travelBulletin

Gai Tyrrell, managing director Australasia of Globus family of brands (GFOB), shares her top tips for positive productivity during lock down.

Relationships

Take care of those precious relationships, and why not use downtime to remotely expand your network. Gone are the days of the traditional networking breakfasts and industry events (for the time being, anyway), but when the chips are down, it’s more important than ever to stay in touch with people across the industry. Relationships in a people-based industry such as travel, are the foundation of our industry.

Besides, it’s kind. A well-timed phone call to an industry friend just might brighten their day and who knows, might randomly reveal a new mutual opportunity to explore. Or, in the same way that you would walk over to someone in a networking lunch, why not reach out to connect with someone on LinkedIn, or ask an industry friend to invite someone they know to join a group Zoom call, where you can all catch-up over a 5 o’clock wine – a great way to break the ice!

Upskilling

If you find yourself with some spare time, there are loads of opportunities out there to upskill with courses, inspiration and the entire world of travel to explore at your fingertips. With many international borders still closed, domestic travel is the immediate priority, so maybe swap a little planned Netflix time to go travelling online instead? If you have the time, it’s so easy to wise up and expand your knowledge with relevant, up-to-date information about new regions, destinations and experiences within Australia. Head to official tourism sites so you are learning form the experts. Ask yourself ‘why would a customer need my help to plan this kind of trip?’ and work backwards from there to make sure you can add value, recommend awesome experiences and answer questions about destinations and products with confidence.

This is also an amazing opportunity for you and your team to gain new knowledge and really expand your skills, systems and processes, so that when travel opens up again, you are ready, as your own new and improved Version 2.0 of you! , This is exactly why at GFOB we recently launched a business insights video series covering topics like digital marketing and social media advertising. While the videos aren’t all encompassing, they serve as a useful starting point for agents looking to upskill in a number of business functions. If you’re keen, just go to our agent portal to see our team sharing some of the tips and tricks that we use across the GFOB business every day.

Team building

As we all try our best to get used to a new normal, I’d highly recommend looking for novel ways to keep your team feeling connected as a team, and happy, engaged and motivated. Start the ball rolling but ask your team what ideas they have too. For us, during the first month of lockdown, when everyone was working from home, we kept GFOB team spirit high with regular photo challenges. We had ‘family day’ where people submitted hilarious photos with their family, and we took ‘casual Friday’ down a notch and dressed up in our favourite PJs for ‘PJ Day’. That one may have caused a spike in the Australian retail sector as let’s face it, the PJs you really wear can be a far cry from the PJs you publicly share! In our GFOB team and culture, creating moments like these can bring a few great belly laughs as team members catch-up and see the other side of working remotely. Laughter is the best medicine after all and even if your own company culture has a more serious side, there are still novel ways to keep a team engaged…. A zoom coffee meeting with your favourite mug, show off your remote office…or don’t! And an agenda is always important!

Get organised

Move over Marie Kondo! I know this isn’t the most exciting prospect, but the current downtime is just a great opportunity to get your ducks in a row. I’m sure there’s a database you’ve been meaning to update or a filing system that needs reorganising. Make a list of not fun business tasks that you’ve been putting off or procrastinating about for months, if not years, and ‘smash it out’ as a friend of mine says! You’ll thank yourself and you’ll feel great when it’s done, so that when international travel returns you are super ready to hit the ground running.

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