The Price of Perfectionism – Is it Really So Perfect After All?

For the Perfectionist Manager and the Perfectionists They Might Be Managing

“I’m a perfectionist.” Have you ever hear these words come out of your mouth? Perhaps you’ve declared your status with a slight sense of smugness and a secret belief that you’re just a tad bit better than the ordinary person.

When I refer to perfectionism, I’m not talking about having high standards of excellence or doing your very best. Rather, it’s the insatiable need to have everything appear flawless, and a sense that there’s something wring with you if anything around you is less than perfect. You set extraordinary standards and suffer miserably when you fail to meet them. You’re routinely amazed that others fail to live up to your expectations or, worse yet, that they don’t even seem to care about them.

Most of us think we can recognize perfectionism. We think it looks like the description you just read. But it may surprise you who the closet perfectionists are. Perfectionism wears many faces and bears many costs.

If perfectionism has ever held you hostage, if you’d like to get out from under perfectionism, if you see perfectionism as an “opponent”, if you’d like to un-lea
perfectionism, you must first “know” it. The truth, that is the facts, can set you free, if you’re willing. So over the next few weeks, we’ll examine those facts in a series of blog posts.

The Cost of Perfectionism – Perfectionism wastes energy

People who suffer from perfectionism experience perfectionism as a thing…as something solid..as if it is “real” rather than a conversation we’re listening to non-stop or hear as annoying background noise. No wonder the chatter wastes our precious energy.

Examples are a dime a dozen. When our energy is directed toward eliminating all imperfection, we spend more time than needed or appropriate to complete a given project, and expend more energy than the situation merits.

When doing a performance review, we might notice that we spent four hours on it, but that half the time was spent seeking perfection rather than adding value. The result? We either attempt to justify our wasted time to ourselves, or we end up spending more time exhausting ourselves to “make up for it”.

Every project we take on is big just because it has to conform to our immovable standards. What about planning for the perfect staff meeting? Is your preparation so tight and your agenda so long that you have no breathing room to be creative or invite others’ input? Rather than the result we hope for, namely effective action, we often see tired, de-motivated people who are disconnected from, or have even forgotten the purpose of the work. We may even be one of those people.

Can you share an example of a time when perfectionism wasted your energy? Let me know, but please post an imperfect post! I’m serious. Just share a time tat really stands out for you without censoring yourself or worrying about how it will land. Your examples will enhance, if not this discussion, then some other discussion.