04/08/2019
Greetings All, Edward Fotion here.
I wanted to share this thought with you in hopes that you will be more focused on the day's tasks and not with the day's frustrations.
It's been my experience that if you're one to set high and lofty goals for yourself and others, and no matter how hard you try putting that best foot forward; it seems that that pesky perfectionism keeps getting in the way and killing your productivity....Am I right? Maybe it just happens to me!
While striving for perfection can and does help you achieve the greatest results in some things, it can also be the very thing stopping your productivity or that of others on your team or those that you manage.
Here are some of the ways that this can happen.
Perfectionism Makes You Inefficient At Many Things
When the brain concentrates on wanting everything to be perfect; with the tasks that you do, or the people that you lead; even when you've completed those tasks, it will continue to focus on finding new ways that improvements can be made. This lingering process in your brain might start off as a quick ten-minute process but can quickly escalate until you find yourself spending an hour or more looking for things to improve. This causes you to spend way too much time on a simple task than was required and puts you immediately behind schedule. This is known as Analysis Paralysis! And it's a problem that kills time and effectiveness.
You Become Less Effective
To be an effective leader at your company or as an Entrepreneur, perfectionism is not your friend! Perfectionism isn't anyone's friend. Making constant adjustments that seem like a good idea to you at the time; usually doesn't stick to the vision, project goal, or long range plan that you or your manager laid out as the objective. The problem is when you're a perfectionist; you continuously fail to decide if those additions and minor changes are necessary. Sometimes, these minor additions and changes fail to add value and sometimes they might even ruin things all together. You must stop this perfectionism cycle.
Procrastination
When you're saddled with perfectionist tendencies, you often stall out and wait for the opportune time to act on something, which tends to over complicate the task or project at hand. What would be an easy thing, or just a thing, is now blown out of proportion, to the extent that it then becomes intimidating and overwhelming to you and your team. This causes everyone to procrastinate on working on it because you are waiting for the proverbial "perfect moment" before you even begin to plan or give assignments, or worse yet, express the vision. Unfortunately, the timing of this "perfect moment" never happens and the vision fades and the momentum is gone forever. This is one of the most destructive of bad habits!
Missing the Bigger Picture
Being wrapped around the axle can put you into a mindset where you are too hung up on the minutia or small details to drive the vehicle correctly. The tendency to forget about the bigger picture or the end game can be the result. You don't want to be so myopic that you forget about the coarse of the project or vision that you've employed. At the same time you want to be encouraging to your team and assist them to accomplish their goals without focusing to much on the little things that will slow everyone down.
You Fuss Over Unfounded Problems
Most perfectionists tend to anticipate problems before they crop up and develop solutions to address the issues that don't even exist yet. It can become obsessive to premeditate potential problems. Unfortunately, most of the problems that you can envision for your project or your team will never come to fruition and/or don’t have any real consequences. And the problems that do arise don't have near as much trouble as you thought they would.
Let me say this in closing...Striving to make a difference, staying ahead of your competition and being on top of your game, is a good thing! But, when the quest for perfection turns into this obsession I've been talking about; it will get the best of you...
Perfectionism will surely disrupt your productivity at home and at work; and it will have deep ramifications with the relationships you have with your team above you and below you. The answer to this isn’t to stop working to perfect your skills and techniques, but rather to be conscious of that perfectionist behavior and to control it to your benefit and the benefit of those around you!
Gratefully,
Edward Fotion
