Six Surefire Work Place Missteps

Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, authors of The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book,” offer six ways to guarantee success, keep the upper hand in your career and prevent that pink slip from finding its way into your inbox.

1. The Heated Meeting Snap:  When you lose your cool trying to make your point, you may think you come across as an impassioned and involved in your job, but in reality it makes people pass you up for important projects because they don’t want to deal with your temper.

2. The Mouse: Never standing up for yourself stalls your career. If you cower and run away from all conflict, you limit your chances for recognition and promotion.

3. The Fake Greeting:  If you really don’t want to interact with people (say you’re having a bad morning), you’re better off telling them what’s going on with you than making them feel like there’s something wrong with their company.

4. The Cover Up: Secret “behind their back” meetings work great on “Survivor,” but not in the workplace. They make you feel in control in the moment, but as soon as loyalties are tested (and they will be the moment someone’s job is on the line), things have a way of spiraling out of control very quickly.

5. Scathing E-mails: There’s no better way to create an emotional firestorm than by venting in an e-mail. The impulsive “type and click” has prompted Google to develop a feature in Gmail that allows you to retract emails after you’ve sent them and before they arrive in the receiver’s inbox.

6. Water Cooler Gossip: We get sucked into this because it feels good. It’s fun to get lost in an engaging chat in the beginning of a boring workday, but the repercussions of gossiping about your coworkers typically outweighs the fun and can be hard on your career.