Ten Career-Damaging Habits You'll Never Know You've Got

When my middle son was in tenth grade, I saw him pull a paperback book out of his backpack. “What are you reading?” I asked him. He told me. “My Language Arts teacher recommended this book,” he said, “and it’s awesome.”

“Why don’t you tell her that you took her recommendation?” I asked him. “I’ll bet she’ll be happy to hear that.”

“No,” said my soft-spoken son. “I’d better not tell her. She’ll get too excited and make a big deal out of it.”

A pang went through my heart. That’s just the kind of thing I would do, if I were a Language Arts teacher and a kid told me that he was reading a book I’d recommended. I’d get excited and make a big deal out of it. Oh no!

How do you always deal with top performers who resign

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It’s understandable that a leader feels unhappy when a top performer resigns. The employee is intentionally ending the relationship, so there is an element of personal rejection involved. In addition the leader now needs to replace that person, which could be a daunting challenge given that the person is a top performer. As a result, the employee who resigns is often treated poorly by the leader. And sometimes, after the employee has left, the leader speaks negatively about that person. What are the consequences of these types of behavior?

The Secret to Job Security

Not that long ago when somebody had a job, they kept the job for five or seven years or more. If your friend changed jobs more often than every few years, you'd say "Dude! Why do you keep changing jobs?" Now we don't ask our friends why they change jobs often, because everybody changes jobs all the time. Working people can't rely on keeping a job for years on end, even if they do a great job and even if their company is making money. There are conversations happening in far-flung conference rooms right now, in Hong Kong and Philadelphia and Dubai, that will put people reading this column out of work in a few weeks or months. 

Your personal brand is more than your job

A decade ago it was easy to manage your personal brand. Back then, a personal brand was no more complicated than “I’m an Inventory Analyst for Sears.” When LinkedIn was launched in 2003, I’d use that as my job title on the site without thinking twice about it. Nowadays, personal branding is more complicated. We have a brand that’s separate from the one our employer has designated for us—that is, different from our job title. Whether we reflect it on our LinkedIn profile or not, we’ve got a brand, a network, and, in the best case, a plan for our career that is distinct from our employer’s plan for us. (Begging the question: Does your employer have a plan for your career?)

The truth about wasting time at work

If you look at the standard organizational model, the first thing you notice is that it’s a pyramid. It is narrower at the top than at the bottom. There are a lot of worker bees at the bottom of the pyramid — that’s why the base of the pyramid is broader than the top of the pyramid is. There are fewer managers than employees, and there are a very small number of executives at the top of the organization, calling the shots.