The recent typhoons in Hong Kong, and a colleague’s last-minute event cancellation, reminded me of a similar situation I faced a few years ago that taught me a valuable lesson.

I was supposed to fly to Taiwan for my very first visit there. It was a busy work trip, so I did not plan to see much of anything besides the hotel and the clients, but I figured at least I could navigate the bus, train and taxi system and learn how to do that so I would be ready when I finally went back to visit it just for fun.

Alas, as I walked out of my home to catch a taxi to the airport, I got an e-mail from the client saying we needed to postpone the next day’s meeting. Apparently, there was a typhoon about to hit Taipei and it was worse than expected, so they would not be at work. Instead, they would be preventing flooding at their homes.

I had prepped a lot for this meeting: putting together a presentation, doing a scoping call to make sure I knew what their priorities are, using Google maps and the Taiwan High-Speed Railroad’s website to figure out the timing of the big meeting relative to another one I was having 80km away afterwards, figuring out how to get out of and back into the airport, evaluating different hotels by cost and location — I was all set.

However, I cannot control the weather.

There are always going to be things we cannot control, no matter how good of a leader (or a manager) (or a planner) we are. Some things will simply be beyond our ability to influence, no matter how well we plan. That goes for people too, by the way, not just for things like the weather. You might be an outstanding leader, but if one of your employees is having trouble at home, there is likely to be a negative impact on their work no matter what you do.

That does not mean we should just give in to inevitability. When we know there’s a chance things might not work, we should have a backup plan, or a deadline by which we will make a final decision. When possible, we should build some flexibility into our plans. But no matter how much effort we put into planning and preparation, we need to realize that on some occasions there are things outside our control that are going to mess us up, and we need to be ok with that and move forward. While you cannot control everything, what you DO control is your response to it. If a situation goes bad and there’s nothing you can do about it, do the best you can to respond to it but also accept that it’s not anyone’s fault.

My clients were fine, and I saw them two weeks later. None of them had any damage at home, and the offices were okay too. Once things went out of our control, everyone focused on the things they COULD control, and it all turned out fine in the end.