The harder a habit is to acquire, the greater the reward that stems from acquiring that behavior. Rarely is the acquisition of desirable traits or the culmination of a successful career happenstance.
Regardless of popular consensus, most individuals are not born with immense abilities. Rather, the actions a person takes and how often they engage in those habits will either propel or completely diminish abilities.
On the flip side, harmful habits are easy to acquire, yet hard to live with. Below, the recruiters at KAS have listed 4 habits that kill career potential.
1. Failing to take a sincere interest in others.
The most effective way anyone can make themselves appear interesting is to take a sincere interest in what matters to the other person.
Evidence has shown that the overwhelming majority of earth’s inhabitants is more interested in his or her own name more than any other name on this planet. This is not to mention that they are significantly more concerned in themselves, their problems and aspirations than they are you or anybody else for that matter.
While each person is different in a myriad of ways, one thing that each individual who walks this earth has in common is that they strive to feel important. Part of making them feel important is listening – a simple, yet seemingly less frequently used tactic than years prior.
As a matter of fact, many people fail to make a great first impression because they don’t listen intently and interrupt, thus not making the individual feel as if they matter.
Regardless of how much formal education a person has had, excessive talking about themselves or interrupting all but renders even the most prestigious diploma worth next to nothing.
2. Folding during tough times.
Opportunity doesn’t seek us nor does it only happen once in a lifetime.
All too often, individuals quit or continually postpone crucial work due to a particular account or relationship going as they wish it had. Consistently, life furnishes the opportunity to improve.
Any procrastination (or complete inaction) when times to better one’s situation present themselves, because of past failures forfeits any chance for success and allows another party to win.
Character is not built when things go a person’s way. Rather, they are formed when even the biggest of problems present themselves.
3. Failing to engage in critical reading.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “the blind leading the blind.”
Each and every minute, individuals who are not qualified to speak about a subject provide advice to the masses via social media platforms. Even worse, each and every minute, someone takes their diatribe at face value.
All the time, our recruiters come across job seekers who have paid unqualified career coaches (who themselves make roughly $40,000 a year) to assist them in highly crucial decision making.
All the time, I come across articles which discuss facets of business that define common sense. While everyone does deserve a voice, not everyone has to listen to it.
4. Failing to continually learn.
The secret to anyone’s success is to constantly learn and improve themselves.
Complacency depletes potential. Depleted potential makes a person insecure, on-edge and, ultimately unhappy.
This unhappiness becomes evident to co-workers, clients, friends and loved ones and further isolates one’s ability to achieve what they wish to.
It’s no secret that the overwhelming majority of human beings see how little they can do as opposed to propelling their ability to learn and seeking new avenues to teach them imperative skills.
In the End.
A person can break any habit they wish to. Regardless of age, length of past tendencies or former failures, altering one’s behavior and, thus increasing odds of success for the future is more than doable.
The other option is to continue with the undesirable actions and limit your career potential.
