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You could be an extremely talented, hard-working individual but there are some words you should avoid to give others any negative impression about you. There are some words that change the way people see you.
Following are the words you should scrape out of your vocabulary immediately and here is why.
1. “It’s not fair”
Who doesn’t know, life is not fair? By uttering these words, you give the impression that in your opinion, life should be fair. This makes you look immature and naive.
If you were expecting a project or a new assignment at work and did not get it. Instead of complaining it’s not fair, you should gently ask, I came to know Amy is given this assignment. I would like to know what went into that decision.
2. No Problem
We all use this word often, it is usually a regular phrase in our vocabulary but by saying these words at work, you are giving an impression that a request was a problem when you were asked to do something.
3. This may be a silly idea, I’m going to ask a stupid question.’
These lines erode your credibility. They depict, you lack confidence and give an impression that you are your own critic. The alternative sentence could be, I do not have complete information about it at the moment, I will find out more details.
4. ‘This will only take a minute.’
This gives the impression that you are careless, you rush through your tasks. It also gives others an impression that you do not value time as it is near to impossible to time cap an assignment. The alternative word could be, I will get it done as soon as possible.
5. ‘I’ll try.’
This sounds tentative, not sure of your ability or perhaps that is one way of saying ‘No’. It shows your inability to do a task with authority and makes you look ‘weak’.
6. ‘It’s not my fault.’
It shows you feel easy in throwing blames and do not want to be accountable. If something goes wrong, admit it, own your mistake instead of pretending to shed it off your skin. People tend to avoid you for your irresponsibility and no one would prefer to have you in their team. Instead, if you admit your mistakes, you become popular and your character is valued at work.
7. ‘I can’t.’
The 2 most dangerous words at work, I can’t. They reflect your lack of ability to get a job done. It also gives the impression that you are not willing to do a job.
The article originally appeared in Entrepreneur.
