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From overcoming ageism to perfecting work-life balance, Chloe Cann hears advice for aspiring travel professionals from four 30 Under 30 alumni at TTG’s second Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders conference.
Achieving balance was one of the recurring themes during the Life Begins at 30 panel discussion, during the second ever Travel Leaders conference, two weeks ago.
“In the early days we were doing everything – sales, marketing, PR,” explained Martin Johnson, co–founder of Latin Routes. The entrepreneur added that learning to take a step back was a pivotal part of being a better leader and setting up strong foundations for the business. “You realise there are people with more time, who can do it better than you,” he added.
Letting go has also proved a challenge for Alex White, former UK head of sales at Princess Cruises and now Carnival UK vice-president of sales, over the course of his career.
But White came to accept that taking on too much could prove detrimental professionally. “If you’re going at 100 miles an hour all the time, all you’re doing is firefighting,” he said. “One of my weaknesses is taking on a little too much.” And it was an approach that left little time for reflection and improvement, White added. “Have confidence in your team and let them get on with their job,” he concluded.
Jodie Edwards-Locke, managing director of global corporate travel, private clients, and global film and media at The Appointment Group, endured a similar challenge. “My chairman said ‘we’d love to make you managing director on this, but you need to step away from operations’,” she explained. In preparation she was first made general manager for one year, during which time she had to learn how to become more comfortable with delegating and taking a strategic view.
For Kate Irwin, commercial manager at Cheapflights, it was work-life balance that sometimes proved elusive. Irwin, who is married with two young children, decided to take a four-month secondment to Boston in January last year.
“It was tough, but I knew it was the right decision for my career,” she explained. To help balance work commitments with family life back in the UK Irwin has taken to adding “red rocks” to her diary: at the beginning of each week she will schedule unmovable professional and personal events into her calendar.
All four panellists felt they had been on the receiving end of discrimination, either because of their age, or the age of their business.
Johnson explained that as a new company (Latin Routes launched in 2012) he didn’t always feel he was taken seriously. “As a young business, you’re out to make as many contacts as possible, but it’s difficult when you have no track record,” he said. But there were upsides, he added: “It’s also extremely satisfying when somebody says no initially, and then comes around and asks to work with you.”
Irwin said she felt marginalised at the beginning of her career because of the long-standing relationships between more established travel industry professionals. “It was really hard,” she explained. “There are so many people that have been in travel forever and everyone knows everyone and breaking into that clique is difficult. You’ve got to break those walls down.”
Both White and Edwards-Locke agreed that your approach can help when it comes to issues such as ageism. “It can be an issue if you let it,” said White. “When I started the role at Princess I was a lot younger than any other head of department and I felt like I needed to act differently.
I was always trying to act with more gravitas. [But you should] let people judge you on what you’ve done.” According to Edwards-Locke, it’s all about self-confidence: “You’re the right person for the role and you need to have confidence in yourself.”
