Even the most organised and confident people can become overwhelmed when having to step up quickly, this is something we all face in our day to day lives and careers. I recently found myself having to take on a role which I didn’t think I was equipped for but much to my surprise I thrived under that pressure. Here is a quick run down of the day I realised I can do more than I realised: as the day was ending I had a call from the marketing team (a totality of two people but still). Jacob and Kate explained that Jacob was not feeling well and could not run an online event we had planned for the following day and asked whether I felt comfortable enough and had the time to fill in. Of course, I said yes because that’s what being a part of a team means. They both gave me a quick run down of the event which was being held through Redback, an online webinar platform that I have never used before. Essentially, all I had to do was ensure all panellists were ready to take part in the Q&A section and pick up on any formatting issues. In order to pick up on any formatting issues, I had to be watching the event live but also listening to the speakers in the back end (meant I was listening to the same information twice with a bit of lag time), so I had to be paying very close attention.
The event ran smoothly with only one hiccup which was one panellist forgot to take themselves off mute when asked a question but luckily the facilitator made a joke and moved on with the questions. My supervisor congratulated me after the event and said my customer service was top notch (I sent a collective message before the event and told all panellist they were looking fabulous and I think this made them feel more at ease).
It’s important to celebrate little victories like this because I did feel out of my comfort zone and quite challenged but overall, challenges are there for you to grow and learn from and that was definitely the case here.