Perfectionism and business: how does it hinder success?

IT era pioneer Steve Jobs, writer and businesswoman Martha Stewart, and director James Cameron are cited as famous perfectionists. The pursuit of the ideal provided them with a brilliant career. But the obsession with perfection does not help everyone. In this article, we will tell you why perfectionism is dangerous for business and how to deal with it.

The concept and causes of perfectionism

You have launched your own project – you have opened a content marketing agency. Copywriters, editor, designer did an excellent job with the test and passed the interview, they have cool cases and positive reviews. The team is ready to work, you are ready to solve the business problems of clients.

First orders in progress. Texts are written and edited, illustrations are drawn, ads are launched, but something goes wrong. I constantly want to improve the finished material, although it meets the requirements specification and the customer’s expectations. There is not enough time – it is taken away by a mass of secondary issues that colleagues are supposed to solve. All of a sudden they can’t do it? Employees are tired of distrust, endless improvements, honing details. Nerves are on edge, deadlines are running out. Business gets in the way of perfectionism. What to do?

• Understand the causes of perfectionism. The problem is easier to solve when you know the origins.
• Understand how striving for excellence hinders success.
• Breaking the obsession with an unattainable ideal.

Perfectionism is the pursuit of the ideal. In 1978, psychotherapist Don Hamachek proposed to divide it into healthy and neurotic.

The episodic presentation of excessive demands on oneself, the people around, the world is a variant of the norm. A person soberly assesses abilities, sets realistic goals, gets satisfaction from hard work, knows how to learn from mistakes.

In the obsessive desire for perfection, obsession with the idea of ​​​​improvement, mental deviations are manifested. Neurotic perfectionists do not recognize intermediate successes, perceive mistakes painfully as a personal failure, and think on a win-lose basis.

The development of neurotic perfectionism is influenced by parental behavior and the model of upbringing in the family, the education system, and social stereotypes.

Family

Volikova S. V., Kholmogorova A. B., Galkina A. M., Garanyan N. G. investigated the causes of perfectionism in adults and children. Teachers and psychologists have noticed a connection between the behavior of parents and the formation in the child of excessive demands on himself, the work done, and the people around him. Children who are underestimated, in adulthood, seek recognition through the “fives”:

• Authoritarian parenting style with high demands and tight control. Punishment for “bad” grades, even “fours”.
• Criticism, depreciation of the child’s success, comparison with others.
• Lack of sufficient emotional support, approval. The love of parents is conditional, it must be earned by impeccable behavior, excellent studies, victories in competitions.
• Inflated parental expectations. Relatives do not openly criticize for failure, but show disappointment.
• The child perceives the attitudes of perfectionist parents who are overly strict with themselves.

School

The school picks up the family baton. In the beginning, marks are still reduced for an extra cell missed from the beginning of a line, for corrections, uneven handwriting. The pattern “What is written with a pen cannot be cut down with an ax” reinforces the fear of error.

American children write with a pencil, erasing wrong lines with an eraser. The philosophy of education in the United States is based on the idea that making mistakes and correcting them is not scary and normal. In Russian schools, only a ballpoint pen, only hardcore.

Society

Striving for the ideal in work is a socially approved quality. The famous perfectionist Steve Jobs is cited as an example. The brilliant founder of Apple made perfection a principle of life. But the endless improvements bordered on tyranny, subordinates, relatives, and service personnel suffered from nit-picking and rudeness.

Burned out, dissatisfied with life, lost business perfectionists are not heard.

Life in the era of “achievement”, the gloss of social networks, personal growth trainings, makes you worry about perfection, follow imposed standards, and be afraid to show weaknesses.

Few successful people give their best, following the rules of time management 100%. Kevin Cruz, a former workaholic, came to this conclusion. In the process of working on the book “15 secrets of time management. How successful people manage to do everything” the author interviewed respondents who managed to reach career heights. Setting the bar to “good enough” increases the motivation to finish the job, rather than dig into the details and miss the deadline.

How perfectionism hinders business

• Unnecessary fine-tuning takes time. The pace and productivity decrease, although the perfectionist works to the point of wear and tear, puts pressure on subordinates. Customers are unhappy with missed deadlines. The product becomes more expensive due to an unjustified increase in production time, loses competitiveness.
• An expectation of ideal external conditions that guarantee success. The company does not develop because the leader is afraid to spoil the image, to fail. Less scrupulous clients at this time act: take risks, make mistakes, learn from their own experience and grow.
• Tense atmosphere in the team. In pursuit of the ideal, the leader strives to control every step of his subordinates, stands above the soul. Makes edits as work moves towards completion. He feverishly takes on alterations.
• Demoralization of employees. A perfectionist reacts so painfully to failures that he blows up ordinary problems to catastrophe proportions.
• Because of the attitude to strictly follow one’s own rules, one loses the ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, to see different options for solving a problem. Flexibility, willingness to innovate are the ingredients of a thriving business.
• Professional burnout, depression. Doing work does not bring joy, satisfaction to the perfectionist. The bar is too high. Everything that falls short of it is perceived as a failure.

How to curb perfectionism

• Separate your ideal from the client’s tasks you are paid to solve.
• Compare the resources spent on the creation of goods or services and the result, set a limit for improvements. You invest in business, including for the sake of profit. Editing should not take 5 times more time than the main work, and bring the team to a nervous breakdown. Unprofitable perfectionism is the enemy of business.
• Delegate authority to employees, trust, give the freedom necessary to grow in the profession.
• Defeat your inner critic. Elizabeth Lombardo in Better than Perfect. How to curb perfectionism” recommends avoiding extremes in assessments, developing realistic optimism, going beyond the usual, regarding failures as a useful experience, not comparing yourself with others.
• Evaluate intermediate results, record achievements.
• Recognize perfectionism as part of your personality. Designating a problem is a step towards a solution.
• Praise yourself not only for big accomplishments, but also for small daily victories.
• Make realistic plans.
• Filter the information field. Examples of the triumph of other people can not only inspire, but also cause envy, destroy self-esteem. Business development depends not only on the personal and professional qualities of a person, hard work. Starting opportunities, environment, health, luck are just as important.
• See a therapist if trying to deal with perfectionism on your own doesn’t work.

And if you have any questions about the article, write in the comments. You will be answered directly by the author or a subject matter specialist from our state.