Perfection is a shadowy myth

Do you know someone who is a perfectionist? Their eyes twitch, and their heart palpitates until work is done to their exacting standards while driving everyone within an eight-block radius absolutely nuts. Here are five ways perfectionism is killing your business and draining your life.

5 Reasons You Need to Stop Driving Everyone Crazy with Perfectionism

1 — Perfectionism Creates a Fake Culture

The culture is fake because perfect doesn’t exist, not even in fairy tales. Set and aim for high goals and hold everyone, including yourself, accountable. But don’t uphold an unrealistic ideal that can only foster an environment of fear and failure. Embrace and encourage creative risk-taking in a culture of grace. Thomas Watson, former CEO and Chairman of IBM said a company must double its rate of failure to succeed.

2 — Perfectionism Undermines Customers

Your customers are waiting for the next spectacular way to make their lives easier. But your great solution sits in a file on your desktop because it’s “not quite ready.” Be honest. Is it not quite ready or not perfect? Your life-changing widget may be good enough to help your customers now. And in the process, customers can give real-world feedback to perfect your product. A first release isn’t your final iteration. Apple has released 38 iPhones since 2007, and something tells me they aren’t done.

Legendary is a slow process.

3 — Perfectionism Crushes Employees

Employees want to contribute to your company’s success. You hire very few people who have the mindset to suck down paychecks while playing Candy Crush on their office desktops. They have the skills to help you, but you nitpick everything they do with little or no praise. Employees who don’t feel valued for their contributions check out emotionally or via a two-week notice. You’re an imperfect person driving another imperfect person toward an impossible outcome.

What did you expect?

4 — Perfectionism Costs Businesses Trillions of Dollars

Your unhappy employee in #3 is an unengaged employee. According to Gallup’s “State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report”, sixty percent of employees are emotionally detached at work, and 19% are miserable. Low employee engagement costs the global economy a staggering $7.8 trillion. How much of this $7.8 trillion is circling your drain because of your perfectionistic work culture?

5 — Perfectionism is Your Own Death by a Thousand Cuts

Clinical psychologist and author Anne Wilson Schaef said, “Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order.” Perfectionism pervades every facet of your life and poisons every relationship, especially the one with yourself. You never measure up because your standard is an illusion, an ungraspable shape of shifting shadows. Give yourself what everyone in your company is begging you for — grace!

Final Thoughts

You can win the battle against the lying, deceiving, perfectionistic demon that plagues your mind. Your company, employees, and customers need you to relax, and now you have 7.8 trillion reasons to change. But most of all, do it for yourself.

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