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Guest post by: Jessica Ollenburg Become an Author

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It’s a cliché story... one of the most common mistakes... battling for just the right amount of career confidence and self worth. Being part of a successful team or system creates a restless feeling and a need to do “bigger, better things.” The restless overconfident person leaves the successful environment and finds a path of greater resistance. Of course highly visible in the entertainment industry, the inflated “ego” can break up our favorite television series, sports team, band and far too frequently occurs (although with less celebrity status) in the workplace.

We know you can’t really succeed until you’re willing to fail, and the path of greater resistance isn’t necessarily a bad choice. Overconfidence, however, is rarely a good choice. When good things happen to those who feel “entitled,” those good things are often taken for granted and opportunities are missed. It’s really not surprising how many times overconfidence takes one down a lesser path or a path of greater resistance.

Career overconfidence takes many forms. Sometimes it bears a very unconventional appearance. Sometimes individuals have an inflated sense of entitlement or expectations, and accordingly, they inappropriately benchmark their success. Sometimes individuals underestimate the effort, work or risk tolerance required to attain success. This form of overconfidence is attached to work outcomes as opposed to talents or skills, yet it can lead to the same pitfalls.

The desire for advancement is consistently a survey leader among career magnets and motivators, yet employees too often fail to recognize opportunity or fail to invest the appropriate effort. When advancement does occur, employees often take too much credit and become overconfident with a heightened sense of workplace demand. Where employees don’t advance, they often shift blame rather than finding their own sense of accountability. After failing in one workplace, the blame-shifter often temporarily succeeds in the next. If this is due to learning, success becomes more sustainable. If this is due to scorn and determination to prove oneself right while still blame-shifting, after a brief “honeymoon period” the same barriers and original problems may re-emerge. When they do advance, they fail to recognize the support they’ve received, and the self-destructive cycle continues.

On the flip side, employers allow these disconnects by failing to properly distribute education on both success and failure. Inappropriate distribution of rewards, consequences and information around work outcomes is at the heart of the problem. The answer is not simple. It’s a lifelong commitment to learning and refreshing learning, supporting why the leadership assessment and learning programs are among the most popular at HRS. Even once learned, these principles are easy to overlook… and even forget.

As an individual, if you think you might be too good for your job, we recommend awareness of the “overconfident” syndrome in hope you may avoid its pitfalls. If you make a bad choice, don’t dwell on it, but please look back at it for the learning. Without learning we are destined to repeat our mistakes. Advancement is above all a product of your choices... and not necessarily which job you have but rather how you approach it.

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