How to Avoid The Three Deadliest Career Traps

One minute you’re up, the next minute you’re down – this can be the feeling one can get by falling into a career trap. Things can certainly change on a dime if an employee – whether you are an experienced CEO or a newly-promoted manager – is not aware of these traps. Author Bruce Kasanoff sounds the alarm on them: Thanks to the consistency of human nature, there are classic career traps that cause smart people to self-destruct. If you avoid these traps, you can protect your career and preserve your ability to be effective:

1. The “ego-driven blind spot” trap – One of the biggest challenges to acquiring power is that fewer and fewer people are willing to give you objective feedback. If you suddenly are praised as a genius, your internal alarms should sound.
2. The “repeat past successes” trap – Successful people tend to repeat the strategies that made them successful. While this often makes sense for a time, the only constant in our world is change.
3. The “use power too personally” trap – Use power for the benefit of others.

Kasanoff goes on to say that “career traps are just as common as career opportunities” and ends with some useful food for thought: Remain confident but humble, and don’t step into an obvious trap. The smartest people I know get up every day aware that their toughest challenge is doing what they know to be right, instead of what is immediately gratifying. For tips on how to avoid these career traps, check out the full article here.