Careers expert: Five work habits to drop in 2026 |
IF YOU DRIFTED through the last year with a diary full of vague goals, half-formed intentions and a few familiar excuses , don’t worry.
January has arrived with its usual optimism, but it’s February that brings the real opportunity: motivation returns, the fog lifts and careers can get back on track.
You don’t need a complete reinvention in 2026. You just need fewer habits that dilute your impact and more that sharpen it. Stop letting perception happen by accident. Stop dodging learning curves. Communicate clearly. Listen properly. Seek feedback.
Careers don’t change through dramatic gestures. They change through consistent, deliberate choices. This year, make those choices count.
If you want 2026 to be the year you work with clarity and purpose, drop these five habits.
Remember the “great reflection”? That post-pandemic introspection where people re-evaluated their priorities and decided that balance and autonomy mattered more than climbing a ladder for the sake of it.
Five years on, some quietly admit they allowed their careers to slip into neutral. One client described their current situation as “career no man’s land”. Another said she’d “lost control without even noticing”.
Make 2026 the year you take the wheel again. Purpose and flexibility matter. But so does perception. And whether you think it’s fair or not, your professional brand is being formed in real time. Every email you send, every Teams meeting you attend (with your camera off), every conversation in which you hedge or apologise , it all shapes the impression others carry of you.
You don’t get to opt out. People will form a view anyway and........