Ten Bad Habits That Are Killing Your Credibility - Liz Rayan forbes

Dear Liz,

I started my job in October. It's going great so far. My manager "Brenda" is like a mentor. I really like her.

Brenda and I meet every week to review goals and issues. Last week at our meeting she said, "I have some feedback for you. You are doing really well in your job so far. I'm very impressed with your progress.

"There's one thing I want you to focus on, and I will help you with it. You have a habit that I don't think you're aware of, but I want you to know about it. This habit is affecting your credibility here so I wanted to talk with you about it."

I froze up. I thought,  "What awful thing am I doing without realizing it?"

Brenda said, "You apologize way too often.  You apologize when there's nothing to apologize for. You use the word 'sorry' as a filler in almost every conversation. It's confusing. People don't understand why you apologize all the time. You don't need to do it. It's hurting your credibility."

I asked Brenda if she could think of any examples.

She said,  "Yes, I have two examples in mind. When you and I were talking in the hallway last week and Franco came up to us and asked you about the pricing report, you immediately apologized. Franco asked, 'Do you think we can see that report by Friday?' and you said, 'Oh yes, sorry about that, you'll have it by Friday.'

"Franco didn't know why you were apologizing, and neither did I.

The other example happened yesterday. You were on the phone when I stopped by your workstation. You said 'I'm sorry' to whoever you were talking to three different times in just a few seconds. It's not a good idea to say 'I'm sorry' when you haven't done anything wrong. It makes you sound unsure of yourself. That's not the image you want to convey."