The 8 Career Killing Habits to Avoid

Wondering why you’re not advancing in your career as you would like to, or why you always fail to secure a raise, promotion, or made to handle important projects? The answer might be that you’re killing your career, through one or more of these eight habits.

1. Not promoting your work to the People in authority. You may be doing a fantastic job, but if no one is aware of it, it won’t help build your reputation, your pay, or your advancement opportunities. Keep your manager informed of your accomplishments, whether it’s kudos from a major client, waste you prevented, or anything else beyond your normal work.

2. Getting defensive. If you keep defending yourself everytime you get less than glowing feedback on your work, you might be silently killing your career. Many people simply avoid having meaningful interactions with defensive people, so your co-workers may not want to work with you, and your boss may stop pointing out areas to and how you can improve. This may sound great, especially if the kind who is not open to critisism. However you’ll end up destroying the vital relationships you require to advance in your career and also denying yourself the information that you need to grow professionally.

3. Making haste decisions. Whether it’s walking out of your boss because the he/she said something you didn’t like or accepting a job offer without evaluating carefully, impulsive decision-making has no place in your career. The decisions you make in your career will have far-reaching effects on your reputation, wallet, and your quality of life.

4. Being Passive. You might think that not making waves is the best way to career success, but not being assertive is more likely to hurt you. If you believe something is wrong, or a project is bound to fail, or that you deserve a pay rise, you better speak it up. There’s a difference, though, between being assertive and being obnoxiously pushy, but professionally voicing your opinions is key to succeed professionally.

5. Too much negativity. If you’re constantly complaining about everything, from your boss to co-worker, you’re probably creating an unpleasant environment for people around you. Your seniors and juniors may be enjoying the moment but through them tou’ll get a reputation for being bitter or having a bad attitude.

6. Lying. Lying is will definitely destroy your credibility, especially when caught  You will lose trust among your colleagues and that’s something you can never get back. Honesty and integrity are key pillars of professional success.

7. Being disorganized. People pay much attention to whether you can act on your promises within the promised time - whether it’s as small as sending that document you promised in a meeting or as big as adhering to a project schedule. If you do, you build a reputation as someone reliable. If you don’t, they lose confidence in you and conclude you are someone who cannot keep his/her word.

8. Not learning new technology. Being "analog" in this 21st century will most probably kill your career. You might feel that you’re very comfortable with your existing ways of doing things and therefore have no need to learn the latest technology and trends… but if you resist change, you’ll soon be left behind. If you still ask for a dictionary to check the meaning of a word or refer to yellow pages for the address of a client rather than google it, you’re likely to be overlooked by employers in favour of your more technologically savvy competition.