1. Ways to Destroy
our Professional Life
Self-Defeating Behaviors

2. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Introduction
• It is being quite difficult to
deal with all the challenges
that our companies have
been facing lately.
• And in many cases we are
all hostages of our own
companies measures when
they define their future
investments and
international policies.

3. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Important
• But there are other elements
that can be an obstacle to our
professional life improvement:
– Unfair competition,
– Financial crisis,
– Health problems,
– Self-defeating behaviors.

4. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Self-Defeating Behavior - Definition
• Self-defeating behavior is the
concept that people knowingly
do things that will cause them to
fail or bring them trouble in their
lives
• It is defined as “any deliberate
or intentional behavior that has
clear, definitely or probably
negative effects on the self or on
the self’s projects” (Scher &
Baumeister 1988).

5. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Are you aware?
• Maybe you are not aware that
some people have a high
tendency to destroy their own
careers.
• Sometimes, they sabotage their
entire professional life in a
matter of minutes through
wrong emotional reactions or
aggressive words.

6. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
We should be careful!
• Through the Internet and the
social media anyone can
instantly talk about us or share
anything regarding our actions
and misbehaviors, spreading
them along with our professional
and social networking.
• And such event is always a
disaster.

7. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
01. Being too ambitious
• We should avoid demanding a
promotion during a recession or
a company crisis.
• When doing that we could be
forcing our boss to take a tough
decision about our job position
and existence!
• The best strategy is to follow
the market and its trends,
avoiding any wrong doings or
lack of common sense.

8. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
02. Getting too angry and upset
• Being angry and upset are one of
the most unproductive business
approaches ever.
• Most people defeated themselves
through their own bitter
statements and angry behaviors.
• Angry words leave a long trail
and people will always remember
our bitterness not our positive
approach and behavior.

9. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
03. Losing our direction (core business)
• Sometimes we have been involved
in so many goals and projects that
we lost the touch and the energy of
improving.
• We got ourselves completely lost
and tired.
• We should be careful about our
professional actions and constantly
check them up, verifying if they
really fit our core business and
professional life.

10. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
04. Lying about ourselves
• Lying is one of the most common
self-defeating behaviors.
• We can get caught at any moment
and such circumstances will
dramatically affect any future
business decisions and
opportunities.
• Don’t try to become something
you are not while there is plenty
of value in who you are and what
you do.

11. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
05. Adding tasks without reorganizing your job
• Adding new tasks without
dealing with the old ones is a fast
way to delay decisions and
results, jeopardizing our
company and professional
performance.
• We must priorize our activities,
sharing with our boss or team our
concerns and expectations about
any future assignments.

12. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
06. We will get away with it
• Any kind of misbehavior - lying,
cheating, faking, stealing - cannot
remain secret for a long time,
specially in our internet age.
• Such mistake will show up
somewhere and somehow — in
routine audits, unrelated police
investigations, smartphone photos
by strangers, or any casual gossip.

13. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Dealing with our self-defeating behavior
• We should not be so
concerned about self-
defeating since there is always
a way to avoid or to deal with
any negative behavior:
– Know yourself.
– Develop a strong common
sense.

14. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
A. Knowing yourself
• When we start knowing about
ourselves, we start developing a
strong awareness about our
weaknesses and strengths.
• And it helps us to better visualize
the opportunities that could fit
our career and life goals.
• And based on such perception we
can establish ways to self-
improvement through a solid
approach and methodology.

15. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
B. Developing a common sense
• When we learn to develop and
improve our common sense
about the company and place
where we are located, we
automatically start establishing
positive relationships based on
respect and care.
• It is much easier to understand
what is really reasonable and
fits our career and our
company.

16. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Our References
• We would like to thank the following writers for
their expressive contribution for this presentation:
– Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business
School Professor - Five Self-Defeating
Behaviors that Ruin Companies and Careers
-HBR.org - November 20, 2012.
– Catherine Adenle, Want to Destroy Your
Career? See 8 Ways.
– Nance Rosen, How to Destroy Your Career -
www.NanceRosenBlog.com
– Susan Gunelius, 3 Fears that could destroy
your career.

17. Ways to Destroy our Professional Life
Our Business Contacts
Feel free to send us an e-mail.
Our Website:
www.licoreis.com
Our E-mails:
licoreis@licoreis.com
Linkedin: Roberto de Paula Lico Júnior
Skype: roberto.lico
Twitter: @licoreis