If you are a consultant like I am, then you are probably no stranger to travel. Lots of it. When I worked in Latin America I spent most of my time on airplanes and other continents, when I worked in the UK I was always on a train or on the M6 motorway. (Shiver)
As a career consultant I have always enjoyed the travel; I have been fortunate enough to have traveled through around 27 different companies for work or speaking engagements, and in the early part of my life I absolutely thrived on it.
But times change, and so do people. Today I have two small kids and a wife, and the travel really impacts the family. But, like most of us - I truly love the consulting life, and would be lost without the work.
So I spoke to a group of consulting professionals about the travel and how they cope with it. As usual, the responses were excellent.
Michael Shulist, President of Shulist Group Inc started to battle with this as his own kids entered their teen years. He shared his list of rules for managing away time.
1) Family vacations are sacred - no exceptions, and no work done,
2) Important school (or kid events), birthdays and anniversaries were home times,
3) All travel was arranged to depart after dinner on Sunday and return before Saturday morning. (this was often brutal - but worth it),
4) Call home every day and talk to everyone as long as required,
5) Be reachable at any time you are away (international mobile phones are easy to obtain now),
6) Communicate early and often with family when travel plans change,
7) Use an internationally knowledgeable travel agency with 24 hours coverage who can also communicate with your family in the event of an emergency.
Great stuff, some coping mechanisms I intend to put to work at least for the next little while.
David Mark, proprietor of dmark Consulting LLC, had a different take on it, reminiscent of Alan Weiss' thoughts on this subject.
"I traveled much more as an employee than I do now as a consultant, and I'm invoicing $150-200K/year. Combining client business with 3-4 conferences I go to on my own dime to drum up more business, I am away from home less than 30 days a year.
My proposals do not include any offer of on-site time as part of the project other than a final presentation, and even that is optional (and priced at my per diem).
Is there any reason for you to be on site? Remember, they are paying you for the work, not for seeing you work."
But it was Ralph D'Souza, Head of Business Development at Volta Limited, who capped it off for me. If you must travel, and if you are a consultant, then normally you must. Then "above all, enjoy your travels. Traveling is a enjoyable experience and lets one catch up on a number of things such as
a) Quiet Reflection
b) Reading
c) Relaxation
d) Introspection"
As Jack Welsh says in his book "winning"; you can't have it all. But this advice runs over some great ways to try to have a lot of it...
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