaders are expected to adapt to quickly changing situations. Travel teaches you that the unanticipated can ruin your perfectly laid plans — unexpected showers /snow, flight delays that make you miss your connection, being mugged! Travelers know how to make adjustments and continue enjoying the vacation.
3. Openness to new ideas and new way of doing things — Zip lining through forests is not something we do unless we are on vacation! Doing new things while on vacation opens us to trying new things in our everyday lives. Now which manager is not valued for being innovative?
4. Discipline — Dichotomous though it may sound: travel instills discipline. Catching flights, trains, buses and ferries on time, waking up early to catch the sunrise or being the early bird to queue up outside the Van Gogh museum before it opens.
5. “People Skills” — Remember the free-wheeling conversation you had with fellow travelers or the insightful ones with the grey-haired taxi driver? Interacting with people from different cultures will make you a better at connecting & communicating with people.
6. Team Player — When traveling together in a group, with friends or family — sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow. There is collaboration, co-operation and effective communication. Sometimes giving up our personal fancies is necessary to accommodate the common desire of the group /family. All of this makes you a good team-player.
7. Decision Making — Right from Turkey versus Indonesia, splurge versus frugal, which time of the year to travel, which deli to dine at, which Broadway show to catch, travel means a lot of decision making. Poor decisions can mar your vacation. The ability to research, weigh different alternatives, evaluate risks and to make timely decisions often under pressure is an essential leadership trait.
8. Stress management — Stress and vacation may seem to be incongruous. However travel can throw up very stressful situations — car breaking down in the middle of nowhere, losing passport, missing the last ferry etc. What compounds stress is being outside your comfort zone in unfamiliar terrain. Being able to handle these situations gives you the tools to deal with the day to day stress of work life.
9. Free Education –Having breadth of knowledge and vision is valued in a leader. Being too narrow in your own field can be a career derailer. There is so much you learn about economics, politics, geography, history, culture when you travel. You learn how history is shaping modern politics or how politics is shaping economics — facets that you don’t read about in newspapers and books. As a bonus you get to meet or listen to stories of amazing people and what they have achieved.
10. Creativity — There are studies that show that people who travel / live abroad are more creative. It does seem logical — if you are spending time outside your comfort zone in a different culture you are more likely to be able to think outside the box. Travel increases your ‘cognitive flexibility’ and as a result your creativity.
11. Problem solver — This ties in with what has been covered earlier. To be a good problem solver it is essential to acknowledge that there are many different ways to approach a situation. When you have traveled to different cultures, you realize that the same thing has multiple meanings. If you are creative, open to new ideas, able to deal with stress it is likely that you can solve problems effectively.
12. Patience — Waiting in long queues, airport security, flight delays, poor wi-fi are all part and parcel of travel. The only silver lining is that it teaches you patience!
13. Fearless — When you do crazy stuff on vacation — like dive off a plane or jump into a waterfall it makes you less fearful. On a personal note I was terrified of heights and closed spaces. With each trip I have conquered my fears. Travel has made me bolder, fearless and more confident — something that sticks with me even when I am not traveling.
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