How To Manage Your Business During an Extended Personal Crisis
Plan for the unplannable
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I’m not gonna sugar coat it. Last month was a pretty bad month for me.
On top of the normal day-to-day business problems, my personal life took an unexpected turn when my wife took a spill on the tennis court, broke her wrist, and required two back-to-back surgical procedures of the “it has to be done now” variety.
It’s selfish of me to think about how her misfortune and pain impacts my day-to-day. But it’s also a reality, and an inescapable one at that.
The fact is, when she went down, I got handed another job, and this one was far more important, far more difficult, and far more time-consuming than the one I already had. It’s basically the 24/7 running of a household with three kids, two of which are at the high-effort point of making a decision about college that will dictate the next four years of their life and maybe their future.
I make no bones about it. I can’t do what I do unless she does what she does. All in all it could have been a lot worse, but it wasn’t nothing. And that’s my point.
The Sneaky Extended Time Blip
We all have accidents. We all get hit with unforeseen circumstances that — in the back of our minds — look like a bump in the road at the onset. But then a trip to urgent care turns into a trip to the emergency room which kills a day, then bleeds into the next day and suddenly you’re faced with a week where you’re totally out of commission.
It’s a big deal for anyone. But when you’re in a leadership position, especially at a startup, it can be massive. The day-to-day responsibilities of running a maturing company or team can be overwhelming, even with all 24 hours in a day to work with. When your available working hours suddenly get reduced to zero, you’re often faced with a list of hard choices as to what doesn’t get done and how much money gets lost.
You’re hoping that this is only a week, not a month, or three — because that can happen too.
