As part of our series exploring personal struggles and how they can affect your working life and career progression, including self-sabotage, risk aversion and self-worth, this blog focusses on the problem of perfectionism.

Perhaps not obvious as a negative issue, as the word itself suggests it is associated with the idea of making things ‘perfect’, the behaviour can cause negative outcomes and even have an effect on an individual’s mental health. However, recognising the symptoms and finding ways to overcome them can be a step in the right direction.

What is perfectionism

Perfectionism is the behaviour of refusing to accept any output which is short of a perfect and holding yourself, or sometimes also others, to a standard of work which is often both unrealistic but also, more importantly, unnecessary for a particular situation. This can be an issue for an individual as it can create constant feelings of failure by not living up to their own needlessly high standards and also cause unnecessary time pressures where a person is spending far more time on a simple task than is warranted for the appropriate outcome. When it is also projected onto others, it can result in poor leadership and unhappy employees. Both situations defeat the objective of being ‘perfect’ as, in reality, you may well be seen to be doing a worse job by an outside observer.

Recognising the symptoms

Symptoms of perfectionist behaviour include:

·       Spending too much time overthinking simple decisions,

·       Avoiding or abandoning tasks which you think may not result in a perfect outcome,

·       Seeking constant approval for your own work or being overly critical of others.

Of course, it is important in the workplace to generate good quality output, therefore, holding yourself and others to a high standard can be necessary for producing excellent work. However, people suffering from perfectionism to a level where it becomes intrusive to their lives, often only see things in black and white where anything between right/wrong, good/bad doesn’t exist.This can create a situation where it becomes almost impossible to be satisfied with both their own efforts or/and the work of others.

Overcoming issues caused by perfectionism

The most important step to overcoming issues created by perfectionism, is realising that perfect outcomes in the majority of situations are not realistic, achievable or necessary. It is also key to recognise that it is not fair on yourself or others to expect a standard of work which is not required and just creates additional stress for yourself or your team and can lead to anxiety and burnout for all involved.

As with other personal behavioural struggles, being self-aware about your perfectionist tendencies will help you to acknowledge that you have an issue. Once you recognise the problem, try to catch yourself doing it in order to allow you the opportunity to reassess what you are trying to achieve.A useful strategy can be to give yourself a timeframe to produce the best work you can in a set period and accept that the piece is the finished ‘product’ when the time is up.

Another helpful way to look at things is to consider what the overall, long-term objective of a piece of work is and how much difference will it make if you spend more time and effort on one specific task. This can help to avoid agonising over small details which will make little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Finally, give yourself a break and assume that if no one else in your organisation has identified a problem with your work, then it is likely to be of a sufficiently high and acceptable standard. Your boss is bound to let you know if they think there is an issue with your output and your peers and employees will thank you for empathising with their ability to produce work which is appropriate for the brief even if it is not ‘perfect’ in your eyes, hopefully creating a more pleasant working environment for all along the way.

Look out for the final blog in our personal battles series coming soon.

If you think that you are not reaching your full potential and want to review your career choices and development, get in touch today and find out how our expert career coaches can help you.