Accept less-than-perfect
“Perfection: the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects” (Dictionary.com) As a high achiever, you may strive for perfection. What does perfection look like to you? It could be a sales pitch for a complex service that results in the customer agreeing to 100% of the contract terms with no questions before the end of the month. If you are in sales, you likely recognize that this rarely happens. So, if this is your ideal, you will be disappointed when deals don’t close this easily.
Early in my career, I was responsible for a major healthcare system's budget and financial planning functions. The annual budget presentation was a major project for me and my team. Full of numbers, percentages, and graphs, it was a lengthy document that went through much editing and proofing. One day after distribution, the CEO appeared at my office door to ask about two numbers in the document that should have been the same but were not. An error. He was very gracious, but I was embarrassed and felt I had failed. This feeling of failure caused me to lose some confidence in my ability and I shared my sense of failure with my team, dragging them down with my unreasonable expectation of perfection.
What I learned was as a human, I can't be 100% error-free, nor can the teams that I lead. You should continue to strive for your best and expect others to do the same but when mistakes happen you set up processes and systems to reduce errors. What I would now say to a team member is, to learn from your mistakes (and don’t make the same mistake again).
Another negative impact of wanting to be perfect is the inability to decide or act. You have this idea that if you just wait, you will figure out the perfect way to proceed. As a result, you are standing still watching the light of the oncoming train. As a high achiever, you are still committed to getting the job done but since you were delayed, you are now working more hours than you need to and are very stressed out. If you lead a team, they will feel the same. To get out of this rut, make a list of eight things that you need to do to complete the project or solve the problem knowing that you can change those steps as you move forward. The action of moving forward builds confidence and allows for a more positive outlook.
Shifting our mindset from perfection to learning and improving from mistakes removes a heavy burden allowing us to be more creative and productive. As always, if you want to talk about making this change in your life, book a free session through my website.