Plain as the nose on your face isn’t always that obvious, or we’d stop doing many things that get in our way…wouldn’t we?  

There is a sure way to career success which is to find out how you sabotage yourself and change those behaviors.  For example, you might have done all the right prep to obtain your next job or for the work needed at your existing job, but if you’re in your own way because of negative thinking that causes you to act unsure or unprofessional, then no amount of subject expertise is going to keep you on top and your employer happy.  Here are 6 ways you undermine yourself:

1.  You often think the problem is outside you.  (I can’t tell you how often coaching clients come to me to make changes, yet they believe most of their problems are due to the unfair treatment they receive from others.)  While this would seem to be an egotistical reaction, it’s often a result of poor self-esteem and trying to deflect fear of criticism or judgment.  Accept your responsibility for your career and what’s in front of you and you’ll be more than half way ahead of the game.

2.  You don’t have a clear definition of the scope of the work you’ve signed up for (or are signing up for) so you resent what appears as additions or changes.  Have sufficient conversation ahead of time with your customer (or whoever is managing you), so you get a clear picture of the project’s design (or role you need to fulfill) so by taking the work on, you are confident in your own expectations and the expectations for the work from others.   

3. You don’t cultivate a curious and interested nature in your work or expand beyond your job definition.  The tall poppy theme in my coaching is that my clients need to show up as leaders and stick out from the crowd, not just by what they do, but by their confident and interested nature.  Find what you love about your work most and look for opportunities to do more of it.  Hint:  also find how you can like the things you don’t even more.

4.  You’re inconsistent.  This is understandable to some extent.  Cross-situational inconsistencies in behaviors as noted in psychology studies conflict with research like Pavlov’s bell causing the dog to salivate repeatedly.  Despite this, trust that calm behavior and actions offered as consistently as possible causes colleagues and clients confidence in you and your ability to get the job done.

5.  You don’t manage your at-home time and goals so they interfere with your work time.  If you’re an entrepreneur, that means establishing clear work hours and parameters and have projects written down in a timeline.  This way any alterations can be made by seeing your schedule laid out before you and re-balancing priorities as needed.  If you’re working at home, make sure family and friends know your off-hours to chat or do personal business and when you’re off, don’t let your work projects leak over into your downtime either.  If you work in a corporate setting, you may have this same issue of a clash of personal needs with work duties.  If so, you’ll likely build up resentments when you can’t squeeze in the errands or calls at work that you should have done in the evenings or on the weekends. 

6.  Poor attitude toward yourself.  See our PositiveThinkingWay.com website for our process on quickly eliminating negative beliefs and changing stuck behaviors for positive, permanent results.  You can’t afford to let old interpretations layer on top of new experiences.

Tags: attitude, behavior, eliminate negative beliefs and behavior, positive permanent results, sure career success

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Career Tips, Personal and Professional Growth, Women Entrepreneurs, Women Managers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.