What to do when you workload suddenly increases

Life is full of the unexpected.  Just when everything seems to be going fine, here comes that curveball to throw you off your little track of comfort.  Business is an ever changing dynamic, and being a leader is all about embracing and implementing change, but how do you prepare for the totally unexpected.

Time and experience will certainly help you cope, as your reactions will become more and more automatic as you become more experienced in dealing with change.  There is certainly no substitute for experience.

But sometimes the change that comes can be something harder to prepare for, like the loss of a colleague.  Whether by retirement, termination, or another reason, you can expect your workload to almost double if something like this occurs.

I recently had to deal with this very issue.  Luckily I was prepared, as I sensed that my colleague longed for retirement and was tiring of the day to day grind.  I went into the situation with the mentality that I would have to take care of everything from day one, and continued to build on that philosophy.

My thinking worked like a charm.  When my colleague did decide to call it a career, the only loss that I seemingly suffered what not having an extra set of eyes around when I needed them.  Of course we lost a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience when he left, but the transition could have been a lot tougher.

Keeping an open mind and learning every side of the business will do nothing but help your career in the long run.  If you want to impress your superiors, learn every single facet of your business.  You can never know too much, so learn something every day.  The benefits aren’t just building blocks for your career, but can help to avert crisis should the unexpected occur.