5 Assumptions that Sabotage Your Career5 assumptions that sabotage your career
You give your best to achieve your goal but something is still stopping you on the way up? Or you just move too slow and can’t find the answer?
The best thing you can do is take a step back and analyze what problems you are facing and which doors do you find closed.
What you see is more than obvious – you sabotage your career with assumptions. And I’ll tell you why and how can you change that.
First, let’s agree that we are not discussing wrong work behavior or big mistakes that you make in the office. I believe you don’t participate in such activities. What really stop you on the way up are your assumptions about yourself and the hierarchy.
1. Working solo is better than working with a team – You think that when you work on a project alone and don’t ask for help your management would see that and note how great worker you are? Truth is they might decide you are a bad team player or your co-workers don’t like you. There are some situations when dealing with harder task on your own will make a big impression but don’t ignore the team. If you want to be part of the company and move up the ladder, you need to play good with all the other people. If you focus yourself on being great with co-workers above your level and don’t care to say “Hello” to those who are on your level, you might never see the promotion.
My tip – Working with the team and helping them is most valuable. If they trust you and value your opinion, you can get far. They will support you and help you when you most need help. Invest in the people and you will never regret it.
2. You stay silent about your success – We live in the era of marketing and short attention span. Do you consider it inappropriate to talk about your latest great project and how you turned it around? Do you hide your certifications and achievements in fear that it may sound too pretentious? If your coworkers and managers don’t know how great you are, you need to tell them. This excludes bragging but a little self-promotion can go a long way.
My tip – If you are expanding your competences with additional courses and certifications, share it with your manager. If you don’t feel confident enough to start talking about it – start with adding it to your LinkedIn profile. A change in your profile will be broadcast to your connections and it is possible that they congratulate you in person. It would be easier to do some self promotion if people are asking you to, right?
3. You want to be liked by everyone – This is a big problem for women executives – some try to be friends with every co-worker and do their best to be likeable. But that makes it hard for them to react when someone is not doing his job right. Will you lose their support if you correct their work? Sometimes you will. But remember that your career is not about being the office socialite – it’s about getting the job done. Be careful not to exceed your criticism to people who are not under your direct management.
My tip – When you see that a co-worker is underperforming, talk to him or her in private. Be careful with the words you choose – they need to understand that you are helping them and not trying to make them look bad. You will be surprised by the result. And at the end – some people will never like you no matter what you do – don’t focus on them. Just be your best and do your job – it will make an impression.
4. You focus on your career goal and not on your work – This is something we all tend to do sometimes – you feel that you are really close to the goal and put all your efforts into it. You know the basic requirements for getting promoted and you achieve them one after another. But do you do just the minimum required or go all the way to get the best results you could get? The first won’t get you promoted – the second will.
My tip – Evaluate your own work in the last few months – all the task and the projects you worked on. Did you achieve some great results that show others how valuable you are? Did you just got things done or did you went out of your way to make them winning? Don’t forget your daily responsibilities just because the meeting with HR is a few weeks away. They will look at the overall picture and not just the last few things. Just be great every day of the year.
5. You will get promoted without asking for it – Do you dream of the day when the manager calls you in her office and offers you the position of your life and a great raise? This will not happen unless you stand for your goals and ask for it. They need to show what you’re striving for. I don’t say that you should go to the CEO office and ask for his position. But keep in mind that a silent worker will never become a high-level executive – they need to not only achieve but show success, to be able to communicate it the right way and to let everyone around them that they are not afraid of it.
My tip – Review your achievements after every project and keep a list of all the exceptional things you did. Did you land a new high-paying client? Did you finish the project long before the deadline which lead to more business for the company? Did you reorganized you team and made them more efficient and happy workers? Use those points when you ask for your raise – and you should ask for it at least once a year.
The first thing you need to do when things are not developing the way you want them is to assess the situation. This is also the first step of our ACE-IT coaching program. You need to know exactly where you stand, what are your potential limitations and what are your strong sides. Only then you can move forward – changing what doesn’t work and proceeding with what you do best. Your career might be at a plateau state – don’t sabotage it with your own assumptions.
What assumptions do you make that stop you from succeeding? Share with us in the comments and we can discuss how to move forward. Because you deserve that dream to become your reality.
