The Pathology of Perfection!

For every pathology there is an underlying biochemical defect.Scientific American

During the intake process for new clients I have a Client Intake Questionnaire (CIQ) that delves into their mindset, thinking, imprinting, and their own biases. Clients often tell me upon onboarding how much it helped them become self-aware and how much it helped them where they struggle, now with much better clarity than they had, before even our first meeting, as result of their own honest responses to the CIQ.

One of the items that comes up often in response to the questions is on their Development, Barriers to growth, where they feel stuck, or Performance Review sections in the CIQ. In responses to any of these items, some admit how pursuing perfectionism in their jobs has not only held them back, but also has caused deep internal struggle in their everyday functioning, often resulting in stress, resentment from others in their workgroup, and performance issues for them (I never finish a task; my manager has to yank it out of my To-do list).

Over the years after working with thousands of clients this illusory pursuit of perfectionism has come up with so many clients that I thought it might be worth writing about, just in case there are others who suffer from it, but are afraid to admit that they do.

Let us first see the dictionary definition of perfection: OED defines Perfect (adjective) as free from any flaw or defect of quality; in a state of supreme excellence. If you now take this definition and apply it to your everyday tasks you can at once see the problem creating or delivering anything perfect (and, who cares?). To create anything free of flaw or defect is near impossibility. Even nature fails to produce perfect examples of what she creates with her infinite resources and patience. So, who are we, as mortals, to challenge that paradigm?

Most perfectionists fail to realize that by pursuing perfectionism they have unwittingly surrendered themselves becoming more imperfect, since they can never achieve it; all the grief that it causes everyone involved in its attainment, aside. Part of the problem, too, is that their view of what perfection is, is also subjective, thus attaining perfection can be an illusory pursuit. So, what are some of the ways you can deal with this disease (see the blogs title and the Sci-Am quote)? Here is my prescription:

1. When taking on your next task clearly understand the requirements that define what makes that task complete. Most people do not bother to delve into the tasks requirements from the customer and then compound their own problem in dealing with it by making assumptions about what constitutes the completion of that task.
2. Once you meet the requirements given to you and agreed by both parties you apply your common sense and mutually refine them (if needed) BEFORE you start working on it. Remember that for you to deliver quality outcome you must meet the agreed requirements and nothing more. Exceeding the requirements does not make the outcome of that task better; it can, actually, make it worse in many ways.

   As an example let us say that you are a physician and you have a patient walking in with high fever (104F or 40C). Your immediate job is to bring that down to the normal temperature (requirement). Normal temperature can be about (98F or 37C). As a perfectionist what are you going to do? Just think about its implications with you as a practitioner of medicine and as someone there to heal sick people.

3. If you encounter problems meeting the set requirements (timeline, resources, and other unforeseen situations) you must immediately regroup and forge a new plan to fashion the best solution to meet the critical and changed parameters of delivering your task. Most perfectionists fail here. They inevitably box themselves into their own little perfect mindset and concoct all sorts of approaches that constrain their efforts to attain what they consider to be their ideal solution to the problem. They further exacerbate their situation by often keeping it to themselves. If, instead, they escalate this to the team or their leader, chances are that someoneor collectivelythere will be a workable solution.
4. Most perfectionists have deep insecurities about their capabilities and they often manifest them through their arrogance or insolence. This creates a barrier for otherseven their managersto intervene when some remedy is possible to bring the task back on track early in the process. One countermeasure is for them to be open about their progress, need for help, and willingness to collaborate.
5. If you take the quotation at the top of the blog to heart youll realize that striving for perfection is a disease. Instead, striving for excellence is a virtue. So, see if you can re-program your mindset from perfection to excellence and work at it by using some of the ideas I have listed above.

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

Disclaimer: Please use this channel at your own discretion. These articles are contributed by our users. We are not responsible or liable for any problems related to the utilization of information of these articles.