Where your work meets your life.

Break Your Bad Habits

Before Starting a New Job
by Hanna Hart

May 24, 2023

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HBR Staff; Olena Koliesnik/Getty Images

Summary. When starting a new job, we inadvertently drag some of our bad habits
like procrastination, gossiping, or tardiness to our new job. These could hamper our
growth or make us seem unprofessional. To truly start fresh, we have to commit to
making some... more
A new job, like a new year, is an opportunity to start fresh and to
pursue career advancement opportunities that may have been
lacking in your prior position. Maybe your first job ended poorly
because you took on an opportunity you thought would be very
exciting. Maybe you were stuck with a manager who didn’t care
about your development or undermined you. Having chosen, and
been chosen by, your employer, you are full of hope (and maybe
some anxiety) for what the future holds. You’re ready to begin
writing a new chapter.

But, as I’ve observed in my executive coaching practice time and

again, even if you want to start with a clean slate, you’re very
likely dragging along a few bad habits or behaviors from your last
role. In our first jobs, we learn by observing and doing since we
come with little or no experience. If you saw your manager
putting things off for the last minute or repeatedly starting
meetings late, you might have thought it’s okay to do so yourself
occasionally. Little did you realize that the pattern kept repeating
and became engrained as a bad habit.

To truly start fresh, you’ll have to commit to making some

changes. Certain habits may be lifelong challenges for you, like
procrastination or overworking. Others may be behaviors that
were inherited from your former colleagues, like gossiping or
abusing privileges such as flexibility and may not be appropriate
in your new situation.

Whatever habits you want to change, with self-awareness, support

and vigilance, you can set yourself up for success.

Take stock of your (bad) habits.

Start by identifying the habits, whether they are behaviors or

ways of thinking, that have gotten in your way in the past. Go
through your emails, messages, and performance evaluations
from your previous job to pull this data together. Think about
projects you worked on, how successful you were on each, the
roadblocks you had, and why. Take inventory of the feedback you
have received. It could be from your prior job or from professors,
classmates, or friends. Also document any negative tendencies
you regularly practice (and are aware of). As you pull notes
together try and answer the following questions.

What performance feedback have you received? What elements

of your behavior or ways of working can help you advance?
What can hold you back? (Do you spend too much time
perfecting things? Do you need to be more proactive? Do you
tend to procrastinate?)
What complaints have people had about you? What areas have
you consistently been told you need to improve? (Do you shy
away from speaking up? Do you walk in late for meetings often?
Or have difficulty managing multiple projects at once?)
How do you predictably get in your own way? What would serve
you better in your new role? (Do you take on too much? Do you
undercommunicate? Do you get stuck in the weeds?)

Identify what you’d like to change.

Once you have identified some behaviors or patterns that have

gotten in your way, consider your new role. What habits will set
you up for success? What behaviors will show up in the early days
and weeks that could make people form a poor impression of you?
Identify a few key behaviors that you want to change right away.
Prioritize behaviors that are related to reliability and relationship-
building, such as staying professional, being open to feedback, or
honoring commitments as they are a critical foundation to
building trust.

Next, make sure the changes you want to make are specific and
tied to observable behaviors (look for opportunities to participate
in stretch projects) as opposed to focused on generalities (be more
proactive). Phrase them in the positive (do this) as opposed to a
negative (don’t do this). A positive, active voice will reinforce the
desired behavior, motivate you, and help you visualize your new
identity.

Here are a few more examples.

If you have a history of late submissions: “I will submit my

projects a day in advance.”
If you often operate as a “lone wolf” but want to collaborate
more: “I will set frequent check-ins with my manager and co-
workers.”
If you tend to be critical: “I will listen and acknowledge other
points of view and ask at least one question before I give my
opinion.”
If you are prone to negativity or cynicism: “I will cultivate a
balanced perspective by acknowledging what is going well and
practicing gratitude daily.”
If you have a tendency to ramble: “I will prepare for meetings,
think before I speak, and keep it concise.”

Hold yourself accountable.

It’s important that your aspirations aren’t just ideas in your head.
To keep yourself accountable, it can help to create a few systems.
Research shows that documenting your goals and physically
recording your progress increases the likelihood of achievement.
It can be as simple as using a chart or a habit-tracking app. Daily
behaviors, like punctuality, can be easily tracked every day. For
other goals, like those related to changing your mindset or less
measurable behaviors, you might set aside some time every week
to reflect and give yourself a rating: “On a scale of 1 to 5, how
balanced was my perspective this week?”
In some cases, you may want to share your intentions with your
manager or co-workers. They can keep you accountable and even
provide you with feedback. For instance, after a meeting, ask your
co-worker how well you demonstrated the behavior you were
trying to practice. Did you ramble, or were you thoughtful about
giving other people space to talk? You can also find support from
colleagues who display the traits you want to change in yourself.
Spending time with people who engage in a behavior you want to
cultivate (exercising, being punctual, speaking up), helps support
the formation of that habit, research shows.

Anticipate some resistance to change.

If all goes well, your new environment, clear intentions, and

diligence will help you reset. But often, changing your ways takes
time and comes with challenges. Even if you make progress, old
habits can resurface under stress. The part of your brain that
controls willpower and executive function, the prefrontal cortex,
becomes less active and the parts of the brain that are concerned
with safety (or what feels comfortable) take over, making you
more likely to revert back to your old ways.

If this happens to you often, consider whether the behavior you

identify as a “bad habit” is serving a hidden commitment to self-
protection. For example, if you want to break your habit of
micromanagement, you may need to confront your fear of letting
go of control. Or if you have a tendency for perfectionism,
overworking, and over-delivering, you likely were rewarded for
that behavior at an earlier point in your life or career. Since you
believe that this behavior helped make you successful, part of you
may be afraid that if you relax, you will lose everything. That fear-
based belief makes it difficult to change.

If you uncover a fear-based assumption that’s underlying a habit

you consciously want to change, you may need to challenge or
test the assumptions before you can change your behavior for
 good. For example, if your habit of overworking is based in a
belief that you will fail if you don’t give 110%, you might
experiment with setting boundaries. Put in a reasonable work
week (not nights or weekend); take a lunch break; set attainable
deadlines and expectations. Reflect on whether your initial fear-
based assumption about the need to overwork was true. What
feedback did you receive? If it was generally positive, perhaps it’s
time to let go of your belief that a sustainable pace is not good
enough. Only when you change the underlying beliefs and
assumptions, can you make truly lasting change.

...

Starting a new job is an excellent opportunity to break up with the

past, leverage and build on your strengths, and chart a new
course. Nobody is perfect, but if you put in consistent effort and
focus on progress and learning, your new job can help you
jumpstart some new habits and accelerate your career growth.

Hanna Hart is an executive and career coach

with fifteen years of experience helping leaders
in tech, finance, law and philanthropy. Clients
have included Coursera, Davis Polk, DocuSign,
Farallon Capital and Morrison Foerster. She is
also a facilitator at the Stanford Graduate
School of Business.

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