Senior executives and VIPs are very special people, and often they know it. They may be very high up in the food chain of your organization, be that a corporation or nonprofit. This is also true for those who work for the government. People who become executives have not only a particular type of personality but they have a particular type of psychological experience. Let’s face it: they are used to getting their way. A very high executive may be very used to being able to boss people around, and may be used to people simply saying yes. The “yes man” is a well-known stereotype, but the flipside of this is the boss who demands to have his or her way.
Now, we are not going to change the psychology of our senior executives at any given moment. We know that, and we also know that many of them are certainly wonderful people. They became executives because of their drive, and their ability to get things done. However, many psychological studies have indicated that executives tend to not only enjoy taking risks but tend to underestimate risks as well. A really good executive doesn’t fear failure.
Travel Abroad: Good Personality Traits Can Become Bad
When one is traveling abroad, however, these personality traits may not be so advantageous. No matter how wealthy a person is, no matter how sophisticated he or she is, no matter high how high they are on the level of intellect, if they are traveling on the Metro in Paris they are just another traveler. If they are mugged or assaulted, it really doesn’t matter how important they are in your executive food chain! Similarly, if there is a terrorist attack, they may be just as subject to this risk as the next person, and in fact they may be more impacted because they may stick out as a particularly valuable target.
Another common example of this problem in terms of overseas travel is medical emergencies. The flu is a very democratic virus, affecting people of
all shapes and sizes, and all walks of life. Presidents and Tsars have been impacted by the flu, just as peasants and average citizens.
Getting Executives to Comply with Overseas Travel Check In
What are you supposed to do if you are the administrator of your overseas travel program? You may be able to order your employees to comply, but in terms of executives, you may need to be more persuasive.
However, think in terms of persuasion. Executives often like things like efficiency and cost savings. By using our systems, you not onlyhave the efficiency of both push and pull notifications when it comes to travel overseas, but you also have the incredible cost savings of a semi automated system. We have the best of both worlds: technology and humans.
A good example of this is check-in’s overseas. While you may be able to require lesser employees to check in by phone each day, a senior executive may simply ignore this requirement. She may think it is not necessary, or it does not apply to her. By using our phone track system, this can be automated, and when she decides that she really needs to use the system it is there at her fingertips.
We have a lot of experience working with senior executives, and our goal is to make their security as easy as possible using technology.
The reality is that any employee overseas should check in on a regular basis, and this goes for the most junior level employee as well as the most senior level. It is your job, and our job, to persuade them of how important this is, as well as how easy this is. By explaining the “why” and making it “easy,” you can increase compliance of check-in requirements overseas, even for Senior Executives and VIPS.