Perfectionism at Work: Excellence or Exhaustion?

Welcome back. Well, it might seem like a good thing, the pursuit of professional excellence, but sometimes that drive to be flawless can get us caught in a perfectionist trap.

That's right. So today, the consequences of that, how you can manage the pitfalls of trying to be perfect. Beth Ridley is a leadership expert and workplace consultant, culture consultant. She joins us now with more information on perfectionism and at work. Good to see you, Beth.

Hi, good morning.

Yeah, I don't suffer from this, but many people do.

And I know many people who do.

Who are a little more type A. How do you describe perfectionism and what it means to try and strive for that?

Yeah. Okay. Well, as a recovering perfectionist, I think having just really high standards for yourself and others, a lot of it is really out of fear of making mistakes or not looking good in front of other people. So I think it's not a bad quality to have. It just has to be managed.

Yeah, that's fair.

It comes from a very good place of probably wanting to achieve and things like that. So how can leaders in particular recognize perfectionism first in themselves? Yeah.

So a couple signs. If you're really reluctant to delegate work, that could be a sign that you're.

A perfectionist because you're controlling it.

Controlling. And, you know, I sort of grew up with this attitude, if you want something done right, do it yourself, do it yourself. So you end up doing everything yourself. And then if you do delegate, you end up micromanaging, managing, you're getting down into the weeds. And then something else that I noticed, which you wouldn't necessarily expect. If you procrastinate a lot or if you miss deadlines because you're so worried about, like, being perfect, it's actually hard to get started. And then once you start, you're so into the details and, you know, fine tuning things that it's hard to actually complete something.

I do have that problem.

Oh, there you go.

So maybe there is a piece of that in there. I think people probably will resonate with different pieces of things. How does it though, if you are a perfectionist, especially as a leader at work, how does that affect that than your employees? And is it negative?

I would say they're probably really bad people to report to. Honestly, they can make life miserable for themselves and for other people. Again, if you don't delegate work, people might feel like, well, I'm not getting an opportunity to do work or to work on projects. And then if you're being micromanaged or if you have really high expectations of other people, that spills over into stressing people out, a lot of burnout. But also with really high standards, people will be reluctant to maybe step forward with new ideas, think outside of the box, or try new things that are inherently, you might make a mistake and so they hold back and then you don't get like creativity or innovation. And people may not speak up because, you know, they don't want to reveal that things aren't going really well out of fear of them being judged poorly.

I think one good thing is I think a lot of leaders are more interested in having a healthy work environment, or at least they give lip service to it maybe. So what are some ways that leaders then can manage perfectionism to get a better, healthier environment?

I think the main thing is it really comes down to balancing and having an honest conversation about perfection and progress and having a healthy balance between those two. So in other words, you don't want perfection to get in the way of actually moving work forward and making progress. So if you think of progress also as a goal and not just perfection, that then you can talk about when is good enough, good enough to be able to actually just move forward. And then that opens the door for a lot of things. Right? You can break your ultimate goals down into small little bite sized pieces. And when you do that, people can focus on small things and you can check in along the way. It makes it easier for the person who's a perfectionist to want to delegate and not have to micromanage along the way.

Do they need to set their expectations on what to delegate to start if they haven't been able to do that before?

Yes, I do think so. And I think again, breaking big goals down into small goals is a way to do that. You'll just feel more confident like, okay, I'm not going to delegate the whole thing, but small pieces and I'll let you do it. I'll describe what success looks like for this small piece. I'll let you do it and then we'll just check in along the way. And also by checking in along the way, you open the door for a more open and honest conversation. People can speak up and talk about things that may be challenging them as you go. And it's always easier to address things in small pieces as opposed to you wait to the end of the project and then somebody has to say something. Too nervous and scared to say something that didn't go right.

Yeah, isn't that chunking? Isn't that what they do? Because I think sometimes large projects in particular are overwhelming. Especially I would think for perfectionists. So if you take it in chunks, which is what you're talking about, take small amounts and maybe have false deadlines for things toward establishing a growth mindset, Set yourself a false deadline so you're achieving things along the way.

Absolutely. And to celebrate those small steps along the way. And it helps to motivate people and, you know, if they feel motivated and encouraged, you know, they'll be willing to step up and try new things, which is what you want for a great team. That creativity and that innovation. And I think people realize that you can have really good outcomes, and good enough is actually really good enough. Yeah.

So probably mixing personalities on a team ultimately helps too.

Balance.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Yeah. Okay.

Anything else you want to leave us with on the perfectionism mindset?

Well, I'd like to know. Like, you know, I think it's really interesting for someone who would consider themselves to be a perfectionist. And you said that you're not.

No.

Yeah.

But I think it's because of my improv background, you know, I tend to. I don't like to have things overly planned or overly perfect.

Right.

So I think that maybe it's personality based. Maybe it's a part of that experience in life.

I don't know. But I mean, to your point, that's why it's so important to have so many different personalities and backgrounds on the team, because people will balance each other out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's where the magic happens.

Yeah. So cute.

Thank you, Beth.

Thank you.

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