Business Travel as a Hidden & Obvious Leadership (and Parenting) Tool

My wife and daughter just returned from a mother/daughter trip to Disney Land in Southern California. On the drive back, my 11-year-old pointed out that since Angel's job was a stay-at-home Mom, they were on a business trip, "just like Dad." Let that sink in for a second. There are numerous messages that can be derived from that simple insightful observation. Some are of a professional nature and some personal. As this is LinkedIn, I will begin with the professional.

Leadership and parenting are close cousins and arguably intertwined. I often take lessons from one and apply to the other, in a bi-directional fashion. This story provides an excellent example of just that. Lucy and Angel did a number of fun and interesting activities on their trip. However, make no mistake, the primary objective was relationship building. Hence, what about looking at business trips in a similar light? Lucy's comment caused me to contemplate business travel as a way to connect with others. This is true whether it is a conference, tradeshow, customer meetings, and/or meeting other employees at remote sites. Yes, there are business objectives in order to provide a clear Return On Investment (ROI) of the trip. However, the business trip for a leader always comes down to relationship building.

Covid created a massive disincentive to business travel. In fact, it provided for multiple disincentives. Now, many companies and leaders still list dozens of reasons for keeping business travel out of their budgets. That is flawed due to a simple incontrovertable truth: meaningful long-term relationships require human contact. I'm sure we all can cite possible exceptions to this rule. At the risk of being overly blunt, consider how meaningful or long-term these relationships without in-person connection really are. And what else is a leader, if not a relationship builder?

Please allow my family pride to creep in, as I also address the personal side. First of all, how smart is my daughter. Notice that this is written with a period and not a question mark. This observation demonstrates incredible insight and reflects well upon the dynamics within our five person (and three animal) immediate family. Second of all, being a stay-at-home mother is indeed a full-time job. My wife and I are equal partners in the business of the Dillon household. Like great business partners, we each have strengths and weaknesses and find ways for our partnership to be stronger than the sum of the parts.

Closing back on the business front, I will tell you that arguably the worst Wikipedia entry on the planet is the one for "business travel." It is clearly written from a negative perspective and misses the collaborative, interactive and very human benefits. Last year was close to my highest mileage ever when it comes to business travel and I expect 2023 to be on par with that. For those believing that they can operate with no or minimal business travel, I encourage you to rethink the objectives of business travel. More specifically, consider it as a critical tool in your leadership toolbox. Think about relationship building. If you do see business travel as a critical interpersonal activity, we may run into each other in the airport or business hotel, leading to a business relationship.

Most importantly, in about a decade, consider hiring my daughter. She is quite something.