By Steve Strauss
This is maybe my favorite study
in the last year. An online survey of 972 adults, it identified the
five habits that are most likely to limit one’s career advancement. I love this
list because it’s not the stuff people are generally looking out for in their
careers. It’s not the stuff experts have been warning people about since they
got their first internship.
Here’s the
list:
1.
Unreliability
2.
“It’s not my job”
3.
Procrastination
4.
Resistance to change
5.
Negative attitude
What
strikes me first about this list is that it’s stuff most people know they do.
You may not admit to yourself that it matters, but I bet each of you can figure
out which of these career-limiting habits most applies to you. Hell, I can talk
with you for five minutes and peg one of the habits to you.
So decide
which is most relevant to you, and then read about why it hurts your career and
how to stop it.
1.
Unreliability
Okay, the
real reason I love this list is that I can look at it and immediately see which
one is me. I am number one. You never know if I’m going to do what I say.
This is bad. It usually starts out bad for everyone around me. They catch on to
the problem faster than I do. But once I know I have the problem, then I feel a
tinge of guilt saying yes to anything because I never know myself if I’m going
to follow through.
And, I have
started noticing how people have stopped relying on me for some things because
I disappoint them with such irritating predictability.
I know how to be more
reliable. I have to convince myself that delivering what I promise is as
important as being clever, witty, and fun. I remember the first time I realized
that I have to be more consistent: This lady was
spraying fake tan on me and I was worrying that it would make me look crazy.
Then I thought: Maybe people already think I’m crazy.
And I
think, actually, this is the core to all the items on the list of
career-limiting habits: you have to genuinely care that you are limiting your
career and that you have a habit that completely annoys people.
2. “It’s
not my job”
Look.
Here’s your job: To stop your career-limiting habits. Your job is to get people
to like working with you so that you stay employable. People like working
with people who do work that matters to them.
So your first day at
work, throw out your job description. That was just to hire you. No
one cares about that job description really. They just care that you do stuff
to make their life easier. So your job is to
make your boss’s life better.
You will
not do that by telling your boss “that’s not my job.” Your boss knows what your
job is and your job is what your boss asks you to do. You get a promotion by
making your boss happy. If you don’t like the work, then make a deal with your
boss that you’ll get that work done and then you’ll do some extra, interesting
work.
If you go
through your career getting the work done that people care about, then you’ll
get more and more control over your workload by becoming more and more valuable
to the people around you.
3.
Procrastination
Almost all
procrastination comes from the fear of not being able to do something well. In
general, you know how to perform well enough. But the root of not being able to
start any task is thinking you are not going to do it well enough. So the key
to beating procrastination is to treat it as a symptom of the real problem:
Perfectionism.
Sometimes, in job
interviews, when an employer asks, “What’s your weakness?” a common
response is “perfectionism.” However, perfectionism is not just a weakness. Perfectionism is a
disease.
Actually,
it’s similar to anorexia in that the person with the illness has a whacked-out
view of the world and starts taking obsessive actions based on that view. This
becomes an impediment to achievement in areas of their life that they care
about.
Perfectionism
prevents you from seeing a big picture, and that prevents you from
moving up the ladder. Also perfectionism prevents you from being flexible
on collaboration and delivery, which prevents you from being a high-level
creative person.
Mostly,
though, perfectionism means that you never think you are doing a good enough
job. Because there is no perfect. So you will never be pleased with yourself or
the people around you. And that’s a miserable way to live.
4.
Resistance to change.
Are you telling yourself
none of this applies to you? Then your problem is resistance to change. People
who resist change are constantly dreaming up reasons that the status quo is
fine, and then getting
themselves into messy situations.
But the
status quo is never fine. People can always improve, systems can always
improve. Optimistic people who care about doing a little extra to make things
work efficiently are the people who can accept that change is constant.
There is no safe ground
in one’s career, because the workplace is about moving forward to create
something better. Your career should mirror the workplace you exist in. Prepare for career
change all the time. Because you need to be growing and
changing to deliver better product just as the companies that surround you do.
Can you
tell me what you’re aiming to change right now, today? Because if the answer is
nothing, then that’s where you need to start.
5. Negative
Attitude
Procrastination
(which is really just perfectionism gone awry) ends up with negativity and
disappointment showered on yourself. Negativity, directed at other people
and their ideas, is just as annoying. You might think you are a realist, “the
only guy with two feet on the ground” or whatever. But really, you’re just a
buzz kill.
There is no point in
debating whether or not people are better off being around the “realism” of
negativity because people just plain don’t like it. Optimistic people
are happier, they perform at higher levels at work, and they get
more done. Do you think you’re the optimist in the group? Here’s a test you
can take.
If you know
you’re not an optimist, you probably think optimists are living in the clouds,
but they are meeting their goals, and the pessimists are not. So the
negativity shouts out to people, “Stay away from me! I’m going to bring you
down!”
Instead of
priding yourself on being the voice of reason, or however you justify your
negativity, try keeping your mouth shut. You might think you sound smart
telling everyone your doubts, but your aptitude for predicting calamity is
overshadowed by how unpleasant it is to be around you.
I agree on that - a comprehensive five reasons - and there are other reasons between the lines
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