Tweet

Bad Career Habits

Guest post by: Elizabeth Freedman

Article Overview: An article of 492 words detailing three bad career habits that could be dragging you down

Bad Career Habits

Fix your bad career habits If 2010 is going to be your year, then get serious about fixing bad career and workplace habits that are dragging you down. Here are a few to think about:

Bad Career Habit #1: Not Networking

Let's agree on one point - most of us would rather pull out our eyelashes than network. If you're a networking champ, then skip this paragraph. Otherwise, consider the fact that one of the reasons you may avoid networking is simply because you're not good at it. You're not comfortable with it. You don't enjoy it. Makes sense - after all, if you only went to the gym once or twice a year, that would hurt too, wouldn't it? The only way to be a better networker is to do it more often. Practice. Make networking a habit - which means doing it when you don't feel like it (kind of like the gym, right?). Make the commitment to have lunch with someone once a week, or attend an event once a month. Whatever the number, pick it and stick to it.

Bad Career Habit #2: Ignoring Social Media

If you're not blogging, tweeting, or otherwise getting your ideas and expertise out there using social media tools, you're missing a golden career opportunity. Most of us have no problem sharing the latest on Facebook, but are you using social media tools strategically? For instance, a job seeker looking for networking contacts could use her blog (which she's already created and updates regularly as a way to showcase her expertise) to reach out to people to interview for an entry she's working on. And, if you are using tools, how often are you blogging/tweeting? My personal resolution is to get more focused and disciplined about doing this, too - so I'm not blogging periodically, but on a regular basis. Here's a habit I'm working on: Blogging three times/week. Readers, hold me to this!

Bad Career Habit #3: Mistaking Effort for Output

You and I know people that work their butts off - you may be one of them, in fact. There's nothing wrong with hard work, but if you're putting in lots of time and not getting the payoff (in promotions, raises, recognition, or whatever it is you're hoping the hard work will do for your career), make sure you're delivering value and real results that will matter to your personal bottom line. And, while you're at it, avoid this bad habit's evil stepsister - thinking that being busy is the same thing as being productive. We're all busy - but how many of us are really getting everything done that we need to? A simple, but effective way to stay on track: Spend five minutes each morning (before you turn on your laptop or Blackberry) to make a list of three priorities for the day. Keep your list short, sweet, and targeted, so that if nothing else happens, you've been productive where it matters most.

Related Articles
  Create New Success Habits!
  Create Habits That Will Serve You Well
  Create 10 Delightful Daily Habits
  Where Are Your Habits Leading You?
  The Value of an Accountability Coach
  Habits, life choices, decision,health,personal growth,personal development,spirituality
  10 Ways Life Gets Easier When You Build Good Habits
  Creating Successful Habits
  Personal Discipline
  Habits
  Recession Proof Your Career 10 Ways to Keep Your Job
  Good Marketing is Like a Bad Habit
  Stop Wrestling Alligators
  Should you take a Homographic Approach to your Career Planning?
  Become a Better Version of Yourself
  Spontaneity
  Your Habits Will Determine Your Success (or Not)
  How To Remove And Replace Unproductive Habits
  Ten Delicious Daily Habits
  We Don’t Want to be Downers, but are your Career Prospects Evaporating?

Article Tags: bad habits, effort, Networking, social media



Related Forum Posts
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Sept 10, 2010 - Glad you liked it David! I only managed to get partway through the list today because my one year old was looking for some playtime but I did read the Zen Habits one - I love reading Zen Habits while relaxing at a coffee shop!
Re: My 3 best business books - 1. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey 3. Permission Marketing - Seth Godin Think and Grow Rich seems more powerful each time I read it or dip into it. The 7 Habits not only offers some very effective ways to organize your life (which I have yet to master!), but also some great quotations and thought provoking statements including this by Nazi concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl: [i:2naxzsom]Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.[/i:2naxzsom] Seth Godin's Permission Marketing is a good read for anybody seeking to understand how to approach doing business on the Internet in the right way with regard to winning people's trust.
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Sept 10, 2010 - I was also interested in the Zen Habits affiliate programme as it might mix well with my business/japan blog...
Re: Require Info on CAD Fed/Prov Grants for Restaurant Start-up - I know the Ontario government is starting a "Second Career" campaign, full of internship opportunities for new chefs and catering staff. It may be worth your while to research the possibilities with that. It may work itself out to be cheap labor in the form of a grant. Good luck regardless!
Book: Comeback Moms - Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years Monica Samuels and J. C. Conklin 2006 Jacket: Millions of educated, professional women are quitting their jobs to stay home and raise their children. That would never be you, right? You worked hard for your degree and even harder to get to this point in your career. Quitting now, even for a few years, would kill your career, right? That's what Monica Samuels thought when she found out she was pregnant... Over 60 percent of professional women who leave work to raise children want to get back into the workforce someday. If you even think you might want to go back to work, be it in one year or twenty, you need to lay the groundwork now for a successful reentry or your options will be limited. 1. Quitting: When is the best time to cut the cord 2. Feathering the nest: How to financially prepare before you quit 3. Departure strategies: leaving the office 4. Money and Power: Constructing a new life on the home front 5. Backlash: handling family, friends and angry strangers 6. One foot in, one foot out: How can they miss you if you don't really go away? 7. Part time: It ain't perfect, but it's doable 8. Going back: the when and how of returning to work full time 9. Career counseling: When you need a change 10. Entrepreneurs: True Stories Resources Index


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Reverse Mentoring

Four Secrets to Earning Income as an Author

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.