Alignment of Value

My travel management industry peers have recently shared that they don’t feel aligned with management on their role and responsibilities. They feel more stress for things that are out of their control. This leads to frustration, a feeling of being undervalued and possibly at career risk.

It’s been my experience over the years, in order to rectify this course, you need to be the driver of this change and it starts with you. Do not wait for your senior management to resolve this for you, as they are looking to you to lead. After all, you are supposed to be the subject matter expert on “all things travel.” If you do leave it to them to decide, you have to be prepared to ask yourself, what value do you really bring to the company?

Getting alignment with your senior management is the first step. You must understand what is important to them and what is not. Level setting expectations is paramount for your success. This also means meeting with senior management across your lines of business to understand what is important to them and how your department can better support their needs.

Next, get alignment with the company travel community. Who are the road warriors? How do they feel about the company travel and expense (T&E) program? What can be improved? Take a close look at your travel and expense policies. When was the last time they were updated? Are the policies out of step with the new business world realities and traveler expectations?

Review T&E industry data points and how they match up against your company. Keeping abreast of travel industry insights for both travel managers and travelers as well as small-to-medium sized businesses is important. One of the best industry reports is the SAP Concur Global Business Travel Report, which covers nearly 4,000 business travelers and 700 travel managers. You can glean what is important to travel communities and management thereof from these surveys and take action in your corporate travel program.

For more information about the SAP Concur Global Business Travel Survey, please download the business traveler,?travel manager, and?SMB business traveler?whitepapers.

Last but not least, listen vs. talk

Sometimes the most influential thing we can do is listen. It shows people that you respect and care about what they are saying. Even if you don’t agree with what they are saying, hear them out and? absorb what is being shared. After all, information is valuable and you just might learn something and or teach something. Once you give this some thought you can circle back with your business with clarity regarding ideas.

Do these things and I believe you will be well on your way to providing value to the company and even to yourself. After all, leaders have to look into a mirror every once in a while and ask themselves if they like what they see…. and are you who you want to be?

All the Best,

Ralph

This article was sponsored by SAP Concur. #ad

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