You want people to talk about you; it’s good for business. Of course, it’s much better if they say positive things. Yes, positive things spread slowly, but they spread. The good word gets out, and clients call.

Unfortunately, it takes less to start a negative discussion about you. It’s easy to make one mistake and have it spread like wildfire. People love to spread the word when you screw up. Your reputation is easy to damage and hard to repair.

The best way to prevent damage to your reputation is to avoid giving the negative talkers ammunition. Avoid these 10 bad habits to protect yourself:

1. Failure to Return Calls

We’re busy, and our clients are in a state of panic: it’s a bad combination. It’s a huge problem when they call and leave a message and you’re tied up for a day or two. The lack of a return call leads to greater panic, and they can’t keep themselves from calling others and ranting about your failure to call back. You’ve got to relieve their anxiety immediately regardless of whether you’re busy. Create a system for making them feel better so they’ll wait without trashing you to their friends.

2. Trash Talking

We’re a competitive and articulate group of humans. We talk incessantly, and we like to demonstrate our superiority—another bad combination. Many of us go through life making enemies. Can you say, “Shut the f-$k up?” That’s what we should be asking ourselves because the minute we say something nasty about someone, it gets passed along to five other people. Somehow, the negative thing we said about someone else gets turned against us. “Can you believe he said that?” is what gets passed along. Now, we’re the bad guy.

3. Treating Employees Badly

Seriously, I’m paying you every week, so why do I have to be nice to you? That was my attitude for years (decades?). Sadly, paying people doesn’t grant me license to be a jerk if I want to have a reputation as a decent person. Be nice, or do what I do and pretend to be nice (and spend a great deal of time out of town). Employees will trash you everywhere they go if you’re mean to them. Former employees are worse: they’ll trash you with a fervor you can’t imagine until you see it in action.

4. Going Unprepared

Showing up in court without adequate preparation is like pouring gasoline on a pile of kindling and striking a match. The courthouse is the center of the legal universe, and people talk about everything. Your screwup will be passed along, person to person, by text, call, and e-mail. It’s like they were waiting for you to show up unprepared so they could crank up the reputation damage machine. Why not just put on a sandwich board sign saying “I’m a crappy lawyer” and wear it downtown? While being unprepared may have a less immediate impact in other venues, it’s no less damaging. Preparation is critical before you appear anywhere. Do the work.

5. Dropping the Ball

Lack of follow-up gets them talking. It’s easily preventable. Don’t agree to do it if you aren’t going to do it. Why did you say you’d write that article if you weren’t going to do it? Why did you say you’d schedule the lunch or plan the meeting? This is an easy problem to solve: just don’t commit. You know what you’ve got time to do and whether you really want to do it. Don’t pick up the ball, and you won’t end up dropping it.

6. Emotional Outbursts

Screaming at a judge gets talked about: it’s interesting. It makes everyone wonder what kind of brain damage you’ve got. Personally, I love watching a good emotional outburst because it gives me a great story to tell. There are lots of places where you can have an outburst and damage your reputation. I screamed at a clerk in a jewelry store once. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy: I probably was. Get a grip.

7. Sleeping With Your Staff/Clients

Who doesn’t want to sleep with him or her? Actually, I rarely had any interest because I consistently had the ugliest clients on the planet. Your clients, on the other hand, are attractive, and you need to resist the urge to turn their trust into a naked interlude. The same goes with your employees. Is there anyone who can resist discussing this topic when we hear a good sex in the office story? And haven’t you been hearing these stories forever? When are we going to learn?

8. Gossiping

I love to gossip: it’s one of my numerous faults. It always ends badly. When you talk about others, they know you talk about them too. Their response? They trash you. Again, your mouth should stay shut (see above). The next time you see me and I quickly launch into a good, juicy, gossipy story, please remind me to stop talking.

9. Missing Deadlines

Do you really think no one notices that you miss every deadline and that you’re constantly asking for extensions? Is there a place in your brain where you think there are people who prefer lawyers who miss deadlines? Realistically, most of the folks who refer to us understand very little about what we do. They make quick judgments about us based on the few things they comprehend. If they know we don’t do our work on time, they assume we’re not very good at lawyering—and maybe they’re right. They’re happy to tell others. Every missed deadline, and every extension of time, results in a small chink in your reputation.

10. Lying

Don’t lie. Tell the truth. They’ll figure out your lies, and they’ll tell everyone you’re a liar. Damaging to your reputation? Uh, yeah. Once you’re on the list of liars, you’re not getting off. This is a list you don’t want to be on.

What Are Your Bad Habits?

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. But you still see some of your habits on the list. You may not think of them as habits, but when you let something happen over and over, it’s a habit.

These bad habits make you feel bad, they fill you with regret, and they cost you money—lots of money. It’s time to refocus, reprioritize, and correct your bad habits. Work on one thing at time. Make changes. You can do it.