Perfectionism Kills Careers: 5 ways you can manage your perfectionism

Are you someone who waits for the perfect moment? 

The perfect moment to change roles, to ask for a raise or your promotion. Let me break this to you. You will forever wait for that perfect moment in life, and it will never come. Hence perfectionism kills careers. 
Your perfectionism can stand in the way of you progressing in your career. I have made that mistake. I thought I was not ready to be a people manager when I was offered that role 4 years into my career. I thought leaders need experience, and that wasn't the perfect moment. But I was wrong; I skipped that opportunity to realize later that leaders don't perienecessarily need exnce; they need the ability to lead, motivate and collaborate, which I had then.

Your perfectionism can stand in the way of you progressing in your career.

You may argue perfectionism has benefits, but research done among 25000+ professionals across years starting from 1980 says otherwise. Yes, perfectionists aim to produce flawless work and are more motivated than non-perfectionists. But they also set inflexible high standards, are overly critical, and have a "my work is either perfect or a total failure" mindset. They also believe that their self-worth depends on performing perfectly, leading them to have higher levels of stress, burnout, and anxiety. The results showed that being a perfectionist did not improve performance and is not constructive at work.

You may argue perfectionism has benefits, but research done among 25000+ professionals across years starting from 1980 says otherwise. 

The research also found two dimensions of perfectionism: 

Excellence-seeking perfectionism involves individuals who hold excessively high-performance standards for themselves and others. 

Failure-avoiding perfectionism involves concern and aversion to failure. Such individuals are constantly worried about the quality of their work, find it difficult to delegate and accept constructive criticism. They can be less productive than others simply because they spend so much time checking and rechecking their work. So perfectionism is a much more significant weakness than job applicants and interviewers probably assume.

So should perfectionistic individuals be avoided? 

No leaders should look to harness the benefits while simultaneously acknowledging and mitigating potential consequences. It is all about being aware and striking that balance. Striving to be perfect isn't beneficial and has high costs for you and your organization. So if you are a leader, instead of encouraging employees to be "perfect," you will be better off with "good enough."

Here are 5 ways how you can manage your perfectionism :

1. Acknowledge perfectionism: 

First, step to changing any behavior is to ask that you have that behavior. You can't change what you don't notice. First, acknowledge that you have perfectionist tendencies to yourself and others, but try to avoid giving yourself the title of "perfectionist." Rather than saying, "I am a perfectionist," say I have perfectionist behavior". Viewing it as a behavior rather than part of your identity makes it easier to change.

Rather than saying, "I am a perfectionist," say I have perfectionistic behaviour". 

 2. Understand the why behind the behavior : 

In the book Atomic Habits, the author James Clear says that the key to changing a behavior is understanding its motives. So try and understand the reasons behind your desire to achieve perfection. For example, some people try to be perfectionists because they enjoy a sense of control, while others enjoy the praise they receive for a job well done. Understanding the motives will help you find solutions by which the needs can be met without being a perfectionist.

3. Make small changes.

Rather than trying to change your perfectionist behavior in one day, approach it in small actionable steps. For eg. if you are someone who proofreads an email multiple times and overthinks, then make it a point to proofread it 2 times or so and send it out. Similarly, make small habit changes and see how the results turn out. These small changes can help you challenge your mindset.

4. Create realistic goals and expectations

Research says that the real reasons behind being a perfectionist are the fear of failure or judgment and disapproval from others. This trait could be created in childhood if your parents had unrealistic expectations. So you'll need to set realistic goals you can reasonably achieve to avoid burnout and other potentially negative consequences of perfectionism.

5. Say "No" more often

Many perfectionists are ambitious and embrace every opportunity they can. However, agreeing to every opportunity can overwhelm you with too much work. Say no to things that don't add value to you or your work.

 You look for perfection when you see something as an end goal. You will see things differently when you start looking at each opportunity as a step to a bigger goal, a step that helps you improvise as you do and learn more. If I had seen that people manager position as an opportunity to use my skills and learn what I lacked from my mentors, my career path would have been quite different.

You look for perfection when you see something as an end goal. 

If you want to catalyze your career, you must manage your perfectionist behavior so that it doesn't hinder your progress. Because if you wait for perfection people less talented than you will take the lead. The not-so-perfectionists understand that everything is a learning process and you best learn by doing.

If you wait for perfection people less talented than you will take the lead. 

Remember, there is nothing like a perfect moment other than the present moment.

I am Sajna Samad, and this is the Catalyze Your Career Newsletter. I am a Jay Shetty Certified Life coach focusing on Self-Mastery and Career. If you are into podcasts, Catalyze Your Career is now on Spotify and Apple podcasts.