9 Things You Need to Stop Doing if You Want to Be Taken Seriously

9 Things You Need to Stop Doing if You Want to Be Taken Seriously9 Things You Need to Stop Doing if You Want to Be Taken Seriously Want to be known as a rockstar around your geschftszimmer? Heres a tip to really earn a stellar reputation , you cant just do your individual tasks well. Often, you also have to master soft skills around how you speak and present yourself. But the challenge is that this workplace etiquette tends to be an unspoken rule - since you cant exactly flip to a page in your employee handbook to read up on how to wow leadership with your communication style, for example, its easy to make mistakes.To shed light on some of these common workplace faux pas , we reached out to a handful of career experts. If youre serious about earning your colleagues respect and improving your standing in the office, its time to nip these nine bad habits in the bud.Your coworkers may understand if you show up late by a minute or two to the occasional meeting, but m aking tardiness a regular habit is a surefire way to lose credibility in your colleagues eyes.Being late shows a complete disrespect for the time of those around you. Even when you produce great work, it will be overshadowed by your inability to get yourself to a meeting on time, says career coach Angela Copeland . The good news? There are plenty of ways to fix this bad habit. Copeland recommends diligently keeping track of meetings using a calendar (enabling reminders if youre using an electronic one).In addition, block out time in your schedule for traveling to a meeting, and then add a few minutes to be sure youre able to arrive early, Copeland says.When youre new to the office, early on in your career , or just a bit shy, its elend uncommon to hold back around your coworkers. But if you overthink comments and end up silent because youre afraid of being wrong you risk limiting your influence, says Mikaela Kiner, Founder/CEO of UniquelyHR . The problem with self-censorship and being too quiet is that it masks your intelligence. Co-workers may speculate that you are not engaged, or arent a team player due to your lack of participation.Having a hard time coming out of your shell? Decide how many times you will speak up during the next meeting, Kiner recommends. Maybe start small, lets say you plan to make three comments. Bring three post-its with youand when you have something to say, quickly jot it down then say whats on your mind. Its easy to measure - once your post-its have all been used, youve reached your goal. Additionally, choose someone you trust whos in a lot of meetings with you, and share that your goal is to speak up more. If the person is your manager or the meeting facilitator, s/he can call on you when it looks like you have something to say.While failure to speak up can damage your standing in the workplace, dominating the conversation can be just as bad.Too often, young and eager employees think that being vocal will make supervisor s respect them more, says Andrea Gerson, Founder of Resume Scripter . If you fall on the more outgoing end of the spectrum, try to be more mindful and take in what your superiors are trying to teach you. Be eager to hear about how they got where they are.Your teachers didnt spend all those years triole grammatical rules into your head for no reason - bad grammar will derail even the most promising career, says Roy Cohen, career coach and author of The Wall Street Professionals Survival Guide . If you struggle with the written (or spoken) word, take a communications class or read a book on grammar. Then practice - just knowing what you should do is not enough to improve your interpersonal skills. The investment upfront is minimal and the benefits over the long term are enormous, Cohen says.Ever try and downplay a mistake you made, or tell your boss you sent an email when its still sitting in your inbox? Youre going to want to cut that out.In the moment, white lies may seem li ke no big deal. But, in the world of business, they can come back to bite you in a big way, Copeland says. If youre in the habit of telling white lies, begin to make a notenzeichen when you do it. Identify similarities or patterns and work to correct yourself in the future before they occur. When a white lie is noticed, it can ruin your entire reputation. And, why would you want to do that for something you worked so hard for?Sharing great ideas and strong opinions is a good thing - downplaying or contradicting yourself afterwards, not so much. While being humble is a terrific trait, you should take pride in your accomplishments and accept credit for what youve achieved. Your employer wont take you seriously if you dont have confidence in yourself, Gerson says.But if being confident is often easier said than done for you, Gerson recommends the following tip Make a Winning folder in your inbox and save all the great feedback that you get. You can later review it when you have mo ments of doubting your capabilities. The next time you think about second guessing yourself, hold onto these highlights to help you stay the course.You might think blaming a coworker for a missed deadline or confusing directions for an error in your project will save your skin, but the truth is, it reflects back poorly on you.Nobody likes excuse makers . Even if somethings not your fault, you should do everything in your power to fix it, Copeland says. If its your project, work to come up with solutions rather than problems. Find a way to get things done without pointing your handglied at coworkers. Someone who can make things happen while not placing blame will go far.Just because it looks great when youre out on the town with your friends on the weekend, doesnt mean itll work for the office. When you dress in a manner thats too casual at work, you will quickly lose the respect of your coworkers Whether youre wearing business casual in a business environment or casual in a busines s casual work setting, the people youre working with are noticing. They may not verbalize that they think you look silly, but you can bet theyre thinking it, Copeland says.Pay close attention to what is acceptable dress in your workplace. This is especially true when youre changing industries, moving to a new city, or going up the corporate ladder . Each company has different expectations about whats normal. And, many of those expectations arent always written down somewhere. Take the time to observe those around you and follow suit, she suggests.Pro tip If youre at all questioning whether or not an item of clothing is office appropriate, it probably isnt.Just like you dont want your wardrobe to be too casual, you dont want your emails to be too casual , either.It may be something youve become completely accustomed to, but too many exclamation points and happy faces will not help your corporate emails, Copeland says. Make a point to count the number of exclamation points youre usi ng in an email. If the number exceeds two, try to decide if theres any way you can reduce the amount of punctuation. Likewise, lay off the emojis and emoticons . Save smiley faces for times when youre close friends with someone, Copeland says.