It’s common to fall into unproductive habits at work, but successful individuals take a different approach—they remain focused and prioritize their careers consistently. If you’ve always been wondering, here are the things you’ll never find a successful person doing in the workplace.
Avoiding Feedback
Just like learning from their mistakes, successful people will never avoid feedback. They know it’s essential for growth, and they are painfully aware that nobody is perfect, so they’ll actively seek criticism to enhance their skills and performance. It’s a truly admirable trait, one that will undeniably bring them more success in the future.
Being Unprepared for Meetings
You’ll never catch a successful person feeling unprepared for an important meeting. They see every meeting as an opportunity to progress in their career, so insufficient preparation will only stunt their growth. They always do their research prior to the meeting, bringing any necessary information and materials to the table to ensure the most productive discussion possible.
Ignoring Networking Opportunities
If you want success in life, it’s important to build a strong professional network. Successful people will recognize this early on, taking advantage of any opportunity they get to meet new people and collaborate on ideas. They see networking as an infinite resource for learning, so they’ll never pass it up.
Procrastinating on Important Tasks
Successful individuals tackle their most important tasks head-on and will always try to avoid procrastination. As ASAP points out, they know that delaying tasks can lead to unnecessary stress and decreased productivity. So, instead of postponing their responsibilities, they prioritize and address them promptly, allowing them to maintain momentum and achieve their goals efficiently.
Engaging in Office Gossip
Anyone who has ever worked in an office knows that they’re full of gossip, but the most successful staff members won’t engage in it. Gossip can be very distracting, as well as detrimental to trust within a workplace, and therefore, successful people steer clear of such behavior. This is probably for the best, as gossip rarely brings anything positive into the world.
Blaming Others for Mistakes
Accountability is a successful person’s best friend; when they make mistakes, as everyone does, they take responsibility for their errors, seeing them as valuable opportunities to learn and progress in their career. They also recognize that blaming others only creates a toxic work atmosphere, so by owning up to their mistakes, they contribute to a culture of integrity in the workplace.
Neglecting Personal Development
As we’ve already covered, successful people never want to stop learning and progressing, so they’ll take any opportunity they can to move forward in life. This could involve taking new training courses, asking their boss for more responsibility, or even upskilling through studying for an advanced degree. They’ll do whatever it takes to thrive and will never consider prioritizing anything other than their development.
Failing to Set Goals
If you want to move forward in life, setting clear goals is imperative, and successful people know this. They’ll set granular, measurable, and relevant objectives to hit their goals, and they’ll regularly review these, ensuring that their aims are relevant to their long-term goals. Failing to set goals just isn’t an option for them, as this would mean failing themselves.
Complaining About Workload
Nobody likes being overwhelmed with work, including successful people, but instead of complaining, they’ll dive into it regardless. They see no value in being negative, recognizing that their best action would simply be to get on with whatever is necessary to move forward. They’ll also actively look for ways to make their workload more manageable, such as by prioritizing important tasks and delegating when necessary.
Multitasking Ineffectively
It’s not always smart to multitask, as focusing on too many things at once can reduce the quality of your work. However, successful people understand that multitasking is still necessary to reach maximum efficiency. So, they’ll still multitask, but they’ll ensure that they are doing so in a carefully planned and systematic manner, preventing it from ever becoming overwhelming.
Resisting Change
Successful people recognize that change is inevitable, especially when it comes to careers. To move forward in life, you have to embrace change because if you get stuck in your ways, your career opportunities will stagnate. So, you’ll never catch a successful person resisting change because they only see it as a positive thing for their progression in life.
Skipping Breaks
Contrary to popular belief, successful people never skip breaks, regardless of whether it’s a mandatory evening off or an optional lunch break. They’ll focus hard when they need to, but they’ll take every opportunity to give themselves a break, recognizing that if they don’t do this, they will burn out and lose their long-term momentum.
Neglecting Health
Similar to taking breaks, successful people will always take care of their health because they understand that not doing so will limit their capabilities. A poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle make you lethargic, unproductive, and lazy, three traits that a successful person will never want to associate with. For this reason, you’ll never catch them neglecting their health.
Being Disorganized
While some successful people are famous for their disorganized and chaotic workflows, most people can’t get away with this. Organization is key to efficiency, so successful individuals will usually keep their workspace tidy, their schedules well-managed, and their task lists updated. Without doing so, they run the risk of becoming overwhelmed and losing their momentum.
Overcommitting
These days, hustle culture tells people that you should work as much as you physically can, but this isn’t smart, and successful people know that. You’ll never catch them overcommitting to work because they know that if they do this, they’ll start to become inconsistent and produce lower-quality work. This is why delegation is so important to successful people, as it allows them to keep moving forward without overcommitting.
Avoiding Difficult Conversations
Often, the most difficult conversations in life are necessary for progress. Successful professionals understand this, so instead of putting off tough conversations, they’ll dive head-first into them. After a while, this becomes second nature, ensuring that they can always address tough obstacles with confidence and a level head.
Working in Isolation
Some people claim to work well in isolation, but in reality, this is rarely true. Even if they feel like they are able to focus more, the negative mental health effects of isolating yourself far outweigh the productivity pros. For this reason, successful people much prefer working in offices and other communal spaces, leaving the isolation of working from home to their colleagues.
Taking Credit from Others
Integrity is an essential part of a successful person’s mindset. They’ll always stay truthful to themselves, taking credit only for the work that they produce. This is in contrast to many people, who see stealing credit from others as a shortcut to success. That’s not true, and truly successful people will know this without having to be told so.
Micromanaging
Perhaps the easiest way to prevent someone from meeting their potential is to micromanage them in the workplace, sacrificing their autonomy for control. Successful people will never do this, even if they find themselves in a managerial position. They’ll leave people to get on with their work, trusting that this independence will help them contribute to the greater good of the workforce.