Many jobs begin and end in predictable places — with expected progress along the way. You take the job, work hard, get promoted, work hard, climb another step up the corporate ladder, and so on. But in some workplaces, jobs and roles could evolve in unexpected directions, which creates chaos and opportunity.

Evolving jobs require you to be as proactive as you could. You may find yourself always balancing what you want to do with what is expected now from you, communicating changes and compromises and defining priorities.

While the change creates opportunities, it also could create competitiveness and struggles to keep up with the job requirements. For example, if you are not clear about how much you should focus on a new project or requirement at the expenses of your core duties. That is why if your role is changing, you must communicate clearly to ensure that you’re not going down the wrong path.

Here are a few points to keep in mind.

What you want to do

New pastures always seem exciting, and being the one who tries new ideas can also be rewarding. Having said that, don’t lose touch with what you actually want to do in your career. If you’ve not established your knowledge and expertise in a particular area, being pulled in different directions could mean knowing a little bit about everything — or becoming jack of all trades.

In every business, there is a need for people who are versatile. But the lack of in-depth knowledge could hurt you if you plan to purpose a specialisation. That is why you must be sure that your ventures do contribute to your career goals.

In addition, in some cases experimenting with a new area could be your ticket to become responsible for it. If your experiment is purely to help out with no real interest of pursuing this as a job, make it clear to your superiors. For example, you don’t want to take a sales job and end up in PR or vice versa — unless that is actually your goal.

Communicate

Work hours are limited, and if you’re switching roles often, something might be dropped. To ensure that you’re meeting expectations, always verify priorities with your supervisor. Have a written log of your duties. Develop timelines and deadlines, if they are not set by others. The clearer you’re about what you’re doing and how much time it takes, the easier it will be for you and your supervisors to prioritise tasks

Communication is also essential with roles are changing frequently to ensure that you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes, duplicating efforts or restarting a process that was tried and test. Open communication should match your company’s style, however. For example, some companies prefer ongoing communication while others may opt for periodic updates. Know what work for your team to makes sure that your communication is effective.

Pick your battles

It is easy to stretch yourself too thin or to create many enemies when you’re trying to experiment with too much new ideas. Try to keep your focus on what matters. Especially if you’re new, don’t expect to make drastic changes to a situation that is already working without facing resistance. Instead, decide what your goals are and work on them.

Be sure that you understand what the company is expecting from you: bring change, improve current process, introduce new skills and expertise, or something else. By matching your efforts with the goals set for you, you will be able to proceed without too many hurdles. In particular, try to cultivate collaboration and understanding of your changing role because you won’t be to accomplish much without having your team’s buy in.

Learn and grow

Many companies assign people tasks based on potential. If you’re in this situation, take this vote of confidence as an incentive to learn and grow. While you put your existing knowledge to play, find out what skills you still need to acquire. If your approach is to always improve and grow with new tasks, this changing work environment and evolving role could fast track your professional development.

The writer, a former Gulf News Business Features Editor, is a Seattle-based editor.

Dealing with changing roles

Know what you want to do

Be flexible but focus on career goals

Communicate effectively

Collaborate and learn

R.O.