As we put a bow on 2017, many of you are already wondering how you can give your professional life a boost in the new year. You’ve taken the trainings and learned the programs, but have you examined your soft skills? Your professional presence matters to your career as much as (if not more than) your hard skills. Are you making these small but critical professional mistakes that could be hurting your career advancement?

1. Writing too-casual email. Happy faces!!! Exclamation points!!! Can you get down with my lingo, braugh?!?! No? Well then, it’s best to keep things professional. Personality can still come across in a calm and literate work email, without abusing the punctuation, emoji, and emoticons you might use in personal correspondence. If your email has more than a couple exclamation points, ask yourself where you might tone things down.
2. Dressing down—way down. Your coworkers are less likely to take you seriously if you dress sloppily or too casually for your position and industry (although they might not tell you to your face). Remember that saying, “Dress for the job you want”? It works! If you’re not sure what’s appropriate for your workplace, take a cue from the people around you. What do your peers wear? Your supervisors? That person who really seems to be going places? And if you’re wondering whether that shirt is office appropriate, it isn’t.
3. Arriving late. You can almost always control what time you arrive to your desk, meetings, and so on. Consistently arriving late shows a lack of time management, organization, and respect for others’ time. We’re all busy; don’t be that guy who keeps everyone waiting. Keep a detailed calendar with as many reminders as you need to keep commitments on time. Be sure to plan for travel time and meetings that regularly run long.
4. Making excuses. Few things say “self-aware, confident professional” better than taking accountability when things go wrong. This especially applies if you are an organization leader responsible for a team. Even if that flub wasn’t your direct fault, you’d do better—and be better respected—to search for solutions instead of coworkers to take the blame. People like people who get things done, and excuses are never a step toward productivity.
5. Tweaking the truth. Hand-in-hand with accountability comes integrity: the strength of your character and work ethic. Small lies here and there—an email that “didn’t go through” or a contract you “secured” last week—may help you save face in the moment, but the truth has a bad habit of surfacing with a vengeance. That’s when a tiny lie can have a titanic impact on your reputation. Plus it doesn’t feel good to juggle lies, does it? If you find yourself habitually telling small lies, take notice when you tell them. Do you see a pattern? How can you change your habits to avoid the lies altogether?

For 2018, commit to becoming the professional you’ve always wanted to be! You may be surprised where even small changes can take you.