8 Not-So-Obvious Ways Youre Undermining Your Reputation At Work

8 Not-So-Obvious Ways Youre Undermining Your Reputation At Work In an ideal world, wed all present the best-case-scenario version of ourselves at work the most responsible, the most self-assured, the most productive. But in reality, we need to balance demanding workloads, challenging coworkers and bosses, high-maintenance clients, overly-intense office air conditioning...the list continues. Sometimes, unterstellung numerous stresses can lead us to adopt tendencies that ultimately hamper our ability to grow within our roles and to set ourselves up for advancement and promotions. If youre wondering whether you subconsciously undermine yourself at work, keep an eye out for these 8 behaviors1. Youre not proactive about seeking feedback or opportunities.While youre certainly not alone if you decide to wait until official review periods to get feedback from your manager, its to your benefit to have these conversations on a more regular basis. Your manager should take the initiative to talk to you about your performance, but if she doesnt, dont hesitate to ask for a meeting to get a sense of where you stand, how you can improve, and what projects could be on the horizon that are a fit for your skills.2. You make promises that you cant/dont keep.Do you regularly agree to take on extra work even when you dont have the bandwidth? Do you often sign off on deadlines, only to find that they elapse before youre prepared? Your intentions may be good in these situations you want to help your coworkers and complete assignments to the best of your ability, but by saying yes to situations without really thinking them through and finding yourself unable to deliver, youre compromising the trust that your colleagues and supervisors have in you and potentially limiting your growth potential.3. You speak before you listen.Of course, you should feel empowered as an important and skilled employee to speak up in meetings if you have ideas or thoughts on the discussion topics. However, if youre talking over coworkers to get your point across and arent actively listening to the input of your colleagues, then youre not positioning yourself as a strong collaborator, which can be an dealbreaker when your companys higher-ups start looking for candidates for leadership roles.4. You try to be everyones friend.Its healthy and beneficial to maintain positive relationships with your colleagues, and developing off-the-clock friendships with the folks in your cubicle bank can be a wonderful side effect of the 9-to-5 life. But if being everyones friend becomes your primary goal in the workplace, it can get in the way of your professional progress.5. You consistently arrive at meetings a little bit late.Perhaps you work in an office where arriving 5-10 minutes late on a daily basis isnt a big deal. However, if youre extending that flexibility to scheduled meetings and walking in several minutes late on a regular basis, then you can bet that its being noticed...and usually not in a positive manner.6. Youre unaware of your tone of voice and your facial expressions.Critiques about vocal tone, facial expressions, and gestures/posture often feel highly gendered, and its absolutely correct that your physical appearance shouldnt be a determining factor when it comes to project assignments and career advancement. That said, human beings do communicate through spoken words and visual expressions, and if youre spending meetings rolling your eyes at your colleagues and responding to ideas with dismissive or mocking vocal cadences, then those choices will inform your reputation and influence your relationships with the people in your department.7. Youre extremely hard on yourself when you make mistakes.When you make a mistake at work, its wise to consider the factors that led to the error and to devise a plan for avoiding similar pratproblematiks in the future. But dont spend time beating yourself up and allowing your mistake to influence your self-confidence that coul d become a self-fulfilling prophecy.8. You allow yourself to fall into unproductive habits.Especially if youve worked at the same company for a significant period of time, you may find yourself defaulting to ingrained habits where basic job duties are concerned. In that case, its helpful to reevaluate your processes from time to time, to eliminate redundancies, and to replace unproductive habits (like waiting hours to reply to quick emails or eschewing your file cabinet in favor of dumping your documents in a disorderly pile) with more efficient and effective alternatives.--