As you start to manage your career, watch out for career limiting actions (CLAs). This is not about being sick on the MD at the office party, or pressing “send” on an email that you wouldn’t want read at your next appraisal. Real CLAs are rather more subtle: they’re the barriers you put in the way. Examples are working too hard on projects that don’t matter to the organisation or aligning yourself with out-of-date systems.

Sometimes it’s just about being pushed into a backwater. When HR staff don’t appear to be making a strong contribution to the business, that’s often more about impression than hard facts.

Other CLAs concern how you manage your manager. Avoid things that really irritate your boss: so if your boss has a clean desk policy, run with it even if you believe that a tidy desk is a sign of a sick mind. Go to your manager with solutions rather than problems.

Remember that it’s not only your immediate boss who makes decisions about your future. Success is often not about what you do or how hard you work, but about doing things that are noticed by senior staff who will influence your future, particularly if you hope to move to another part of the organisation. High visibility meetings and presentations have huge leverage.

Sticking doggedly to your job description is the surest CLA of all. Otherwise, most things depend on the way you manage upwards. Avoiding CLAs is ultimately about learning how your organisation reads you – and your contribution – and beginning to manage that perception.