Is being a perfectionist at work serving you well?

Let’s paint a picture, shall we? You’ve been working tirelessly on a presentation that a client requested on an urgent basis. It is 35 slides of well-researched, colour-coded data. It’s a masterpiece. If this presentation would fit, you would print it out and stick it on your fridge for all to see. The deadline approaches and you check and recheck it before hitting send. Most people would relax and take a break at this point, but not you.

You start reading through it again. This time, you notice a comma missing on slide 4, a spelling error on slide 22, and a slight formatting problem on slide 30. Panic sets in followed by its two best friends-guilt and shame. All you see now are those three mistakes and you spend hours playing out every extreme scenario in your head of how it will be perceived. However, just knowing there’s nothing you can do to fix it is going to keep you up at night because, at the end of the day, perfectionism is a double-edged sword.

Sure, aiming to do flawless work consistently (almost like your life depended on it) seems like a good path to forge for your career. And, for the most part, it is. Every now and then we come across a colleague who boasts of being a perfectionist to separate themselves from the herd and stand out as the star employee. They work impossible hours, nitpick everything, and set such lofty goals for themselves that even Superman would have trouble keeping up. These people might be the boss's pet but they burn out faster than a rusty old lantern does on Diwali.

We aren’t just saying that. Research done by York St John University over a span of 20 years found that perfectionism is linked to not only burnout but also depression, anxiety and in extreme cases, mortality. So, whether you realise it or not, perfectionism has some significant downsides. It’s poetic, really. The very trait that keeps you from making even the smallest mistake might be the biggest barrier to your growth.

Having said that, there is also research that shows “healthy perfectionism” motivates people to pursue high performance and be spontaneous and persistent. People at this green level on the perfectionism scale tend to be self-starters and are more willing to demonstrate innovative behaviours. The question that arises here is what is the cut-off? At what point does healthy perfectionism turn into the beginning of the end for a person’s mental well-being?

To get to the bottom of this once and for all, we spoke to Rajiv Talreja, business coach and founder of Quantum Leap Learning Solutions Pvt Ltd who said, “If a particular team member is a perfectionist, then you can count on them for excellence and high-quality output. However, when this becomes the operating factor for an individual, it’s a sign of danger. The turning point is when they think they can do the job better than anyone else. So they refuse to delegate work and set unreachable targets. The truth about business is that it is not a game of perfectionism, it is a game of progress, where version one is better than version none.”

If everything that we’ve talked about here is setting off sirens in your head, you might need to get out from under this entrapment. It’s crucial to understand that your perfectionism is not the wind beneath your wings. It’s the rock tied to your foot.

How does perfectionism hold you back?

Perfectionism is demotivating

Continuously striving for flawless excellence can be a great driving force but when you, like Icarus, start flying too close to the sun… well, we know how that story ends. With goals that are unattainable, you’ll never feel like you’re good enough which will make you strive harder and harder until your brain is too clogged to function, thus leaving you burnt-out and demotivated.

You’ll get farther in your career if you set goals that are within your reach and strive to be perfect while keeping your limits in mind. This way you’ll be at the top of your game, fully motivated to go the distance.

Perfectionism hinders growth

When you spend too much time fixating on one mistake or when you aren’t willing to delegate because you can’t trust anyone else, you end up putting too much pressure on yourself. After that it’s a slippery slope. Talreja explains this by saying, “They end up putting too much pressure on themselves and they restrict their own growth. It gets tough for them to break out of their comfort zone which ultimately hinders growth.”

When your mind keeps getting stuck in the vicious “what if” loop, you won’t be proactive. You’d be stuck in various ruts simultaneously. To ensure that this doesn’t hinder your growth, you could adopt a mantra. Tell yourself that “done is better than perfect” and condition yourself to celebrate every job well done, even if it isn’t flawless.

  

Perfectionism keeps you from being a good manager

A manager needs to be able to trust, delegate and not fixate-everything perfectionists have trouble with. Talreja says, “In a management role, perfectionism becomes a hindrance because your patience level reduces when things are not done the perfect way.”

The solution

Now that we’ve explored the darker side of perfectionism, it’s only fair that we tell you how you can pull yourself out of it. Sure, learning to let go and setting numerous smaller goals rather than a gigantic one helps, but the most important thing to do is to keep telling yourself that you aren’t your work. It’s something most of today’s workforce is guilty of. Having your self-worth solely dependent on how well you do at work is what has led to this uncontrollable need to control everything, be perfect and, of course, high anxiety levels.