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Winning Characteristics​
Of The Successful Travel Manager

Will Tate, GoldSpring Partner, talks top traits of successful travel managers and impacts to program and professional development.  Delve here into the habits, practices, and personalities that make for above-average industry prowess.

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2 Minutes with Will Tate

Industry Say​ on Attributes of the Elevated Travel Manager

Our webcast participants contributed comments in chat on what they see as additional attributes of the Elevated Travel Manager.

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  • Training to keep knowledge up

  •  Become trusted advisor

  • Leverage networking, LinkedIn, organizations, GBTA, etc.

  • Praise to others / Public acknowledgments

  • Challenge each other

  • Leveraging industry knowledge and certification to enhance programmatic efforts in individual companies

  • Engaging your team in a collaborative session in order to build knowledge and align with company policies and procedures

  • Assigning each team member to become a subject matter expert in an area and then have the team member do trainings on what they learned during a team meeting

  • Give/do more than expected

  • It's important to understand what your suppliers/buyers are rewarded for and how you can collectively create a win/win in your negotiations for your respective companies, and the individuals involved.

  • Create valuable travel policies

  • Monitor and measure

  • Mutually agreed supplier relationship management goals

  • ​Understand Leadership's work/presentation style as well as company/client goals.

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2 Minutes with Will Tate

Industry Say​ on Attributes of the Credible Travel Manager

Our webcast participants contributed comments in chat on what they see as additional attributes of the Credible Travel Manager.

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  • Frequent and clear communication 

  • Training newer travel members into the industry, providing partnerships, understanding of products and continued education. 

  • Influence leadership to implement policies 

  • Networking and building business relationships 

  • Do what you say you will 

  • Listen to new ideas and explore different solutions where appropriate 

  • Understand your audience 

  • Showing up and making a difference in your company 

  • Listen, asking probing questions.  Less talking, more listening 

  • Having the data to show you have been able to deliver 

  • Be an industry leader, stay on top of the industry news and letting our clients know 

  • Accept the invitation to serve on advisory boards, panels, and create a network of experienced mentors 

  • Influencing leadership for new travel ideas/tools, etc 

  • Be a trusted advisor to your customers 

  • Design process and adhere to tasks 

  • Attend GoldSpring Master Classes! 

  • White paper-author, be a panelist, host a webinar

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2 Minutes with Will Tate

Industry Say​ on Attributes of the ProactiveTravel Manager

Our webcast participants contributed comments in chat on what they see as additional attributes of the Proactive Travel Manager.

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  • Base your responses on the needs and not your wants

  • Keeping your senior leaders abreast of industry changes that will impact your travel program before it happens

  • Noticing what is going on in your company that will affect travel and building out that change ahead of time

  • Look outside your travel team to help bring forth new concepts

  • Get messages out ahead of surprises

  • Plan ahead and communicate

  • Anticipate questions

  • Look for opportunities to make a difference and improve the travel program

  • Proactive storytelling that communicates results

  • Host Stakeholders webinars - EA's AA's

  • Drive next steps, sounds simple, take the leader role

  • We have a travel advisory group that meets to float new ideas

  • Follow up throughout the year

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2 Minutes with Will Tate

Industry Say​ on Attributes of the Connected Travel Manager

Our webcast participants contributed comments in chat on what they see as additional attributes of the Connected Travel Manager.

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  • Use your suppliers for ideas and your influence to bring those ideas to life

  • Show the client what can be improved for employee ease of use, cost savings, transparency and safety

  • Communicate effectively and with purpose

  • Be the SME

  • Understand your audience and who the decision makers are and work with them to achieve a successful program

  • Well connected with your peers - provide value in conversations - give and take

  • Create a communication plan for your key stakeholders and the style which aligns with each of these stakeholders

  • Invest time in building relationships

  • Accept the invitations for Advisory boards, participate in networking, get involved in GBTA

  • Join your local and Global organizations to learn what is going on and become involved

  • Participate in industry events

  • Love GBTA!

  • Create relationships at all levels within organization as well as networking with peers/co-workers

  • Ensure people know YOU

  • Don't dismiss virtual as valuable

  • Listening, learning, sharing

  • Participate on a panel at a local BTA meeting or GBTA webinar

  • Being involved in the industry spills into our roles

  • Create your own task to take action, reach out to others, be proactive, have a positive message, solve their problems or share who can

  • Having a strong network to lean on when you need to brainstorm and bring new ideas or opinions back to your leadership

  • Being able to translate what is meant across the various elements so everyone understands what is going on

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2 Minutes with Will Tate

Industry Say​ on Attributes of the InfluentialTravel Manager

Our webcast participants contributed comments in chat on what they see as additional attributes of the Influential Travel Manager.

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  • Know and understand your audience

  • Share your experience

  • Keep your knowledge and skill set updated

  • Listen

  • Give real life examples when trying to communicate to people

  • Observe your audience

  • Share your story that is relevant to your audience - WIIFM

  • Be strategic

  • Create councils and gain alignment from peers who can help influence different functional leadership

  • Try and ensure you have the right people for the task or project and create a team that works together collectively

  • Know how to summarize a communication for your leadership  -- don't get lost in the weeds when presenting ideas or data to them

  • What worked today does not always work tomorrow

  • As much face-to-face communication to all levels of stakeholders

  • We have a wonderful travel blog to keep employees up to date and aware of what is going on

  • Transparency to what is happening, effective communication

  • Challenge legacy and this is the way we do it

  • Share industry trends with teams, to keep them up to date after attending meetings/webinars

  • Our team has a marketing component where we yammer and blog about important travel and industry matters to better inform our travelers about what to look for, how to travel better, and make better decisions about traveling for the company

  • Innovation is not always from a start up, however timing is key

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2 Minutes with Will Tate

Industry Say​ on Attributes of the Resourceful Travel Manager

Our webcast participants contributed comments in chat on what they see as additional attributes of the Resourceful Travel Manager.

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  • Know who and where to look

  • Do your research

  • Do not be afraid to ask

  • Make sure the information you have published is kept up to date

  • Ask questions, do your research and ensure you're timing makes sense

  • Finding free or low cost resources when you don't have a budget for
    new tech

  • Bring SME if you are not that person

  • Read, read, read

  • If you don't know- say you don't know

  • Be open to new ideas - there are often multiple ways to achieve a task and exploring options can provide viable alternatives

  • Everyone is different, so ask questions and learn from others

  • Go higher wider and deeper with your communication and information

  • Utilizing peer groups

  • Having a strong network to lean on when you need to brainstorm and bring new ideas or opinions back to your leadership

  • We are fortunate to be in an industry where to find support, questions, peers, etc. give more than receive

  • Having industry connections and with peers is a great way to connect and gain insight from others .  We don't have all the answers but communicating with others does give the answers and approaches that fit our specific challenge

  • Travel Support Portal built for all travel services within the company .

  • Coordinating with other internal groups like risk, HR etc.

  • Being able to be a knowledgeable subject matter expert and being open to questions

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