Ten career-damaging behaviours to avoid

“O, how full of briers is this working-day world!” is the famous Shakespearian quote from ‘As You Like It’. External pressures, thorns, obstacles and difficulties aside, how many of us are responsible for unwittingly hampering our chances of career success through our own misplaced and misguided attitudes and behaviours. Below are ten common faux-pas that can ruin a career and should be avoided at all costs.

1. Poor Time Management

Missing deadlines, failing to abide by agreed timelines, arriving to meetings late and generally disrespecting approved schedules is a surefire way to lose credibility and professional respect. Try to value each and every minute on the job and recognize the inefficiencies that arise from procrastination and slovenly time management and the impact these have on the organisation as a whole.

2. Failure to Deliver on Promises

A promise made should be a promise kept if your professional credibility is to remain intact. Avoid making promises you cannot deliver on. Unless you are known as someone who can be strictly depended on to follow through and deliver on time you are likely to be passed over for promotions and key assignments. When you do need more time or resources for an assignment communicate the requirement formally and professionally and manage the situation to show you are in control and will not be sacrificing on quality of delivery.

3. Poor Accountability

Accountability, a close reactive of honesty is an essential character trait in today’s workplace. Avoid becoming known as the sour apple who usurps all credit and circumvents all blame. If you have made an error, admitting to it in a timely manner avoids an unnecessary escalation, earns you the confidence and respect of those around you, and indicates professionalism, honesty and maturity.

4. Poor interpersonal skills

All research indicates that emotional intelligence and people skills are an essential ingredients for success in life and at work. Whether it is suppliers, clients, superiors, colleagues or subordinates you are dealing with the quality and success of that relationship will be largely predicated by how personable you are and how pleasant you are to interact with. If you have a reputation as someone who is difficult to work or interact with chances are people will start to avoid you and your success at mobilizing people or resources to further your goals will be severely diminished.

5. Poor team skills

A good team-player is able to work cohesively within a team framework and contribute, collaborate, communicate and challenge to meet specific goals within that framework. Inability to see beyond one’s self, work well with everyone, find the good qualities of others in the team, communicate persuasively and effectively, listen actively and attentively, give and welcome input, offer encouragement and assistance where needed and show respect, patience and courtesy inevitably leads to marginalisation and failure to meet personal and professional goals.

6. Lack of ethics or professionalism

Conducting personal business on the job and any other activities that show flagrant disrespect for company time, resources and property are both unethical and unprofessional. Chatting endlessly on the job, office gossip, wasting office supplies, laying about important work-related matters, back-biting the boss, spreading office secrets, routinely bringing personal matters to the workplace all fall under this category.

7. Lack of initiative

Complacency is a surefire road to professional mediocrity. To succeed it is essential that you continue to show enthusiasm, stretch the limits, be proactive and test the boundaries in the interest of innovation. Take responsibility for your personal and professional growth and continue to build momentum in your training and profession development activities. If you chose to simply lie low and casually bide your time while others race ahead in their careers you will most probably be overlooked for promotions and plum assignments and your skills may well eventually become redundant.

8. Inability to Handle Pressure

Every job entails a certain amount of stress and pressure and failure to recognize and handle the strain may lead to a pronounced and sustained decline in performance. Learn to recognize stress and cope with it professionally and effectively. Take breaks and holidays when needed, learn to manage stress and cope with pressure so that it is not an ongoing problem for you. It may be that the pressures mounting on you are due to poor time management or delegation skills or weakness in a certain area in which case developing your skills in these areas is highly advisable.

9. Lone Ranger Syndrome

Team skills are essential in today’s marketplace as is getting along with others and communicating your accomplishments regularly and professionally. Do not try to isolate yourself and excel quietly in private as chances are your performance will not get the exposure and credit it deserves. Personal marketing and effective relationship management are key to career success. Aim to regularly and professionally communicate your private coups to your manager and others in a position to help your career advancement and do not assume your great work and personal victories will automatically get noticed and given the credit they deserve.

10. Stasis

You may well be in your comfort zone and doing very well there but if you don’t challenge yourself in pursuit of further growth and development and continuously move forward and upward you may lose your equilibrium sooner than you expected. Have a vision in mind as pertains to your career and formulate a clear strategy and timeline for getting there which you can regularly benchmark and measure yourself against. Continuous learning, development and self-improvement is a necessity not a luxury for today’s ambitious professional and it is imperative that you keep abreast of the latest trends, tools and technologies in your field and not risk losing ground to the star performers who take personal growth more seriously.

How To Be A Team Player by Mark Rowh

You know being a team player is important.

Find out what it takes to be one.

It's one of the most exciting moments in sports: Michael Jordan takes a pass from a teammate, leaps through the air, and slams the ball through the basket with a thunderous dunk.
This is a riveting picture, but what made Jordan a truly great performer was more than his individual skills. Even more important, sports experts agree, was his team spirit and ability to cooperate with others on his team.

Of course, the concept of teamwork applies to more than just sports. In school and in the workplace, working together is an increasingly important ingredient for success.

"At our core, human beings are social creatures," says Michal Chick, CEO of Cornerstone Initiatives, a management and technology consulting firm in San Diego, California. "The fact is that no one person could have built our railroads or programmed Microsoft Windows. Like it or not, we are all team players." He adds that while our culture still tends to worship stars, the most respected stars have tended to be individuals who also made their teams better.

Working Together
"In the workplace, it is essential to be perceived as a team player," says Libby Sartain, vice president of Southwest Airlines. "Being a team player will lead to promotion, while not being a team player will limit career and promotional opportunities. I cannot think of a job at Southwest Airlines that doesn't require teamwork."

Success in college, to a lesser degree, can also depend on teamwork. Lab assignments, group projects, and internships are just some of the experiences requiring cooperation with others.
"In today's world, it's better to be perceived as both a team player and an individual contributor," says Gary L. Couch, president of Professional Management Alternatives in Palm Harbor, Florida. "But there's more emphasis on being a team player in the workplace since most organizations are running lean, pushing more responsibility down the line, and using team concepts to run their business."

Having What It Takes
But what does it take to be a team player? How can you make sure you fit into the teamwork profile that is so often preferred in businesses and other organizations? Here are a few key factors to consider in this important area of job and academic performance:

1. Be cooperative.

Cooperation is more than just good manners. From a teamwork perspective, it means working toward common goals. Doing your fair share, minimizing conflict, and maintaining a positive attitude are all parts of being cooperative.
"It's important to believe the most important outcome of your effort is the accomplishment of the team's goal," Chick says. "Whenever you allow your personal agenda to be your primary consideration, you increase the possibility that your actions will diminish the performance of the team."

2. Keep people informed.
"What we got here is a failure to communicate." This statement is more than a famous line from an old Paul Newman movie. It's also a common source of conflict in the workplace. When co-workers are not kept informed about matters affecting them, they tend to become confused, disappointed, and sometimes angry. Conversely, good communication supports positive teamwork.
"Being able to communicate effectively continues to be one of the top requirements in having an effective team, not only among team members, but also with other internal and external contacts," says Couch. "Communication is always among the top five items clients identify as an issue or problem within their organization."

3. Keep commitments.
On a truly effective team, others know they can count on you, and vice versa. "People need to know they can depend on you," says Arthur Crane, owner of Capstone Services in Sherman, Connecticut. "You need to be known as someone who does what they say they are going to do."
If you want to be seen as a team player, be sure to perform in such a way that other workers know they can rely on you. If you say a report will be completed by next Friday, make sure it is ready as promised. If you agree to attend a meeting, don't cancel out at the last minute. When you make any type of promise or commitment, keep it.
"It's tough to be a highly functioning team when people do not fulfill their responsibilities," Sartain says. "It is important to be clear on what is expected of you and to be reliable about delivering results." When you keep commitments, it shows that you respect others. Being on time for a meeting, for instance, shows that you don't want to waste other people's time. In the process, others are more likely to treat you the same way.
"The really great news about giving respect is that it usually begets respect in return," Chick says. "If you consistently keep your word and do what you say you'll do, people will want to give you better assignments and more interesting challenges."

4. Be honest.
Honesty and trust are essential elements of positive teamwork.
"One of the first tenets in problem solving is identifying the real problem," Chick says. "And when dealing with people, you can't identify the real problems unless people are willing to be honest about their issues. As a leader I spend a great deal of time searching for the real truth of a situation and looking for the individuals with the courage to speak the truth, even if it is painful. Because often, the lies cost the organization more than the truth does."
Also, if you really want to be trusted, don't betray confidences. If a co-worker shares private information, don't repeat it to anyone-- unless it presents an ethical matter. Avoid the too-common practice of assuming it's OK to share information if you preface it with, "Don't tell anyone this, but...." In most cases, this is a sure way to spread information originally intended to be confidential.

"Successful teams build trust and have to be able to count on all team members," Sartain says. "Even little indiscretions can break the bonds of trust."
Discretion might include such practices as refraining from passing along gossip or holding back from revealing data acquired during routine work. For example, a discreet worker would not read a report about salaries, and then tell a friend how much her co-workers earn.
"Discretion goes with trust," says Crane. "Knowing when and if to share information determines how you'll be perceived. If someone gives you information and you use it inappropriately, the likelihood of getting it again diminishes."

5. Share credit, not blame.
Whether things go well or poorly, it's important to avoid a selfish approach. This includes both sharing credit and holding back from criticizing other team members.
"Sharing credit is critical for respect between team members," says Lori Busch, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College and experienced human resources executive. "And searching for resolutions to problems as a team is much more effective than blaming others. Teams need to feel free to take risks and learn from their mistakes." A related matter is that of blame. When something goes wrong, a natural tendency is to point out who is at fault. But a real team player holds back from blaming others, even when they make mistakes.

Joining the Team
No matter how you look at it, the ability to function as a team player is a key to success in almost any setting. In planning your future, be sure to focus on building skills in this area.
"Working with a team with all its quirks and difficulties can be very tough, but it's the way to go," Crane says. "Every individual brings specialness to the table, and an effective team can identify those strengths and work with them the best way possible. But take those risks and stick yourself out there, and you'll find the rewards will come back to you 100 times."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Weekly Reader Corp.COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group