After a temporary slump thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, business travel is now once again a booming industry.
While an online meeting can suit established relationships, face-to-face meetings are often required to build new relationships, navigate complex situations or develop new opportunities.
Corporate travel offers businesses and leaders opportunities to network and grow both domestically and internationally. With over half of businesses worldwide expecting to make more trips in 2024 compared to 2023, the number of workers taking flight is expected to continue to grow.
However, as anyone who travels regularly for work knows, despite the benefits of business travel, it can bring challenges which often contribute to adverse health impacts if not identified and managed.
Travel can compound the already significant tolls on mental wellbeing that often come along with senior management roles. New research from The Banyans Healthcare reveals 55 percent of Australian managers say work has negatively impacted their mental health – compared to only 32 percent of non-managers.
Corporate travel then can add an extra layer of stress to these roles, compounding already busy schedules and high-stress work with irregular sleeping hours, jet lag, social isolation from family and pressures to eat and drink in excess or simply less access to healthy food.
The chronic stress of working on the go and not having a proper, structured place where you can rest, reset and recover will inevitably catch up with you, unless you implement proactive strategies to mitigate the impacts.
In fact, additional research also highlights the pervasive health impacts frequent travel can have, with business travelers exhibiting higher rates of disturbed sleep, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol dependence, anxiety and depression.
When you lack a kitchen to prepare your own food, are facing long flights or working to a busy schedule with few breaks, it becomes increasingly difficult to find the time and space to prioritize wellbeing and mental health.
The chronic stress of working on the go and not having a proper, structured place where you can rest, reset and recover will inevitably catch up with you, unless you implement proactive strategies to mitigate the impacts.
Being able to build routine is often foundational for improving mental wellbeing; however, business travel can make it difficult to maintain steady habits that buffer the adverse effects of work stress on your mental health. This is especially true when working away involves committing free time to work associated activities such as being in transit or meetings over dinner.
Healthy travel habits
Drawing on my own experiences as a frequent corporate traveler, alongside my work with other business leaders, I recommend business travelers develop maintainable and easy-to-implement habits that promote mindfulness, sleep, exercise, good nutrition and time outside.
Here are my top wellbeing strategies for CEOs on the go.
1. Build mindfulness and gratitude into your day
Business travel is often fraught with packed schedules, and going straight from a plane to hotel room, only to immediately set off to a dinner or event. The constant hustle and bustle of working on the go will leave little time to yourself and prevent you from taking moments to reflect and regroup.
Make sure you bring a personal journal with you on trips, or even set up a note on your phone, and try taking five minutes at the start or end of the day to journal, write down what you are thankful for or meditate. This will give you a chance to reflect and gather your thoughts on the day, assess how you are feeling and highlight any areas of your wellbeing that may need greater focus.
Practice box breathing before bed to give yourself a chance to calm your emotions, steady your mind and decompress after a busy day.
2. Prioritize sleep as much as possible
It is common for a dinner to run overtime, or a flight to land in the small hours of the morning. You won’t always be able to control when you sleep, or even where – however, you can take steps to ensure you are getting quality sleep.
Try to promote sleep by keeping the hotel room as dark and cool as possible, as well as avoid using your phone or laptop late into the night.
If you do need to work, try to do it at a desk or away from the bed or bedroom so that that space remains a sacred place for relaxing and winding down. You can’t always control the sound or lighting in and around your hotel so keep a pair of earplugs with you and consider wearing a sleep mask. The more you can focus on eliminating noise and ambient light, the more you can improve your sleep.
3. Avoid caffeine or alcohol late into the evenings
While a drink at dinner or a coffee to get you through the night might sound like a good idea at the time, these are inevitably going to keep you awake or disturb the quality of your sleep, even if you are able to get the number of hours you want.
Minimize your alcohol intake, alternate with low sugar and alcohol-free drinks and stop alcohol use several hours ahead of when you’re intending to sleep.
With some events and cultures putting implicit (or even explicit) pressure to consume alcohol (and often in unhealthy amounts), you may like to prepare and practice responses for when you are offered alcohol. One helpful phrase is, “I’m going to start with something alcohol-free tonight thank you.”
You can also ring ahead and ask the hotel to empty the minibar, removing the temptation to indulge, which can be hard to resist when tired and needing to unwind.
4. Make breaks to be in the sun
Research shows the positive correlation between sunlight and mental health symptoms. However, spending all day in a hotel, conference room or office, makes it easy to miss the opportunity to step outside. Make time to take breaks outside between meetings and conferences to give yourself a chance to reset and be surrounded by nature, even if that is just in the form of a garden or park.
5. Use the space available as best as you can
We know that exercise can reduce symptoms of mental illness, as well as improve sleep, concentration and energy. The hotel gym can be a fantastic resource for the CEO on the go, even if it is just 20 minutes on the treadmill at the end of the day.
Since the gym won’t always be an option, adapt your exercise to the space available. Adopt a ‘something is better than nothing’ mindset and try calisthenics or yoga in your hotel room. There are some great apps that will put a workout together for you that doesn’t need equipment, and will even take you through the routine with video instructions. An app can also send you reminders to do a short workout – and you never feel worse after exercise!
6. Stock up on healthy snacks
While you may not always have the facilities to prepare your own food, you can still control what you’re eating. If you pre-prepare and pack protein bars, nuts and low sugar treats you can eat these instead of the often-unhealthy options available at meetings and events like high-carb pastries or sweet desserts.
Staying hydrated by drinking water or herbal tea will also help mental alertness. While it is often hard to take nuts and snacks across international borders, you can often step out to a convenience store and find nuts and other low sugar treats when you arrive at your location.
Leading the way
These tips work on an individual level, however, I would also encourage leaders to understand the need for employee wellbeing on the go and promote company cultures which encourage and prioritize good health and wellbeing, whether in the office or when traveling.
Leading by example when on the road with colleagues is a great place to start, as it gives leaders the opportunity to demonstrate healthy habits and set a precedent for these habits.
This can help other staff understand it is not only okay, but encouraged, to take steps such as declining or minimizing alcohol, consuming nourishing foods and prioritizing good sleep hygiene while traveling for work.
Leading by example when on the road with colleagues is a great place to start, as it gives leaders the opportunity to demonstrate healthy habits and set a precedent for these habits.
If it’s important enough to travel for, it’s important enough to be at your best. While there are no shortcuts to high performance and cognitive wellbeing they are supported by simple habits that can be deliberately cultivated.
Workshops and professional development opportunities can be fantastic ways to normalize a culture shift within your organization and underscore the importance of maintaining wellbeing for workers.
