5 Career Killing Behaviors to Avoid at All Costs

Your behavior at the workplace is not anonymous. Coworkers, visitors and management notice how you work, what you say and how you handle adversity and challenges. The way you behave, when operations are wonderful or when problems exist, affects your career more than you may believe.

Self Destructive Behavior Becomes a Continuous Loop

As much as this type of behavior can ruin your day, and possibly your career, there is another associated problem of equal severity. Self destructive behavior also becomes self-perpetuating.

Author, consultant and former executive Steve Tobak has seen this vicious cycle up close during his corporate days. His career as an executive coach and strategy consultant has further illustrated this self fulfilling prophesy loop. He wrote about this condition in his article, “Are You Sabotaging Your Own Career? Probably,” for BNET in July 2011.

Here is why this behavior replays itself, like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.

• You have problems in the workplace.
• You become angry and blame others for the dissention and issues.
• Your subconscious, however, knows that it’s probably your fault.
• You then start to feel guilty and ashamed.
• Your self confidence declines and promotes self doubt.
• Your workplace performance declines, causing more problems.
• You then go back to the top of the list to start this sequence all over again.

Psychological medical professionals see this condition often. This unfortunate destructive behavior loop is just as common in peoples’ personal lives as in the workplace. This recurring loop also contributes to difficulty in changing this behavior when you finally decide to take some positive action.

Prominent Career Killing Behaviors and How to Stop Them

Understand that, until now, you may not even be aware that you’re displaying these behaviors. Unfortunately, everyone around you usually is aware that one or more of these behaviors aptly describes you at the office.

• Thinking the problem is everyone else. The most common career killer is as odd as it is widespread. Think about this behavior for a moment. What are the odds that there is a complex conspiracy, with all coworkers and management participating, to sabotage your career progression? The odds are usually around zero. This behavior is akin to “we have met the enemy and they are us.” Take responsibility for your actions and performance. Commit to changing this behavior and becoming responsible for yourself.
  
  
• Selfishly concentrating on your career at the expense of your employer’s well being. While it is natural and commendable to strongly focus on your work and career, doing so without regard for the goals, objectives and needs of your employer is a common career stopper. Interestingly, putting your employer’s needs first enhances your credibility and establishes you as a top performer. Your career will accelerate if you stop your self-limiting behavior and think of your company first.
  
  
• Believing you know all there is to know; refusing to listen and learn. Employees who believe they know it all usually display unwarranted stratospheric opinions of their own expertise. This is a dangerous loop because refusing to listen and learn from what they hear only accentuates their career-killing behavior, which is usually obvious to all of their peers and management. This behavior often stems from feelings of inferiority (not superiority) and serious insecurity. To break the loop, listen carefully to the comments, opinions and thoughts of others. Learn from those statements that have value and discard the rest. Be curious. Investigate those valuable things about which you are not knowledgeable. Display your newfound knowledge in more subtle and effective ways than appearing to be a know it all.
  
  
• Having a deep feeling of entitlement, becoming angry when you do not “receive.” In business, the rule that no one is entitled to anything prevails. There is one exception: You are entitled to work as hard as you possibly can, hoping that you’ll succeed. Unless your father owns the company, just being you, without the hard work, may entitle you lose an otherwise promising career.
  
  
• Assuming there is some “silver bullet” or magic secret to launch your career. People often pour incredible energy into searching for that magic secret that all successful people seem to know. In the business world, there is no secret or silver bullet. There is the requirement that you use all the intelligence, education, commitment, dedication, and motivation you can muster—every workday. Wasting energy seeking that which does not exist is a proven career sabotager. Use your brain, learn, gain experience and expertise, and work hard. That will become your magic secret to improve your career.

These self-destructive behaviors are way beyond just annoying workplace habits. They are serious faulty behaviors that will eventually stall or decimate your career. Understand this and take action to eliminate these career killers. Make no mistake; it will be hard work. But, like hard work on the job, changing these behaviors will accelerate your career.

Source:
http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/are-you-sabotaging-your-own-career-probably/7907?promo=713&tag=nl.e713