Perry Haan: Pursuit of perfection increasing — and that's not good
Perfection is something that many, especially business owners and managers, often strive for.
Recent studies show that an increasing number of people are trying to achieve perfection.
Managers, like all humans, are not perfect and this pursuit of perfection can be harmful to their businesses and themselves.
It is difficult to distinguish between conscientious high achievers and unhealthy perfectionists. Perfectionists are often motivated by fear of failure and reach for high goals to prove their self-worth to others.
The pursuit of perfection is not a practical business strategy. The law of diminishing returns says that at a certain point, an increase in effort will not produce significant gains.
The challenge is to know where the point of diminishing returns lie. Managers need to know how far they go on a project before they decide what they have done is “good enough” and their time is better spent on the next task.
Perfectionists are often unable to prioritize choices. Perfectionists want total control and do not trust others.
Perfectionists might think they are morally obligated to overdeliver. They often set higher standards for themselves than what is considered necessary. This can be driven by anxiety, insecurity or impostor syndrome.
Another problem is that perfectionists only form new habits if they think they can stick to them all the time. For example, it is not acceptable to them to take a day off from their workout routine because they do not feel well.
This pursuit of perfection often starts in childhood. A push by parents for their children to always be the best in everything they do is believed to be one of the causes of people believing they should accomplish unreachable goals. This can lead to anxiety, depression and other health problems.
Perfectionism can also be a survival skill. Some people haven’t had the luxury of active and involved parents or strong role models and have always had to work extra hard to achieve their goals, take care of themselves or help themselves out of poverty or crisis, according to Erin Dean, professor of counseling and psychology at Tiffin University in Ohio.
Managers who are shooting for perfection might also have trouble making decisions. The increased amount of information available to managers today might lead to “analysis paralysis.”
Dean said perfectionism is often labeled as the first of the three Ps in an often relentless cycle: perfectionism, procrastination and paralysis.
“Setting the bar extraordinarily high can leave one feeling intimidated, even when the goal is self-imposed," Dean said.
“This often leads to delaying work, better known as procrastination,” Dean said.
Sometimes this continued productive procrastination leads to total paralysis on the end goal.
One suggestion for stopping this at the “perfectionism” stage is to set small, realistic, measurable and achievable goals, rather than looking at a project in its entirety.
“If we look at all of the changes we need to make across all areas of our lives, this can be overwhelming and intimidating, so it’s important to break larger goals down to smaller, realistic objectives that can be achieved on the way to a final, bigger end goal” according to Dean.
Managers’ fear of making a mistake leads to seeking more and more information before deciding what to do. This can lead to lost opportunities while the information is being sought.
Managers need the mental agility to shift between focus and awareness. Focus is the ability to pay to attention to the job at hand and successfully execute the task. Awareness is the ability to look at the bigger picture and anticipate changes in the future.
Perry Haan is Watertown native. He is Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Tiffin University in Ohio. He can be reached at haanpc@tiffin.edu.
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Perfectionism, procrastination, paralysis can hinder production
