With a play on the famous book by Stephen Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Henrik Edberg, a Swedish student and author of The Positivity Blog has a post on the “7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People.”

So, what are these bad habits? And my take on how they can relate to business development:

• Failing to show up (for networking events or for working out at the gym);
• Procrastinating half the day away (rather than picking up the phone and calling a referral source for a lunch date);
• Spending your time on unimportant things (need to work on marketing management skills);
• Thinking too much (“Paralysis by analysis” when trying to determine what are the best business development tools)
• Maintaining a negative attitude or side to things (destroys any motivation to undertake business development);
• Keeping your mind closed to new ideas (won’t find personal or professional growth that way, nor new clients or matters); and
• Taking in too much information (failure to be selective can cause overload and hinder clear thinking when it comes to marketing activity).

These ineffective behaviors can affect us in all aspects of our lives. But our livelihood depends on our efforts to overcome them as it relates to our professional business development.

Thanks to Bruce Allen at the Marketing Catalyst for the reference to Henrik’s post.