3 Major Traps That Can Ruin Your Career

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This post was last edited by EdwardLau on 2011-2-26 at 13:51. Why do many talented people still struggle to avoid failure? James Wardrup, director of the MBA Career Development Center at Harvard Business School, and Dr. Timothy Butler identified the following flawed psychological and behavioral patterns in the workplace. Everyone, to some extent, exhibits such patterns in the workplace. Therefore, before achieving success, it’s crucial for everyone—whether senior executives or junior employees—to constantly reflect on themselves. 1. Arrogance, obsession with perfectionism – these attitudes are unrealistic. When looking for a job, they only consider leading companies; otherwise, they choose to start their own business. When it came to working at large companies, most of them volunteered to take on tasks that exceeded their capabilities. As a result, the task was not completed, and they continued to swing their bats without stopping; instead of that, they tried to make up for their previous promises with greater achievements, only to end up as perpetual losers. Such people also like to stand out; in stable societies or companies, they always quickly take a stance, for fear that no one will pay attention to them. Actually, it’s to mask inner weakness. Such people always expect themselves to be heroes in every situation, and they also demand that others meet their standards. At work, they demand that they themselves and their subordinates do “more, faster, and better”. As a result, the subordinates were exhausted and began to \"abandon the ship to save themselves,\" leaving those who stayed even more tired. At work, they even pretend to understand when they don’t; the phrase they like to say is: “This work is so boring.” ”But what they really feel inside is, “I can’t do any job well.” ”They want to achieve success at a young age, but they don’t like to study, ask for help, or seek advice, as it might make people think they are \"incompetent\", so they have to pretend to understand. They may be tough in their words and actions, merciless, like a bulldozer that flattens anything in its path; due to their aggressive behavior and lack of skill in finding alternative routes, they might end up damaging their own career. II. Those who tend to avoid challenges, are pessimistic, and feel depressed are intelligent and experienced, but once promoted, they lose all confidence and feel unqualified for the role. Their core belief is “I’m not good enough,” and especially when faced with setbacks and challenges, these negative thoughts of self-destruction and self-limitation take over. They might become typical pessimists and start to worry needlessly. Before taking action, he would imagine all the negative outcomes and feel anxious. When such people hold leadership positions, they tend to procrastinate and take no action. Because he cared too much about feeling ashamed, he was even worried that his subordinates might do something that would embarrass him. Then they will feel as though they have lost direction in their career. ““Is the path I’m taking the right one?” I felt that my role was unimportant, that I couldn’t keep up with others, and that I had no sense of belonging. Their other extreme behavior is to unconditionally avoid problems. As supervisors, they should ideally stand up for their subordinates based on reason. However, in order to avoid conflicts, they may be looked down upon by their subordinates or other departments. To maintain peace, they suppress their emotions, and as a result, they lack the ability to confront and resolve conflicts. In the end, this inability to resolve conflicts spreads to marital, parent-child, sibling, and friendship relationships. III. In the eyes of such people, the world is black and white, mechanical. They believe that everything should be objectively evaluated for quality, just like in exams with standard answers. They always feel as though they are defending their beliefs and upholding their principles. However, other people might completely ignore these principles. As a result, such people always fight alone and often lose. The rigidity of such people also manifests in their complete lack of understanding of human nature; they have difficulty comprehending emotions such as fear, love, anger, greed, and compassion. When on the phone, they usually don’t even say hello and get straight to the point; they lack the ability to put themselves in others’ shoes, as they want to exclude emotional factors from the decision-making process. These people are usually good-natured, without any scheming; they speak bluntly and without regard for the situation. Sometimes, they even ruin their career prospects because they can’t control what they say.