Solo traveling taught me a lot about business leadership.
On a student exchange program in Europe, I managed to travel 19 countries within a span of 4 months. It still is one of the best decisions, I made in my life and I loved every minute of it. Throughout my life, I have tried to adapt and reflect my learnings from different experiences into any new activity or project I take on, through a process of learning, unlearning, relearning.
Here is a short list of skills I picked up while traveling abroad –
1. Resilience
Just like conducting business, travel involves many last-minute changes in plan, situations in which you will have to adapt to new environments, and countless ways of something that could go south instantly. For instance, the flight gets canceled and you end up staying in a cheap and dingy hostel, or a city shuts down due to protests leaving you handicapped with no public transportation.
The resilience built during my trips abroad have helped me tough it out and get out of tough work situations, like losing a job, losing a client, missed deadlines etc.
2. Planning ahead
You will end up improving your time management skills and personal finance, if nothing else, after you travel abroad for a couple of weeks. You will need to start planning in advance, if you want to book the cheapest flights/trains, affordable accommodation, transportation options, lowest currency exchange rates and so much more.
Fun fact: I made a spreadsheet of my travel activities, for planning and budgeting, doing a cost-benefit analysis, and it came in very handy. God bless, Excel.
You will also have to stay organized and live minimally.
As an Indian, I struggled with this. We like to hoard stuff and carry everything with us while traveling. Once you drop the “Maybe” tag from things, it’s easier to categorize things into two clear buckets – Needed and Not needed, that’s it, otherwise 80% of things end up in the “Maybe” pile.
Just like in travel you will need contingency plans and extra funds for unforeseen challenges in business too. It won’t be common, but you face giant blockades, especially if you’re working in a start-up, like lack of funds, lack of human capital, and you can predict those with a 100% guarantee, but if you plan ahead, you will find it will take less time in working on a solution.
Aim for the moon, and you will at least reach the stars.
3. Manage your time
Although I have always prided myself for having great time management skills, I struggled in Europe. Because a deadline of 8:00am doesn’t mean 8:00 am, it means 7:59 am, and it’s always better to arrive 10 minutes early for anything, be it a business meeting or a cruise.
I have made all the mistakes when it comes to time management during my travels, from dashing from one place to another to see all the sites to being lazy and missing out on some pleasant experiences. As a fellow business school graduate, I take pride in working insanely and exhausting myself (which is really stupid), it’s not worth it. You cannot squeeze everything you want to do and live normally, no matter what kind of super-human you are.
//I had to put this here. Sorry, not sorry.
Keep realistic deadlines while setting business goals and develop a better sense of time management in the workplace.
4. Keep an open mind
One of my AirBnb hosts, a 62 year old man from Eastern France taught me more during my stay with him than any business school ever did. Experiences like these, helped me open myself up to strangers, and I wanted to learn more about everything. I have always hated small talk, so these conversations were a treasure.
Moreover, networking with people could turn out to be hugely rewarding. During my stay in Denmark, I met a young Turkish woman who landed a dream job in Copenhagen because of the connections she made during a summer trip, a couple years prior.
5. Think outside the box
When traveling, you will have to deal with scarce resources, unforeseen situations, and nasty conditions. I had to learn how to optimize resources efficiently, and to always look for new opportunities to fit my budget, like staying the night at the airport instead of a backpacker’s hostel or a AirBnb, walking instead of taking the bus etc.
By the end of 4 months, I had learnt a decent bit of French, which turned out pretty useful when my train got cancelled midway, and I had zero knowledge why or how I was supposed to get home.
All these obstacles, forced me to think outside the box to get things done, come what may. I truly believe, one can get out of sticky situations, if you can see things from a different perspective, because there is always a solution out there.
6. Being culturally “woke”
If you end up starting a global business or expand your business internationally, you will have to be aware of local preferences and cultural norms.
Before taking on any project globally, learn about local business etiquette first. For instance, to finish a report in the school I studied in France, I had to talk to plenty of people and I went ahead and scheduled meetings with them during lunch time which was a hug NO-NO, which I learnt later. A kind French lady told me, why I was being shrugged off during these meetings, as French people believe there’s more to life than working nonstop. There’s plenty of time for that when not in a table filled with good food.
7. Get out of your comfort zone
Like I said earlier, small talks aren’t my thing, partially because they seem like a waste of time but also because I am hesitant to walk towards someone and talk to them. Well, guess what? When you are all by yourself, it gets lonely sometimes, and you are forced to interact with strange people (something which I dreaded before).
This was a good thing for me, my anxiety reduced considerably, and I moved out of my comfort zone, a little bit. Not exactly a work improvement thing, but rather personal growth.