Are You a Perfectionist? Is That Always a Bad Thing?

Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/signs-you-may-be-a-perfectionist-3145233

In Fast Company this week, University of Texas Professor Art Markman describes some of the pitfalls of being a perfectionist. He writes, "It’s wonderful to have high standards. But, at some point, those high standards cross the line from a benefit to a hindrance." Throughout the article, he describes some symptoms that might suggest you have crossed that line. He concludes the article as follows:

"Success in life is less about mistake elimination than about mistake recovery. Do enough work on projects to know that you have covered the major bases. Focus on detecting problems that come up after the work you do. Fix problems as they arise. And if you discover that a problem reflects an error on your part, apologize for the error, take steps to repair the problem, and make a note of it so that you don’t make that mistake again."

London School of Economics Professor Thomas Curran has studied perfectionism for years.  In article for the LSE website, Peter Carrol describes Curran's comments about the downsides of crossing the line from high standards to perfectionism:

"Each form of perfectionism comes with 'negative baggage' Dr Curran says, but this is particularly acute with those that suffer from socially prescribed perfectionism. 'Socially prescribed perfectionists don’t feel valued in social situations and have a chronic need for other people’s approval, while being extremely down on their implicit value,' he says.

While some may view perfectionism as a 'necessary evil' that helps people become become highly successful, Dr Curran argues that this is a myth, and that in fact perfectionism can be detrimental to performance and health. 'There is a lot of evidence to say you are not going to get any real performance benefit from perfectionism, and that it’s actually really damaging for lots of people,' he adds."

I think Markman and Curran offer some important insights about the downsides of perfectionism.  I believe, however, that we have to distinguish between easily preventable errors and other types of mistakes that might occur.  Submitting a memo that has multiple spelling and grammatical errors is inexcusable.  Proofing the memo carefully is essential.    Moreover, the stakes will differ across a variety of situations.  Our level of perfectionism should vary by situation. If the downsides of failure are quite low, then we don't want obsess over every detail to the point of creating undue anxiety or stress of ourselves and our team.  On the other hand, if the stakes are quite high, we might want to change our standards.  Finally, we all have to get better at setting priorities.  What really matters in a piece of work that we are doing?  The substance probably matters much more than the wordsmithing, or the formatting of the slide deck.  I believe that we sometimes obsess over things such as formatting because we are trying to distract ourselves from the tougher issues or choices that need to be confronted in a particular situation.