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MARCH – APRIL 2013
PROFITING FROM WORK-LIFE BALANCE
DOING IT ALL AND MANAGING TOO
Editorial 3 Work Life Balance = Profit Retention
Work‐Life Balance 4 Work Life Balance for Travel Agency Managers
Time Management 7 Where Does My Time Go? How Much More Do I Need?
8 Managing Monkeys
10 The Profitable Staff Meeting
Profit Improvement 13 Taking The Curve
14 Are The Ideas Of Your Team Being Heard?
15 Everybody Sells – Add It To The Job Description
16 Staff Incentives, Carrots & More
17 Creating a Great Place to Work
Internal Communication 18 The Johari Window
Managing News and Information 22 Coffee and a Trip Around The World
24 Reading Material
Social Media Management 25 Stop the LinkedIn Endorsement Madness!
26 The Staff Social Media Usage Plan
Stress Management 28 Your Energy and Stress Patterns
29 The Holmes‐Rahe Life Stress Inventory
30 The Policy and Procedures / Operations Manual
Health Issues 31 How To Identify and Respond To 5 Emergency Scenarios
Team Building 36 Learn A Little More About Your Team and Yourself
Strategic Planning
39 Planning For More Than An Asteroid!
Training & Development 41 Report on Top Management Training Needs
42 FLIP 3 Training
Travel Agency Manager is owned, operated and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International and Canadian Copyright Law. Travel Agency Manager can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in anyway monetized. Using any images or content from Travel Agency Manager must be sourced as follows: “© SMP Training Co. www.smptraining.com” . SMP Training Co. 568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada V9K 1G1 Note: Steve Crowhurst and SMP Training Co. is not responsible for outcomes based on how you interpret or use the ideas in Travel Agency Manager or on the SMP Training Co. website. Guest articles are the opinions of the guest writer and not Steve Crowhurst or SMP Training Co.
TABLE OF CONTENTS – MARCH / APRIL 2013
WOW! What a wonderful reception to the first issue of TAM. Over 830 readers to date. Hopefully we’ve touched a nerve. An unserved area of the trade. Thanks also for your kind emails and responses to the content.
One of the main features for this issue focuses on Work – Life Balance and as women make up 80% or more of the travel trade workforce we’ll need to factor that demographic into the articles. Which we do.
Managers, if they are not healthy, happy and relaxed doing their job, can, will and do cause more than a loss of profit. A manager worth their credentials will strive to keep themselves healthy and lead a balanced lifestyle. Then as one workshop participant said: “Sure that’s okay for you to say… you’re a man. You don’t have to go home, after a ten‐hour day and cook for the family and prepare the kids meals for the next school day and then do laundry!” I hear you. I know the situation and this is why “we” need to address the issue of management work‐life balance from the male and female point of view – plus split it right down the line to look for generic ‘how‐to’ ideas, tips and tools to prevent health and revenue loss. My wife, who started her travel career as ground crew for Northwest Orient in Osaka, Japan and managed a travel agency would let me know the trials and tribulations of being a woman in management. I have worked with and consulted to many female managers over the years whose titles range from office supervisor to director of sales, vice presidents and presidents of retail agencies to departments of tourism to suppliers. I know their challenges. Men in management have been on a learning curve for many years now. They have learned not to attract heart attacks.
Too many “buddies” have died too early through stress and trying to do it all. The pendulum has swung the other way my doctor told me as more women have entered management and believe it or not, those heart attacks and stress related illnesses are now seeking out women and younger women at that. So you need a plan. A work‐life balance plan. In this issue you will find a checklist that will help you plot and plan where your time goes. It’s worthwhile printing off and completing the form. It will wake you up. Delegation is also a skill that can be learned – as long as you have someone to delegate to but not so much that you cause that person an early demise! Outsourcing could work though. Then comes the thought: what are we doing that doesn’t actually need to be done, period. There are some things we just need to stop doing. Change the tape. Rewind the video. Rewrite the script. You hear your inner voice saying “I can’t…” and so we change that to “How can I?” – there is always a way to balance your life and keep the profit balanced in your favour. Overall agency work‐life balance for the entire team is important, too. Hope you enjoy this issue of TAM. Live long and prosper!
EDITORIAL WORK LIFE BALANCE = PROFIT RETENTION
Steve Crowhurst, CTC
TAM Publisher
WORK – LIFE BALANCE FOR TRAVEL AGENCY MANAGERS Some might suggest it’s all in the mind. Your mind, my mind – THE mind. But to tell you the truth, work‐life balance is a matter of how you think about time, time usage and knowing what’s important and what isn’t. Misjudging the importance of an action or the time it takes to achieve it can in some cases, be catastrophic to your agency’s profit. When upper management asks you to put your heart and soul into your job, they don’t mean dying at your desk mid booking! Although that has happened. Balance can be attained once you focus on what you should be doing versus what you could be doing. The 3Ds: Do it, Delegate it or Dump it. In Japan they call it Karoshi – death through work. In 2005’ish a total of 9,000+/‐ men, known as salary‐men, had died from work related stress. Some men were not discovered for days as departmental chiefs often had a snooze in the afternoon. Luckily in the so called ‘west’ we have no interest in Karoshi. We do however get wrapped up in being busy and that can cause poor judgement. It doesn’t matter how old you are when it comes to work‐life balance. What’s important is to find that balance for you and your agency team so that when you produce for the company you are truly firing on all cylinders and still healthy at 5pm.
There was a time when being labelled as Type A was the route to the executive floor. Anyone who worked for that Type A had to measure up. There are still a few belligerent Type A managers hanging on, all puffed up with their own steam – but mostly gone from the management scene. Today the preferred personality is a collaborative Type A. No more top down bullies, more bottom up Type A motivation and inspiration. If you sense you’re a caring Type A profile that’s good and it’s welcomed as long as it’s the real you and not some role you flex into at the office. For a business to function properly it requires different personalities to do what they do well. The business needs an assertive‐aggressive leader to manage with balance in mind. If everyone in the agency is customer service oriented with no talent for sales, then profits will fall. A manager must become a sales manager to push the sales team but with balance. If we all agree that work‐life balance is very much a part of managing a travel agency then one of the first things you should do to find your balance as the agency manager is
to literally find out where your time goes and why. To help you track your time I’ve included a one page checklist that you can use as‐is or re‐design to suit your own needs. Completing this form will establish whether you are over or under in the number of days required to do your job. You know the industry as well as I do and it has it’s own inherent and fundamental issues in terms of work load and when that work can get done. Ask a travel agent about hours worked and you’ll get a number ranging from 8 to 12 hours a day. I can also report a couple of travel agents who work only 4 days a week, open at 10am and close at 5pm. They have chosen to sell upscale and bookings range from $5,000 and up. They don’t work 12, 10 or 8 hour days. They make their time work for them. Now if you work for a large chain agency then you must adhere to the rules and hours of operation. If you manage an agency within a department store or shopping centre as I have done, then you’ll be working subject to the mall hours with little to no input.
WORK – LIFE BALANCE
Where Does Your Time Go? When it comes to managing your time , the first thing you need to know is where your time goes. That’s been stated and you have a mission to complete the one page form. Next you must be aware of how long things take to do, accomplish, start and finish. Only when you know how long things take to do, can you plan and budget your time like a professional. Time Trap Words One thing I’ve learned along the way is to refrain from using time‐trap words. You’ll recognise them as “just a minute…”, “be there in a sec’…”, “sure, I’ve got time…” These are all time killers. Once said, you have set yourself and the other person up to fail. Nothing happens in the travel trade or in the role of manager in ‘a sec…’ – it’s a nice thought, but it’s not the truth. The professional way to respond to someone requesting your presence would be: “I’m on a call that will take me 30 minutes and then I have a meeting to attend… I can see you in one hour from now / at 2pm this afternoon / tomorrow at 9am.” The reason this manager can make that statement is this: they know where they are on their schedule and they know how long things take, or the time they have allotted to their current task. This is a skill worth learning. Good Case – Bad Case When you study how long things take, you’ll be amazed at how much you under budget your time. Hence you might always be playing catch up and stressed to the max. There are two elements to timing – good case and bad case. If you had all the decision making information for instance you could produce this year’s sales budget in two‐days. Good case. If someone is sick and they hold the key to the information you need, or they are just slow, not helpful, then your bad case timing is looming – PLUS
your days have moved ahead and your other projects now require time, so what was a 2‐day event has become 8‐days. Worse case. That is the truth of time usage. So learn it now. You must be a quick study re good case and bad/worst case timing scenarios. The question: ”Hey Steve, how long will it take you to interview and hire for that senior consultant’s position?” Good case (with all planets aligned and a Double Shot Grande Gently Whipped coffee in front of you) 2‐days. Worst case: six months. Project Management Is Your Friend In the time management programs I deliver, we review Project Management. Not going too deep. Just enough tips and tools so you know the fundamentals and how to use them. Managing is project based. Purchasing a new printer. Collect information. Sift and sort. Study features. Match features to future agency needs and so on. Team huddle – which one? Decision made. Purchase. Project timing: one week.
Here’s something no‐one will like but it works. A client of mine did this. He ran a very large firm with say 15 managers. There seemed to be too much duplication. For one full month he asked each manager to record in their daily planners where their time went. He meant every minute. So if you stopped by my office to say hello and ask how things were – I made a note. Nothing to do with you – all about my time and where it went. Long story short. He analyzed the reports, found the duplication and wasted effort. He had found the argument to hire a trainee to take on some of the non management tasks his managers where involved in. End result which was his goal – was to have his managers out the office door by 5pm. Which is what happened. This might work for you too.
WORK – LIFE BALANCE
A Fable: The Rat Race A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. A high profile travel executive on a 3‐day visit complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. "Not very long," answered the Mexican. "But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the travel executive checking his iPhone. The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The travel executive looked up and asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs... I have a full life." The travel executive interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat. With the extra money the larger boat
will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middleman, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, Toronto or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge enterprise." "How long would that take?" Asked the Mexican. "Twenty, perhaps twenty‐five years," replied the executive. "And after that?" "Afterwards? That's when it gets really interesting," answered the travel executive laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!" "Millions? Really? And after that?" "After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta, and spend your evenings drinking, playing guitar and enjoying your friends!"
Hey boss… that’s some serious work‐life balance
you’ve got there!
You know it! Keep a cold one for me. Just off to the board meeting… get it!? Now where’s my beach boy… err towel?
WORK – LIFE BALANCE
WHERE DOES MY TIME GO? HOW MUCH MORE DO I NEED?
Based on a 365‐day year work by yourself and calculate the amount of time you need to do your job. What you do with it, how you manage it, invest it and whether or not, from the agency point of view, you do this wisely, is most important. It’s how you spend your time that counts. Generate your chart below by writing in your own data. Add up your hours and days, deduct from the available work days of 238 (change to your own total). If you need more time in your year then you are probably spending your weekends at the office, or taking time away from your family life or social activities. Can you do your job in the days left after deducting weekends, vacation and fam time? Change the form and format to suit your needs.
ACTIVITY Days Used Days Available 365
Weekends 104 261
Statutory Holidays 8 253
Vacation 14 239
Other
Other
Average Number of Job Days 239
Social Media:
Drive Time to / from office:
Lunch / Coffee: 1.5 hours/day:
Daily Chit Chat:
Daily interruptions / spontaneous meetings:
Staff Meetings:
Divisional Meetings:
Meetings Other:
Serving Clients:
Follow‐up reports:
Paperwork:
Email:
Voice Mail:
Planning / Scheduling:
Reading Time:
Business Travel Time:
Business Events / conferences / trade shows:
Sports / working out:
Family (other than weekends):
Sleep: 8 hours / night?
TOTAL HOURS / DAYS USED DEDUCTED FROM 239
DAYS IN‐HAND / NEEDED
TIME MANAGEMENT
This manager is suffering from severe monkey‐on‐your‐back pain!
Hey don’t blame the monkey or shoot the messenger. If you identify with this poor monkey driven manager than you too must learn the answer to this ailment and here it is:
DON’T FEED THE MONKEYS!
There you have it. The answer to winning back your time. Yes that’s right, your management time goes to feeding all those monkeys on your back. I bet you could stop right now and count them. How many? Two, three… five, ten? Well, it’s about time you got rid of those critters or at least reduced the feeding time.
Managing The Monkey Many years ago, back in 1974, there was a time management program called Managing Management Time followed by the question, “Who’s got the monkey?” The article written by William Oncken Jr., and Donald L. Wass appeared in Harvard Business Review and proved to be one of HBR’s best selling reprints. The article shared that there are three kinds of time management: Boss Imposed Time, System Imposed Time and Self‐Imposed Time. Then and as much now, many managers work under the Boss Imposed and System Imposed challenge. Leaving the manager with precious little Self Imposed time. On the other hand if you are a liberated manager and your company works in accordance with collaborative and bottom up management versus top down, then chances are you are in full control of your time. Still, even if you are, you are sure to be losing some time when those monkeys need feeding. The monkey is usually sitting on someone else’s back. Perched right there, although as the manager you don’t actually see it, yet. When you walk into the agency let’s say Monday morning with a full calendar of meetings and reports and even files that need to be closed ‘today’ there is a monkey just about to leap. Let’s move you to the kitchen area where you are about to pour yourself a much needed coffee… as you do, Steve saunters up and says, “Hi Lisa, hey you know the Carlton couple, well
we have a problem on the file and I’d like you to have a look…” You didn’t hear it, but Steve said “we” have a problem. That’s a monkey getting ready to leap. You are so focused on your day, and drinking that coffee that you respond this way, “Okay Steve, put the file on my desk and I’ll take a look… gotta go.” The monkey has landed. You have it on your back. Steve is now chillin’ – no worries. He’s waiting for you. Time goes by. You were very busy. In meetings too. Your partner called and hey, we’re going out tonight for dinner. Steve emails you, “Have you worked on the Carlton file yet?” You reply, “Sorry Steve, no time and I’m out tonight… will get to it in the morning.” That monkey is now turning into a gorilla. You can feel it. You know it. You are thinking about it all through dinner and you know your Tuesday is jammed.
Here’s How You Do NOT Feed Monkeys 1. Ask Steve to meet you at a set time and he
is to be ready to explain the problem in detail.
2. You counsel Steve and advise him what to do and how to solve it.
3. You advise Steve you can see him at a set time and date when he should come to you and report in with his progress.
4. You repeat 1,2 and 3 until Steve has handled the file to your satisfaction.
You never accept the monkey. You always push it back to the rightful owner. You always set a time and date for Steve to come to you, you never got to him. Your job here is to transfer initiative back to Steve, your subordinate, and to claim back your Self Imposed Time. Here’s a monkey for you: sit down with your fellow managers to discuss how they handle the monkeys that come flying in their direction. Jot down a company wide method for transferring initiative and win back your time. Add a sign that says: feeding time is over!
THE PROFITABLE STAFF MEETING Everyone loves a staff meeting. You know that to be true. Where else can you meet your buddies, have a chat, drink coffee and perhaps nibble on some oh so good donuts? After the chit chat “we” get down to business, the manager talks for an hour or so but the context of what’s being said is obviously not for us, so we hold side discussions and look up once in awhile to make sure we’re counted as listening, on the team and participating and then we get back to planning our after 5pm activities. Staff meetings are fantastic and it beats working all day, too.
So there it is. One point of view as to how well the staff meetings go. There’s more to running an effective and profitable meeting and this is something not taught in travel schools or generally offered in travel trade training. If it was a mandated management skill and treated as such then chances are corporate profit would be up a few more notches then they are about now. The Topic There are a couple of reasons why meetings do not work and one very important thing to mention is the topic. The reason for the meeting. Get the topic wrong, and that’s it. Might as well go home. Wrong topic, wrong discussion, wrong outcomes. Very simple. Except 9 out of 10 meetings are meeting for the wrong reason. The topic is wrong. Let’s meet and discuss hiring a new counsellor. What’s the topic. What are we going to meet about? Is it how we hire that new counsellor or when, or is it about the skills we need in that new role which is to focus on selling cruises. When you spell it out, the focus of the meeting changes. We’re no longer discussing hiring, we’re discussing increasing our cruise sales and the skills we need to hire to get the job done. The Outcome ‐ The Take Away Prior to the meeting getting underway, although this rarely happens, we need to
decide as a group, what it is we want to achieve in the next hour. What do we want to leave with? Would it be a list of candidates for the cruise counsellor position? A list of skills? Or…? The topic should be: Hiring a Qualified Cruise Counsellor to Increase Our Cruise Sales. Now you have a definitive topic to discuss. What do we want to leave with? We want to leave with a list of qualifications that will ultimately be used in a recruitment ad. Plus, we need to know before we leave how much in sales or revenue this new hire is required to close. We also need to know the salary and bonus program and what else in terms of benefits the new hire will receive. Timing and Responsibility We now know what has to be done. We need to set a time to start – always the start time BEFORE the deadline. Let’s give Steve the job to hire this counsellor – and now we ask, “Steve, when is the first date you can attend to this…?” Next question: “… and when do you feel we can close on the new hire?” If Steve is smart, he’ll park his answer and respond once he’s checked his schedule and planned his actions. Review: So we met for the right reason, we decided what we needed to achieve, leave
TIME MANAGEMENT
with and we did that. Then we appointed someone to make this happen and he will get back to us with the next steps and the timing for advertising, interviewing, assessing, second interviews, reviewing, selection, on‐boarding and training. Did someone think this could happen within the week? Well perhaps that part of the conversation didn’t happen.
There’s much more to running an effective meeting as you can tell. Starting with the topic as mentioned is at least one way to reduce the time wasted in meetings. Change The Name of the Meeting This can be a quick win and reduce the time spent waffling about in the boardroom. A staff meeting ‐ what is that anyway? A group of 10 staff sitting round the table all with nothing to say. Should this be a Sales Meeting? I would say yes. That’s precisely why everyone works at the agency – to generate sales. You get the message. Tell it like it is. Remove the waffle and reduce the time. Ramp up the definitions of why we are meeting and then set the protocol. Setting The Protocol This refers to what we need to do PRIOR to attending the meeting. No one from here on is allowed to rush in three minutes after start time and plop down in a seat and stop the meeting with a “Where are we?” question, or worse. “Hi everyone, sorry I’m late, the traffic was terrible… was it for you too? Oh and what were we supposed to read… I left mine at the office last night…” I don’t think so! That’s an instant boot out the door. Come back when you’re serious about working here.
What is the protocol to attend one of your meetings then? Tell me now. Write it down. Let everyone know that from here on the expectation is: q In the meeting room 5 minutes before
start time.
q To have read the required documents and to have formed responses, comments and ideas in advance.
q To be prepared to offer their thoughts as we go round the table – and no one is allowed to hitch hike on the previous persons input such as “I support Steve in what he said… that’s exactly how I saw it.” LIAR! They didn’t think diddly about anything. That’s when you ask this hitch hiker to truly explain their ideas.
Who Should Be In The Room? Do you really need to pull everyone away from the front line / selling line to sit in this meeting? Chances are the answer is no. To do so would be a total waste of time and a very expensive meeting when you total up the cost of everyone’s non‐productive time.
The Key Players You’ll need a meeting facilitator, a scribe and a time keeper. Sounds old fashioned but it’s not. Each one is charged with doing their duty and doing it well regardless of the personalities in the room. The bullies and the talkers etc. The facilitator must keep the meeting on track and be skilled at closing down the president when he or she goes off on a tangent. The scribe must make sure he or she is recording the correct words, meaning and intent. The time keeper must keep the meeting on schedule.
Meetings MUST happen, however they should be adding to the profit picture, not reducing it.
TIME MANAGEMENT
TAKING THE CURVE As a manager one of your roles is to watch the curve and know when to take it without crashing into the barrier. That curve is the Bell Curve and every agency or department will reach it at some point in time. The ‘curve’, that bend in your business road comes at a time when your business has peaked and you stand at the crossroads wondering what to do next. Here’s the graph:
You will be very familiar with the start up and growth phase if you were the original manager who launched the agency for yourself, or the company that you work for. Somewhere along the way your agency will max out, the sales flatten. At this point in the life of your agency you have one or two options. At #1 you could re‐think your business and decide to change, add, subtract or merge what could keep you profitable, or what could make you more profitable. Once you initiate a ‘more profitable’ plan you will endure the start up and growth phrase once again PLUS somewhere along that new line, you will flatten out and at #2, you will need to once again, rethink your business model and what you are selling and to whom. Both 1 and 2 moments in time, require new ideas. A new plan must be written. That new plan may not be too ambitious other than “to train all staff in how to sell more cruises…” and that could be the turning point. You might decide to sell luxury travel, however if you do not have a luxury client base established, then your business will curve towards #3. To stay ahead of the curve you should meet often with your team to discuss the ‘where are we going next’ topic and how you could all get there. Keeping the curve going in the right direction does not have to be expensive either. A little training, a decision to charge fees, a move to a social media platform, writing a blog or hosting consumer events – all of these are ideas that can keep you profitable and on the right side of that upward trend. Study now when that curve will swerve for your agency and plan ahead.
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT
ARE THE IDEAS OF YOUR TEAM BEING HEARD? The information I’m about to describe here is old news, however if you do not have such a plan in your agency, old news could be good news. It’s a matter of farming the business ideas that your team have in their heads. Depending upon how well ideas from the floor are treated and respected will determine whether or not you’ll hear of them. Head office will sometimes put the feelers out re any new ideas from the front end. The ideas are collected and that’s it. No one ever hears back about what happened to their idea. Not good for agency morale. It’s here that I’ll mention the company Jumeirah and their program called VOICES.
The acronym VOICES stands for Very Original Ideas Can Enhance Success. There is a plan to review each idea as they come in and take them through a full and complete business plan process. Here’s the article: WE LOVE TO HEAR YOUR VOICE Jumeirah Group, the dynamic and rapidly growing luxury hospitality management company and member of Dubai Holding, has launched VOICES, a colleague innovation programme where colleagues can VOICE their ideas, see them implemented and converted into cash rewards of up to US$8,000. Following an extensive, fun and engaging internal launch campaign, VOICES has now been implemented in all of Jumeirah's Dubai‐based hotels and resorts. The company‐wide initiative is intrinsically linked with the core guiding principles of the Jumeirah brand and provides a focus for colleagues' creative and innovative ideas by fostering a culture of continuous growth, effective communication and teamwork within the company. Ultimately, VOICES is a tool to ensure each colleague's ideas and their successes are being supported, recognized and rewarded. In it’s first year VOICES has generated over 2,000 ideas, 210 of which have been identified for implementation and 40 already implemented. Ideas are evaluated by peers and colleagues across all business units working in a
wide variety of departments: finance, housekeeping, food and beverage management, sports and leisure and human resources. Of the 210 ideas in the innovation pipeline, a tangible value to the company of over US$500,000 has been calculated, resulting in improvements to processes relating to customer service, operational excellence, colleague satisfaction and morale, communication, health and safety, the environment and new business opportunities. VOICES is one component of the wider approach to innovation that Jumeirah is committed to, the ideas generated challenge conventional thinking, improve our processes and innovative business practices to help build on our success and core essence to Stay Different from our competitors.
Over to you. It doesn’t matter how small your agency is. Make sure you tap into the ideas of the people who work for you and reward the ideas that work. You will need a process that allows the idea to be developed into a business plan format, costed, budgeted and reviewed. If it works on paper, then try it. As you know, you should also have a Plan B if Plan A misses the mark. Let your team help you grow the agency business, reward them and your profits will improve as will agency morale. A win‐win.
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT
EVERYBODY SELLS – ADD IT TO THE JOB DESCRIPTION Here’s one way to boost your sales and who knows you might find your accountant to be a rain maker, a super sales person hiding in the back office. The title is a truth. Every person in the company is in sales. That doesn’t translate as responding to the “What do you do?” questions with a faint, “Oh, I work for a travel agency as their accountant.” Nope. That’s got to change. How would you want your employees to answer that question?
Well that response should go something like this: “I’m an accountant for a travel agency here in town…” now here comes the transition, “… and let me tell you, we do have some wonderful trips to anywhere in the world you’d want to visit…” and now the sales question, “… so tell me as I’m always interested to know, where would you want to go, money no object, what would be your dream trip?” That was easy! What do you think? Could you turn all your non sales people into sales people, or if that’s too drastic to a “travel mentioneer” – a new word for you… mentioneer, someone who mentions travel to others when they get the chance. Surely your non sales people could mention what your agency does, sells, where they go and what they do. Answer: yes. Here’s the challenge: some people will feel they are now in sales and if that’s the accountant, don’t bet on the books being up to date ‐ that accountant is out there mentioning travel to everyone. The rules of the game need to be tight and written
down so that everyone understands how the new idea that everyone sells is supposed to work. Another level of staff who should be trained to utter sales type verbiage are those who work on the upper floors or who happen to be on the board. I have personally witnessed a senior executive unable to articulate what it is
“we” actually do, what we sell and so on. A situation you would not want to witness. You must make sure everyone from the CEO down can actually talk about the business of travel, what we do and where we go and sell the talents of the front line sales and management team. Your supplier BDMs should also know how to talk about your agency when they are discussing you in their sales meeting. You don’t want to be “Oh they’re great…” you want to be, “Wow, they are on the ball, do you know they have the most fantastic approach to selling, let me tell you…” Next, your top clients ‐ they also need to know what you do, where you go, so that they too can truly be an ambassador for your agency. How about you? Can you articulate a 2 minute spiel that would WOW me?
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT
STAFF INCENTIVES, CARROTS & MORE There’s plenty of advice ‘out there’ about how you can use incentives to boost sales, service and internal happiness. The Carrot Principle is just one book worth reading or a nibble, whichever takes your fancy! I hear it often said that although an incentive has been put in place by HQ, the team are not responding to it. The main reason for this complacency is simply the fact that the HQ incentive does not address what will actually cause the team, that would be each individual, to perform better than they are or to get behind a sales push. If you want your incentive to work you’ll have to ask each member of your team, what it is that they want as an incentive. Just like developing a custom tour or an FIT the same approach applies here. Having done this for past clients and for myself here’s what happens – your team will be very quick to advise what they need in order to crack their own whip. Some of the responses might be:
1. Pay for my baby‐sitter this week. 2. Rent a car for me on this date. 3. Add an extra day to this long weekend. 4. Buy me a new suit & tie. 5. Send me here on the next fam. 6. Allow my partner on this special fare. 7. All I need is an iPod. 8. If I deliver double can I have an iPad? 9. How about movie passes and a $50 Starbucks card? 10. An iTunes gift card.
Are you getting the message? Incentives are a personal thing. I want what drives ME, not you. It’s a What’s In It For Me situation. Mind you that doesn’t always pan out when HQ and a preferred supplier have contracted for sales of X amount at a higher commission. When that hits it’s a matter of head down and sell like you mean it. If possible allow your team to take their incentive into their own hands. Typically when a member of your team is in charge of their own incentive they are usually harder on themselves and try to prove their worth and value to the agency by stating a higher goal – and most times they achieve it, too.
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT
When a member of your team set their own goals they are usually harder on themselves then you would be.
CREATING A GREAT PLACE TO WORK A new coat of paint on the walls, a little interior design work and your agency could look brand spanking new. Why would you do this? Well the outcome of an agency makeover could be business building. For a start, when you brighten up the agency with pleasing colours your staff will in fact brighten up their sales and sell more plus the new look and “feel” of the agency will attract more customers. It’s just the way it works. The Law of Attraction at work. The exterior should also be updated with a coat of paint, and you should conduct an exterior review each year as many times we’re so busy, wrapped up with what’s happening inside the agency, we forget the outside, which is what a walk‐in prospect is going to see first. Check the signage and make sure there are no cracks or holes, that all light bulbs work and that the imagery is current in terms of what you are selling. Think about today’s technology, too. Be sure to list your email address on the window, your website, mobile numbers, Facebook URL… even a QR Code so that those with smart phones can shoot and surf to your website. Check what’s “playing” in the window of the agency and then check what you are promoting online, on your website. They should match. Feng Shui – I know you’ve heard of it, and you might know something about it, too. The concept is simply all about placement as in the correct place, design, angle, colour, position and so on, that will, once all things are in order, create harmony, balance and for what we target here in TAM, profit improvement. Energy flows from all things, yes even that dark gray wall! Don’t laugh, I’ve seen it – a dark gray interior. What a feeling that will invoke as opposed to white, off white and a
gorgeous blue. You can Google all sorts of websites related to colour and what they invoke in human response. Fragrances are now off limits in the work place, given the variety of allergies and I see more signs asking to: ‘keep our store free of fragrances” – mind you, a nice clean smell should be okay. If you run a niche based agency that deals in let’s say India, then chances are you and your team and your client base actually enjoy the smell of incense. In this case that fragrance actually stimulates the clients need for travel. They want to experience that aroma ‘for real’. The idea behind an agency makeover is to increase your profit potential by making your agency a terrific place to do business, taste the exotic, see wondrous images of destinations that a person can travel to and feel relaxed as they purchase their travel from you. An old tattered poster from 1972 won’t invoke too much enthusiasm, it does however tell a story about your agency. There was one cruise agency that actually had the agency built out as a cruise ship, portholes and all. It might work for you. Invest $200 in paint and start there. It might increase your profit potential – but best to check if anyone on the team is queasy about a certain colour. If so, white is good – add colour through imagery on the wall.
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT
THE JOHARI WINDOW The Johari Window is a technique created by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955 in the United States, used to help people better understand their relationship with self and others. Using the Johari Window as a discussion point in your agency will disclose how well the team is aware of each other, you as the manager, the company, the corporate plan and direction and then, as a group you will also discover what you NEED to know in order to keep the business edge you have developed and keep it sharp.
1 KNOWN TO ME UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO OTHERS
1. In this box we all know
what’s going on.
2. In this box everyone else knows what going on,
but I / we don’t.
UNKNOWN TO OTHERS
3. In this box I/we hold the
trump card. I know something that no one else does.
4. In this box there are things
we should all know, but we don’t.
2 KNOWN TO ME UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO OTHERS
1. In this box we all
know what’s going on.
2. In this box everyone else knows what going on,
but I / we don’t.
UNKNOWN TO OTHERS
3. In this box I/we hold the trump card. I
know something that no one else does.
4. In this box there are things
we should all know, but we don’t.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
In the first graph all elements are even. There are things we all know and things we don’t know and things we should know and have yet to find out what they are.
In the second graph you can see that Box 1 has shrunk in terms of what we all know and Box 4 is now suggesting as a team we have a lot to learn IF we knew what it was. Box 3 is the danger zone as it is here that information is withheld and not always for the good of the agency.
The best of all worlds would be to have Box 1 large, indicating we, as a team are operating openly and with all or most of the information we need, known to all. Box 2 should be reduced, Box 3 should be reduced and Box 4 should also be reduced. Check the next page for how this desired graphic would look.
Graph 3: Here’s the Johari Window layout you are trying to reach. Most of the time we know as a team what’s going on. As an individual on the team, there are still a few things I don’t know about and that could be solved by someone showing me how, where to access information or perhaps I just need a kick in the rear end to focus my attention and commitment to maintaining my knowledge. The danger area Box 3 has been reduced, and in Box 4 we will always need to find out what we need to know and appoint someone to gather that research and advise everyone on the key findings.
3 KNOWN TO ME
UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO OTHERS
1. OPEN
In this box we all know what’s going on.
2. BLIND
In this box everyone else knows what going on, but I / we don’t.
UNKNOWN TO OTHERS
3. HIDDEN In this box I/we hold the trump card. I know something that no one
else does.
4. UNKOWN In this box there are things we should all know, but we don’t.
As you will appreciate I have delivered just the surface of how you can use the Johari Window. It can also be used to determine how I “see” you and how you “see” you. This is done by listing the following 56 adjectives as described on the next page. 1. able 2. accepting 3. adaptable 4. bold 5. brave 6. calm 7. caring 8. cheerful 9. clever 10. complex 11. confident 12. dependable 13. dignified 14. energetic
15. extroverted 16. friendly 17. giving 18. happy 19. helpful 20. idealistic 21. independent 22. ingenious 23. intelligent 24. introverted 25. kind 26. knowledgeable 27. logical 28. loving
29. mature 30. modest 31. nervous 32. observant 33. organized 34. patient 35. powerful 36. proud 37. quiet 38. reflective 39. relaxed 40. religious 41. responsive 42. searching
43. self‐assertive 44. self‐conscious 45. sensible 46. sentimental 47. shy 48. silly 49. smart 50. spontaneous 51. sympathetic 52. tense 53. trustworthy 54. warm 55. wise 56. witty
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
When performing this exercise, subjects are given a list of 56 adjectives and pick five or six that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subject are then given the same list, and each pick five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto the Johari grid.
Open: Adjectives that are selected by both the participant and his or her peers are placed into this quadrant. This quadrant represents traits of the subjects that both they and their peers are aware of. Blind: Adjectives that are not selected by subjects but only by their peers are placed into the Blind Spot quadrant. These represent information that the subject is not aware of but others are who decide how to inform the individual about these "blind spots". Hidden: Adjectives selected only by subjects but not by any of their peers, are placed into the Hidden quadrant, representing information about themselves that their peers are unaware of. It is then up to the subject to disclose this information or not. Unknown: Adjectives that were not selected by either subjects or their peers remain in this quadrant, representing the participant's behaviors or motives that were not recognized by anyone participating. This may be because they do not apply or because there is collective ignorance of the existence of these traits. One facet of interest in this area is our human potential. Often our potential is unknown to us, and others. For more information you can search online for Johari Window.
Another way to use the Johari Window is during a meeting to determine how much is known, what we need to find out and so on. You would use the one page layout as an information gathering tool and actually write down, let’s say in Box 4 Unknown – a list of what you now know you need to know more about. Everyone in the meeting should have a copy of the Johari layout and fill it in as you hold the meeting, then you can compare notes. If you work with whiteboards, smart boards or flip charts appoint a ‘scribe’ who will record everyone’s response. Print off the finished document and circulate it so that ‘we all know’ what’s going on.
1. OPEN Find out what everyone knows
2. BLIND Make sure everyone is brought up to speed
3. HIDDEN Possible dangers: Top agent – selfish with skills that could be taught to everyone Holding out as a negotiating edge
4. UNKNOWN Possible Need To Know Social media New suppliers Everyday news Latest this and that
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
After taking this program you and your shipmates will have a better understanding of what it takes to run a smooth ship, hire the right crew, carry only the best fare paying passengers and deliver everyone at your planned for destination having also learned how to survive squalls, storms, typhoons, mutinies and more. What you write in your log books, you’ll be able to apply the next day. For more information email me here: [email protected]
Bring all managers together and take this two-day program and Find out what kind of ship you’re running. Are you on course or have you lost the map, need a new crew or need time to plug the leaks?
This is a fun-based learning experience that uses the language of an old sailing ship as we explore every nook and cranny of your agency. We focus on the good things and set our sights on correcting what’s not working. No one walks the plank! Did I mention we work hard from 9 – 6 both days?!
Your Captain for this workshop…
COFFEE AND A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD While you sip your morning coffee you could be taking a trip around the world via the many news websites so that by the time you finish your coffee you are up to speed with world events, weather, war zones, strikes and more. Your concern is anything and everything that might affect your day‐to‐day corporate, leisure, group, niche business and the clients sitting in front of your counsellors right now. It’s important that you know what’s going on in the world each morning. This knowledge will help you be prepared for when splat hits the fan. You’ll be able to Keep Calm and Carry On Managing!
As you know, anything and everything that happens around the world has a cause and effect on the travel and tourism industry. A bullet, a wave, a wind, a change in government, a war, a strike, a crash, a virus… (I’ll stop there!) – whenever one of these or similar events hit the fan you’ll need to know what actually happened. Now you can become the official agency news channel for your clients. This is all about “Whoever owns the news, wins!” It will pay dividends if your clients listen to you versus the mass media channels. Your team will also look to you for answers to their “What shall we do?” questions. This daily knowledge should also extend to your preferred suppliers. Here’s a short list of generic trade papers and news links that will keep you informed.
World Newspapers http://www.world‐newspapers.com/world‐news.html Travel Daily News http://www.traveldailynews.com Breaking Travel News www.breakingtravelnews.com ASTA Smart Brief http://www.smartbrief.com/index.jsp Travel Research Online http://www.travelresearchonline.com
TNOOZ www.tnooz.com Travel Mole www.travelmole.net Travel Industry Digest www.e‐tid.com Travel Industry Wire http://www.travelindustrywire.com Global Travel Industry News http://www.eturbonews.com Business Travel News http://www.businesstravelnews.com US Travel Association http://www.ustravel.org/news/industry‐news The Beat http://www.thebeat.travel/Page/About‐Us.aspx Public Relations Society of America http://www.prsa.org/Network/Communities/Travel/Intelligence/Resources/index.html Eye For Travel http://www.eyefortravel.com Global Business Travel Association http://www.gbta.org
MANAGING NEWS AND INFORMATION
Travel Pulse http://www.travelpulse.com Skift Travel IQ http://skift.com Travel and Tour World http://www.travelandtourworld.com/ World Travel & Tourism Council http://www.wttc.org E Global Travel Media http://www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au/ Tourism Review http://www.tourism‐review.com
Adventure Travel News http://www.adventuretravelnews.com Northstar Travel Media sites
World of Luxury Hotel & Travel Index Official Cruise Guide TravelAge West travel42 Business Travel News Incentive Magazine Meetings & Conventions Meeting News Successful Meetings Travel Management Travel Procurement The Transnational The Beat Star Service Online
That should be a good start. Explore each news site and subscribe to the sites that offer you the information you need. You’ll be selecting your new channels based on destination information, current local news, supplier specials, how‐to tips and tools. This daily intake of what’s going on around the world will set the parameters for what you will be doing ‘today’. If the world is quiet then you can do what you normally do. If the world is buzzing with something important that will affect your business then you go into damage control and take care of the fallout before it falls out. If that’s possible. Usually, if you stay on top of the breaking news you should be able to react within hours of the event. If time is short for you, delegate the news watch to members of your team.
Let each agent take 2 or 3 of the news sites you would like to monitor and have them report internally by email or to the company bulletin board on anything that could impact your business. When you delegate this activity you are demonstrating trust in members of your agency team who are accepting responsibility, accountability and participating in the survival and success of the agency. Someone should be assigned to watching television as those mass media news shows often bash the cruise industry and millions of people are hoodwinked into believing what they watch on the box.
“To know is to overt.”
MANAGING NEWS AND INFORMATION
Selling Travel supports all other travel trade magazines and encourages you to explore the following publications that deliver news, destination information and more tips, tools and techniques. Round out your daily intake of knowledge and this will help you sell more travel. The following logos appear in alphabetical order – click the logo to visit the website.
Make sure you subscribe and read not only the publication but also each website as many websites offer more than just news & views – there are also Guides and Supplements that you can use for in‐house training and development.
STOP THE LINKEDIN ENDORSEMENT MADNESS! There seems to be a lot of this going around. People you know and also strangers endorsing your skills and talents on your LinkedIn account. Call me crazy but someone I don’t know and who has never attended one of my workshops or made contact until now is suddenly endorsing me for something I’m not known for. Now that’s a little scary isn’t it? So word of warning if you operate a LinkedIn account, be very careful of who you endorse and who endorses you and be sure to manage those endorsements so that they are real time and not a joke which is what this has become for many professionals being plagued by endorsements related to skills they do not have or profess to have.
The word on the street about these endorsements being plied willy‐nilly is that they are “irritating and annoying” – especially when time after time the same person endorses you for skills you don’t rate as your best PLUS that same person has, as mentioned above, never used your services or purchased your products. There’s a strange game going on in the social media world and it’s one where someone wants to endorse as many people as they can in order to show they know them ‐ as the assumption is that if you have endorsed someone then you must obviously know them well enough to make such a statement. Manage your own social media activities and also mention this to your agency team. Advise them only to endorse suppliers that are preferred and of whom you have good knowledge of and actually know them for what they do well. This might spill over to your preferred suppliers BDMs too. Rather then helping them with their career aspirations, the wrong endorsements would prove to be embarrassing in certain circles as the BDMs immediate circle of trade contacts would know what they are good at and would therefore be surprised at some of the claims that are so easily made by others. If you would like to endorse a BDM for instance or anyone else for that matter
take the time to write a true endorsement and based on direct knowledge of that person. Do not set them up to be laughed at by their peers. That wouldn’t translate into being professional at all. On the flip side it could be a great way to boost your agency’s profile by asking your clients, the one’s who have purchased travel from you and who are repeat customers to endorse your agency. By doing this you would control the skills that are listed. You don’t want to be endorsed for beer guzzling trips when you actually sell spa tours. Used and encouraged the right way, being endorsed through any and all social media will help boost your agency’s online presence and go a long way to attracting referrals.
Social media activity must be kept real or you, we, me will be quickly found out and there is no mercy for the person that proves false or seeking personal
gain from someone else’s talent. If you sell a niche product for instance link only to those niche clients and suppliers. Then you’ll be linked to those who affect your bottom line.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
THE STAFF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE PLAN The more we engage the customer through social media the more your agency team will be using social media to stay connected with their clients. It’s part of the social media package isn’t it. A social media strategy will have you riding two horses and chasing two rabbits. When riding two horses you’ll be hard pressed to keep your balance and therefore your decisions need to be well thought through. Chasing two rabbits usually ends up with neither being caught. In other words you chase here and you chase there and the target objective is long gone. What you need when it comes to managing your social media situation, is this:
1. A staff social media business usage plan when engaging with agency clients.
2. A staff social media personal usage strategy.
I have seen more than one agency Facebook page and a supplier’s Facebook page being used by staff to discuss a number of company and staff related issues. Not the best advertising you want featuring for your agency/brand. This element of social media usage must be managed and it must be managed with a well written strategy and policy that can be enforced. Introduce your social media policies for staff when you hire staff and ask them to sign that they understand it. Somewhere in your social media strategy for your agency team you’ll want a paragraph like this: Employees are responsible for making sure that neither their personal nor business online activities will interfere with their ability to fulfill their job requirements or their commitments to their managers, co‐workers or customers.
Some companies deny their staff any type of online activity during their working hours. The challenge with that approach in a travel agency is it’s too restrictive. What about shopping inline during office hours or during the legally allowed lunch hour.
It used to be that a member of staff would take time out of their day to visit a shopping center to purchase perhaps clothing for their family. Traffic delays might caught that member of staff to be away from the office for 90 minutes or more. Allowing your staff to shop online during office hours would mean they are still on the premise to handle any emergencies. They can purchase their needs in a matter of minutes, have lunch and be back to work on the hour. One challenge might be the counsellor who has a personal Facebook page and addicted to updating it. Here lies a challenge and that’s why you need a social media personal usage strategy. Also, you do not want certain words or phrases used on the agency blog or comments posted on your agency’s Facebook page that do not conform to your idea of what is acceptable. Better to have a written guide to engaging customers via social media. For instance: if one of your team wrote and posted that supplier X is the best and they are not preferred or a client travels with that supplier and all hell breaks loose, well guess what? You have a
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
major challenge on your hands. Hence – you need to write both strategies ASAP and then review them with your agency team and advise them that any usage that does not conform to policy is reason for termination. Here is a terrific overview of a new book called “The Most Powerful Brand on Earth” followed by a link to 100 social media templates and strategies. None of them travel agency related – however there is enough text to keep you busy as you collect the most suitable paragraphs for you plan. Introduction To The Book From The Book Pioneering businesses have shown that a more social workforce can dramatically improve brand awareness and customer service, increase revenue, and drive greater value and performance from marketing and sales. For this to work, however, employees must engage in public, real‐time conversations, even if they aren’t professional communicators. This requires new skills, business processes, governance, measurement, and infrastructure, as well as new ways of managing risk. In The Most Powerful Brand on Earth, social business pioneers Chris Boudreaux and Susan Emerick present comprehensive frameworks, proven guidelines, and new case studies for managing these changes within your business. They help you: 1. Empower employees in companies of
any size to use social media to achieve large‐scale business goals.
2. Segment your workforce and
customize plans accordingly.
3. Manage the risks of allowing employees to build real‐time external relationships.
4. Determine performance metrics and
incentives for employees and teams.
5. Monetize word‐of‐mouth marketing.
6. Gather and distribute intelligence at
scale, and use it to increase the value of employee engagement in achieving business goals.
The authors support their techniques with compelling examples from leaders including IBM, Michelin, Walmart, Siemens, DeVry, 3M, Ford, Univision, Red Cross, Novo Nordisk, and Applegate Farms. They also provide cutting‐edge tools for making social workforce enablement work, including:
1. A complete Employee Enablement
Architecture checklist outlining all the capabilities an organization must consider when using social media at scale.
2. A proven Measurement Framework,
including recommendations on linking employee measurement with marketing, sales, customer service, and HR metrics .
3. New research on key success/failure
factors. LINK TO 100 SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
Don’t put this off. Create your social media usage plan and relax!
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
YOUR ENERGY AND STRESS PATTERNS
This is an exercise everyone in the agency should complete. Starting with you the manager, print off this page and then ponder a typical day. The idea is to draw a line from dot to dot, based on how you feel your stress levels are during each 2‐hour period. The scale is simple: H High, M Mid and L Low. The outcome, although you may have a good idea of your stress factors, is that now you have a visual graph to respond to. The rules, if applied, would be as follows: when you have low energy / high stress, you do not work on important profit bearing projects – you schedule them for when you have high energy / low stress. Use a solid line to plot your Energy Line and dotted line for your Stress Line.
6‐8 am 8‐10am 11‐12pm 12‐2pm 2‐4pm 4‐6pm 6‐8pm
H
M
L
Check your chart against your team’s as you share and compare. Share your chart with your fellow managers, too. Are you following the same chart pattern or should you try to change the timing of some of your interactions? Be aware that some people are not completely ‘with it’ at certain times of the day – that includes your customers ‐ as we all respond differently and process information differently depending upon how we function throughout the work day. If you intend to hold an agency meeting of any kind, best to arrange it for when you are ‘on the ball’ and alert. As and when attending someone else’s meeting and it’s not in your prime time, prepare yourself should you need a sugar surge to keep you focused. In the small grid you can see that this person has a mid‐day high stress / low energy pattern. You would not delegate to this person, a presentation to the Board during this time!
STRESS MANAGEMENT
THE HOLMES‐RAHE LIFE STRESS INVENTORY How are you feeling? Up... down, not sure? Well here’s an excellent stress inventory that will guide you. Personally, by all accounts I should have died a few times according to this scale. What doesn’t kill you as they say, makes you stronger. As you will see this scale applies Life Changing Units to life events such as the loss of a love one, marriage, divorce, a change in all sorts of things connected to our lives. You may not realize it but some of your staff are experiencing the outcomes of personal events that they keep to themselves. Even success causes stress. Once you complete the form at the link provided you’ll receive your score and don’t shout out anything when you read it. Most people are inclined to stress and the results are quite disturbing in some cases. The point here is that this is and can be a wake up call to get your work‐life balance, balanced.
http://www.harvestenterprises‐sra.com/The%20Holmes‐Rahe%20Scale.htm So why us it important to know this scale and where you and your team fit on it? The answer is simply that you need a healthy, non‐stressed team, working at their peak and most efficient levels – for the good of the company and for themselves. There are many ways to reduce stress and the personal at‐home stress must be dealt with by the person themselves. The at‐work stress is a team effort to solve and repair. In
this case “we” need to make sure that you, we, me are not in fact “bullying” anyone, or being sarcastic or making too many jokes at someone else’s expense. Manager’s may have their favourites, but management excellence would warn you not to favour anyone. Why? You cause them stress in the face of their team. There are many more Holmes‐Rahe sites so explore and find one that works for you.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
THE POLICY AND PROCEDURES / OPERATIONS MANUAL If you truly want to reduce your stress, better start creating an operations manual which should contain your agency’s policies and procedures ranging from Absenteeism through to Vacations and Work‐Life Balance. If you have a P&P‐Operations Manual make sure it is updated. If you do not have one, better get it written. Once created / updated ask everyone on your team to read it, understand it, question it ‐ then sign it. Now everyone is on the same page in terms of knowing how the agency and the company they work for operates. The information in your P&P ‐ Operations Manual will help reduce conflict and stress in the agency especially between staff and management. Reason being, most of the questions or situations likely to happen are already answered. From that moment on, you can stick to the rules so that you manage fairly across the board. You can of course be more lenient here and there depending on the situation. Here’s a list of basic alphabetical headings that should be in your manual, you can rearrange them into group headings as desired. Add more heading too. Absences Absenteeism / Lateness Access to Workplace Accounting Administration Advertising & Promotion Agency Decor Bereavement Leave Bonuses Booking Policies Brochure Rack Charity Functions Client Files ‐ Ownership Client Meet & Greet Code of Conduct Commissions Compensation Conflict Resolution Staff Conflict Resolution Clients Conference Attendance Copyright Corporate Clients Policy Corporate Travel Program Discounting Policy Document Delivery Dress Code – Agency Eating in Agency Policy Employee Benefits Expense Reports Staff Fam Trips & Protocol Filing – Paper & Digital Fragrances in Agency GDS System Training
Gifts & Gratuities Group Travel Policies Hiring Policies q Interviews q Terms of Hire q Vacations q Dismissal Incentives Job Descriptions Duties Jury Duty Leave of Absence Lunch & Coffee Breaks Head Office Contacts Home Based Opportunities Internet & Email Mail In & Out Maternity Leave Military Duty Mobile Phone Use Office Hours Office Maintenance q Desks q Garbage q Security q Plants q Cleanliness Office Orientation Office Supplies Outsourcing Overtime Parking Payroll Performance Expectations
Performance Reviews Personnel Records Petty Cash Postage Privacy Act Probationary Work Period Recruiting Resignation Procedure Salary Scale and Increases Sexual Harassment Sick Leave Smoking Social Media Agency Use Social Media Personal Use Staff List‐Contact Info’ Staff Meetings Supplier Preferred List Suppler Relations Telephone Procedures Time off Training & Development Use of Company Property Window Display Work Habits Work Life Balance
You will need to think how your P&P relates to and includes agency staff, clients and suppliers.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
FROM FAINTING TO HEART ATTACK: HOW TO IDENTIFY & RESPOND TO 5 EMERGENCY SCENARIOS Reprinted by kind permission of Melissa Valliant
http://www.hellawella.com/author/melissa
When I read this article by Melissa Valliant it struck me as crucial information for any travel
agent creating customized FIT tours or agency tour guides who may or may not be trained in
first aid. Also, the information here should be inherent in any workplace safety training and
reviewed often. We still have an aging work force and we still service an aging client base.
Suggest you print these pages off and review the content in the next staff meeting, copy and
paste them into your travel safe handout if you produce one and add the link to Melissa’s blog.
A woman sitting next to you on the train starts convulsing and falls to the floor. You don’t have time — or a signal — to Google “how to help someone having a seizure” on your smart phone. Would you know what to do? Emergencies by definition are unexpected, so many of us are unprepared for such a scenario when it occurs — but you don’t have to be. Read through the following emergency situations — including heart attack, stroke, seizure, choking and fainting — so you can recognize the symptoms and know what to do if you, someone you know or someone around you experiences them. HEART ATTACK Clinically known as a myocardial infarction, a heart attack occurs when part of the heart muscle is damaged or dies due to lack of blood supply. Heart attacks strike more than a million Americans each year, and many wait too long to get help because they attribute the symptoms to something less serious. Part of the reason so many people make this mistake is because we’re all so used to seeing the “Hollywood heart attack” onscreen. You know the drill — the guy
stops mid‐argument, dramatically clutches his chest and falls to his knees in excruciating pain. While this scenario isn’t unrealistic, it’s not always typical of the symptoms, which can vary from mild discomfort to extreme pain. Signs to look out for: q Discomfort in the center or left side of
the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back — it can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain
q Pain or discomfort in other areas of the
upper body, such as one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach
Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort — a symptom that’s slightly more common in women q Cold sweat, nausea, vomiting, light
headedness or unexplained fatigue The chest pain may feel like heartburn or indigestion, and women often experience a heart attack without the stereotypical chest pain. Instead, many have reported “shortness of breath, pressure or pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen, dizziness,
HEALTH ISSUES
light headedness or fainting, upper back pressure or extreme fatigue,” explained Nieca Goldberg, medical director for the Joan H. Tisch Center for Women’s Health at New York University’s Langone Center, on the American Heart Association’s website. How to react: q DO call emergency medical help
immediately — it could mean the difference between life and death, and can minimize the damage done to heart and brain tissue.
q DON’T try driving yourself to the
emergency room — call 911 and wait for medical personnel to arrive. If for some reason you can’t get through to 911, have someone else drive you.
q DO chew and swallow an aspirin while
you wait for medical assistance to arrive — chewed aspirin works the fastest.
q DO stop what you’re doing, lie still and
try to remain calm. q DO initiate CPR if someone
experiencing a heart attack loses consciousness, stops breathing and doesn’t respond to stimulation like shaking. While this may be obvious advice, we’re going to say it anyway: The person administering CPR should be trained in CPR. If you are not, and no one around you is, a 911 dispatcher may be able to talk you through the steps until help arrives.
Many people don’t realize the enormous advantage of calling 911 over trying to get to a hospital on your own. 911 will get the person the necessary medical attention the fastest for three reasons: 1) Emergency personnel can start treatment — such as oxygen, heart medications and pain relievers — as soon as they reach the
person. Unless you have a trained medical staff with you at all times, this isn’t happening in your car on the way to the hospital; 2) They can call the hospital ahead of time to begin preparations for tests and treatment; and 3) Have you ever been in an ER waiting room? That ambulance is your ticket to bypassing a lot of the waiting‐area process and getting immediately treated. STROKE If you suspect someone has had a stroke, ask them to raise both arms and note if one of them drifts downward. You can think of a stroke like the brain’s version of a heart attack — it’s when arteries to the brain become blocked or rupture, killing brain cells and sometimes causing permanent brain damage and even paralysis. Acting quickly can make all the difference when it comes to minimizing the consequences. Signs to look out for:
q Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg — especially on one side of the body
q Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
q Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
q Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
q Sudden severe headache with no known cause
q Additionally, women may also report these unique symptoms: o Sudden face and limb pain o Sudden hiccups o Sudden nausea
o Sudden general weakness o Sudden chest pain o Sudden shortness of breath o Sudden palpitations
How to react: The National Stroke Association developed an easy way to remember what to do if you suspect someone you know may be experiencing a stroke. Act FAST:
q Face: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
q Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
q Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange?
q Time: If you observe any of these signs, call 911 immediately.
Also: Note the time when the symptoms first appear. The NSA says there is a clot‐buster medication that could reduce long‐term disability for the most common type of stroke if it’s administered within three hours of the first symptom. SEIZURE If someone is having a seizure, do not try to force anything, including your fingers, into his or her mouth. A seizure occurs when the brain is overloaded with unusual electrical activity. Since there are many types of seizures, symptoms can vary from the person seeming suddenly transfixed with a blank stare (i.e., absence seizure) to uncontrollable thrashing and loss of consciousness, which can occur in grand mal seizures. Seizures can be the result of a medical condition known as epilepsy, but they can also happen in people with no underlying health conditions.
Signs to look out for: You’re probably not going to know if your friend is having an absence seizure — unless it’s the result of an underlying condition, you’d probably assume he had 20 seconds of unusual but not unsettling absentmindedness. However, the signs of grand mal, partial (aka focal) and febrile seizures are usually more apparent — symptoms usually last for seconds to minutes. q Grand mal seizure:
Loss of consciousness Sudden contracting of muscles Person falls down Convulsing
q Partial (focal) seizure:
No loss of consciousness Sudden jerking Sensory phenomena Transient weakness or loss of
sensation Unaware of environment May wander Amnesia for seizure events Mild to moderate confusion during
and sleepy after q Febrile seizure:
Occur in children with high fever Can range from mild symptoms like
rolling of the eyes to more severe shaking or tightening of the muscles
Possible loss of consciousness How to react:
q DO try to prevent the person from falling, or try to gently guide him to the floor.
q DO put something soft and flat, like a folded jacket, under her head.
q DO remove eyeglasses and loosen ties or anything around the neck that might make breathing difficult.
q DO try to move furniture or other objects that might injure the person during the seizure.
q DO try to gently position the person so that fluid can leak out of the mouth if she is on the ground, but be careful not to apply too much pressure to the body.
q DON’T force anything, including your fingers, into the person’s mouth. This could result in chipped teeth or a fractured jaw for the individual having the seizure, or your fingers could get bitten.
q DON’T try to hold down or move the person. This could cause injury, such as a dislocated shoulder.
q DON’T attempt CPR except in the rare event that the person doesn’t start breathing again after the seizure has stopped.
q DO remain with the person until the seizure subsides and he is fully awake.
q DON’T offer the person food or water until she’s fully alert.
q DO offer to call a taxi, friend or relative to help the person get home if he seems confused or unable to get home without help.
q DO time the seizure with your watch.
q DO call 911 if:
• It lasts longer than five minutes without signs of slowing down or if a person has trouble breathing afterward, appears to be in pain or recovery is unusual in some way;
• The person has another seizure soon after the first one;
• The person cannot be awakened after the seizure activity has stopped;
• The person was injured during the seizure;
• The person becomes aggressive;
• The seizure occurs in water; or
• The person has a health condition, such as diabetes or heart disease, or is pregnant.
CHOKING We see the tacky‐looking posters on restaurant walls all the time, but would you know how to immediately react if someone near you was choking? Choking happens when food — or maybe something a kid wasn’t supposed to eat but thought looked interesting enough to put in his mouth — gets lodged in the throat and blocks airflow to the lungs. It accounts for more than 3,000 deaths each year, according to the American Red Cross. What to look out for: q Coughing or gagging q Hand signals and panic (sometimes
pointing to the throat) q Sudden inability to talk q Clutching the throat — this is the
universal sign for choking and is a person’s natural response
q Wheezing q Passing out q Turning blue How to react: q Give five back blows: Firmly position
yourself slightly behind the person. Provide support by placing one arm diagonally across the chest and lean the person forward. Firmly strike the person on the back between the shoulder blades with the heel of your other hand.
q Give five abdominal thrusts (aka the
Heimlich manoeuvre): Start by standing or kneeling behind the victim and
wrapping your arms around his or her waist. Make a fist with one hand, and place the thumb side against the middle of the victim’s abdomen, just above the navel and well below the lower tip of the breastbone. Grab your fist with your other hand, and give quick inward and upward thrusts into the abdomen.
q Alternate between the five blows and
five thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.
FAINTING Fainting occurs when your brain isn’t getting enough blood flow and you lose consciousness for a brief period of time. While this one may seem trivial compared with the four other emergency scenarios, it’s a tricky one since the cause can vary from stress or heat to a serious medical condition. What to look out for: q Kind of a no‐brainer here How to react: If you feel faint:
q DO lie down or sit down, and don’t get up too quickly.
q DO place your head between your knees if you sit down.
If someone else faints:
q DO position the person on her back.
q DO — if they are breathing — restore blood flow to the brain by raising the person’s legs above heart level (about 12 inches) if possible.
q DO loosen belts, collars or other constrictive clothing.
q DON’T let them get up too quickly.
1. DO try to revive them — yelling or
gently shaking if you have to. If they don’t regain consciousness within one minute, call 911 immediately.
2. DO check the person’s airway to be
sure it’s clear. Watch for vomiting. 3. DO check for signs of circulation (e.g.,
breathing, coughing or movement). If he or she isn’t breathing, someone who is trained in CPR should attempt resuscitation. Call 911 or your local emergency number, and continue CPR until help arrives or the person responds and begins to breathe.
IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE ROOM, ON THE COACH…? If you do happen to create and run your own agency tours one of the key features to market would be that you always have a doctor travelling with the group. How do you ensure this? Well the way to do it is to strike a deal with your local doctor / medical association. The deal is that the doctor can travel for 50% off – and agrees to manage the care of any tour participant as and when and if required. It’s a win‐win. Your other option is to have your tour guide team trained in first aid. If that has already happened, then you can use this credential as a marketing point of difference, too.
LEARN A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOUR TEAM AND YOURSELF I was reading about a descendant of Charles Lindberg recently and the interviewer’s questions seemed to resonate with me. I’ve adapted them to suit our industry and as I was doing this I completed my own ‘interview’. As always such soul searching can reveal more about yourself than you anticipate. Also, as I wrote my answers to these questions I thought they could be put to excellent use in a team building exercise. They do not dig into anyone’s personal emotional realm other than that part of their life that is driven by being in the best industry in the world! Give it a go. As the manager you should always know ‘who you are’ etc., No shrink required… just ponder the question and write what comes to mind, usually the faster the response the more real it is. Once you’ve completed the questions, have your agency team do the same. Sharing this information allows your team to be more aware of the talent, interests and goals of their colleagues. You can add to the list of course, but keep it business related.
Describe your perfect day, from dawn 'til dusk. Where would you be, who would you meet, and what would you do? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you could travel somewhere you've never been, where would you go? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What’s the best place you've ever visited? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How many countries have you visited? What about places? Cruises? How many miles have you flown? Flights taken? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TEAM BUILDING
If you could have lunch with any adventurer, living or dead, who would it be and why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What’s something you can’t travel without? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When you arrive somewhere new, what’s usually first on your agenda? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What motivates you to keep selling travel? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As a child, what was your dream job? If you gave up that dream, do you have any regrets? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When and how did you get into the travel industry? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What advice you would give to an aspiring travel agent? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TEAM BUILDING
Who has been your most influential role model? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a life philosophy? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Have you ever made a mistake that made you think twice about staying in the travel industry? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you had to choose a different career, what would it be and why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name three things you still want to cross off your life bucket list. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what
you want and you are fully determined not to quit until you find it.”
- Alexander Graham Bell
TEAM BUILDING
PLANNING FOR MORE THAN AN ASTEROID! Have you looked up to the heavens lately? Stared at those bright stars some millions of light years away? How about walking by the ocean or in the forests? Okay, what about reviewing online what’s happening to the main product you sell – Planet Earth? This may sound crazy, however, a travel agency manager’s role is to study the very thing that provides their source of business, jobs and puts food on everyone’s table who works in the travel & tourism industry. Why would you need to study Planet Earth? Read on:
As it is Planet Earth that provides all things travel that you sell, it’s a good idea to spend time studying what’s happening to it and why your business plans are going to be affected soon, and by future events. Not talking cataclysmic here but certainly storms like Sandy and weather patterns that move seasons and increase wave swell and more. One of the best reviews of what’s going on around us just now can be found at this link. Nothing over the top scary – just excellent science that every travel agency manager and members of the senior management team should. http://www.centerforabetterlife.com/eng/magazine/article_detail.lasso?id=399&source=1
Reading this article will give you a better grounding as to how our planet is faring. You may decide to sell more Eco Tours or more Green Certified suppliers, hotels and resorts and car rental firms. You will also be able to determine myth from fact a little better. As you may know Greenwashing is rife within the travel & tourism industry such as charging airline passengers carbon offsets when that is purely an airline cost of doing business. If you focus‐sell a certain destination that represents more than 15% of your revenue you had better be reading about any affects climate change / global warming is having
STRATEGIC PLANNING
and will have. Start planning your back up destinations and new revenue streams. The War On War Similarly there will be more wars and strife coming to our planet this year and the year after and thus reducing the overall locations you can send your clients to. By the time you read this column, there will either be a Middle East war embroiling Israel and Syria, Turkey and Iran and who knows which other countries in that area of the world. If you sell the Middle East – time to make plans for a back up revenue stream once again.
When you look at this map, you can clearly see that the usual vacation spots are still intact and not at war – however they are close to borders and minor conflicts. These minor events could be on a scale of students on the rampage in London, or Vancouver, Montreal and various cities in the US, too. Do these prevent you from travelling? Only if they are blown out of proportion by the media. You’ll find the map and more right here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts
The War on Weather You’ve seen the images of storms, typhoons and tsunamis. El Nino or La Nina who knows what will come and where the tides will rise next time. It is a good idea to check each
morning what’s going on weather wise around the world. This activity is pure management must do. You’ll need to be fully prepped when one of your team asks “What shall we advise our corporate clients about the new ash cloud over…?” Also, you’ll need contingency plans to extract your clients from overseas as and when they are caught up in climatic and any other form of disaster. There are one or two travel insurance firms such as Chubb that do offer extraction services however usually reserved for someone that has been kidnapped and held for ransom. Click for more here. http://www.chubb.com/businesses/csi/chubb3359.html
Learn How To Sell Your Own Country You know you can out sell the best of them when if comes to the sun destinations or a honeymoon in Paris. Selling your own country, perhaps not so hot. It’s always been that way except for those intrepid inbound tour companies who understand this huge opportunity and especially those government sponsored initiatives for attracting tourists to the home country. So when whatever hits the fan overseas, you can always sell your own country to your clients who will love you for it. Try the caribou migration in the north of Canada, to hiking the Grand Canyon in Arizona, to antique hunting in The Lanes, at Brighton, Sussex in the UK. Always ‘home based vacations’ have a front seat when the world turns ugly. One thing is for sure, when ugly comes it’s time to sell more travel insurance. Give your planet a thumbs up as a provider for travel agents. Remember: Plan It with your Planet in Mind.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
REPORT ON TOP MANAGEMENT TRAINING NEEDS
In February I conducted a survey and although the response was light, the returns were an indication of what some of the training needs might be. Thought I’d share them here so you can review them against your own requirements. The survey reached 5,385 travel agents, had 906 opens, 71 clicks to view the survey and 37 who completed it. That’s a 4% return. I collected and collated the responses into standard headings and where there was just one recommendation I listed them on the chart in alphabetical order and those would be Accountability through Trends. The number one need shown below is Sales, however sales training is generally what most managers manage versus doing themselves. Sales Management I think would be the management level training topic, versus Sales. I can indentify with Communication Skills, Presentation Skills and Human Resources as top management training needs as these regularly score high in all management training surveys.
TOP MANAGEMENT TRAINING NEEDS
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101214161820
SALES
COMM
UNICATIO
N
PRESENTATIO
N SKIL
LS
HUMAN R
ESOURCES
TIME M
ANAGEMENT
MARKETIN
G
ACCOUNTABIL
ITY
COOPERATIO
N
DESTINATIO
N KNOW
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NEW ID
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TRENDS
Recent all-industry surveys show the following as the top 10 training topics:
1. Leadership development (selected by 65% of respondents)
2. Interpersonal skills training (59%)
3. Communication skills training (53%)
4. Managing change (52%)
5. Teamwork (52%)
6. Management skills training (51%)
7. Problem-solving (45%)
8. Customer service (41%)
9. Retaining employees (40%)
10. Creativity and innovation (36%)
Note: these topics change depending on the level of management responding, however they do offer something to think on and consider for yourself and your own agency / company. As you can see, SALES does not enter the role of mid management – it could be LEADERSHIP however that inspire sales.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
SMP INTRODUCES FLIP3 TRAINING Flipping The Classroom is changing the way travel agencies and travel trade corporations attend training. It means asynchronous learning first, synchronous learning second. In everyday terms – your team will study a text, then attend a webinar and by the time they arrive at the live, onsite workshop they are fully informed and ready to discuss, challenge, learn, role play and get hands‐on experience. The workshop finishes up with an outcome review and take away. Training ROI – massive! The ‘old way’ = everyone arrives at the workshop uninformed – they listen, take notes, share a few off‐the‐cuff‐ideas, pack up and go home without an in‐depth understanding of the topic. The training ROI here… not very much!
The SMP Flip3 Training Method is explained as follows:
Step 1: Workbook Step 2: Webinar Step 3: Workshop Step 1 in the FLIP3 process: The participant will receive an e‐workbook in PDF format that explains the topic and course content. Actual study time is decided by the client, as an example let’s say that the participant has one week to review the workbook/related materials.
Step 2 in the FLIP3 process: Next, the participant attends a Webinar / Webisode where more information, tips and tools are presented. During the following week the participant completes the balance of the workbook, forming their ideas and opinions in preparation for attending the final step of the FLIP3 process – the live onsite workshop.
Step 3 in the FLIP3 process: The live, onsite workshop now welcomes participants who are well informed on and about the topic and are prepared to discuss, share, answer, engage and learn the finer points of the topic and leave with the tools they need to put what they’ve learned into practice.
Pricing Available Upon Request
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
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