You’ve taken the trainings and learned the programs, but how confident do you feel about your overall career outlook this year? Your soft skills, particularly your professional presence, can make or break your chances of success as much as—if not more than—your technical skills. The goods news? You can shape an intentional professional presence, and you can start by checking for these small but critical mistakes that could be hurting your chances for career advancement.

Arriving late

Although many of us are working partly from home or still fully remote, timeliness is just as important as it was in the physical office. Consistently late arrival shows a lack of time management, organization, and respect for others’ time. So don’t be the person who always starts the Teams meeting five minutes late. Avoid this by keeping a detailed calendar with as many reminders as you need to remember your commitments. Be sure to plan for meetings that regularly run long.

Dressing down

Dress for the job you want is still appropriate in an online work environment. If you dress sloppily or too casually for your position and your company’s culture, your work team won’t take you seriously, and you don’t want a sweatshirt standing between you and that promotion. So if you’re not sure what’s appropriate for your workplace, take a cue from the people around you. What do your supervisors wear? How about that person whose work you really admire? And if you have to ask whether that outfit is office appropriate, even in a remote environment, it isn’t.

Writing too-casual messages

Emoji! Slang!! Exclamations!!! Hold on—are you talking to your bestie or your boss? While a smiley face here or there is probably fine in an established working relationship, don’t assume you know your audience. Personality—and, more carefully, tone—can still come across in work messages without abusing the punctuation and emoji you might use in personal correspondence. If your message has more than one or two exclamation points, ask yourself where you might tone things down.

Making excuses

Self-aware, confident leaders take accountability for their mistakes. Even if that flub wasn’t your direct fault, you’d do best searching for solutions instead of for team members to blame. Remember, people who get things done tend to be liked and respected for it, and excuses are never a step toward productivity.

Telling white lies

Accountability goes hand-in-hand with integrity, the strength of your character and work ethic. That email that “didn’t go through” or that contact you “followed up with last week” may help you save face in the moment, but truth will out. Even the smallest white lie can ruin your reputation, because who wants to put their trust in a liar? If you find yourself habitually fibbing, try to notice when you do it. Do you see a pattern? How can you change your habits to avoid the lies altogether?

This year, commit to intentionally shaping your professional presence and to becoming the professional you’ve always wanted to be. You may be surprised by where these small changes take you!