Do you remember the days when people used perfectionism as an answer to the interview question – what is your weakness?

I do.   It was supposed to be a positive weakness. It became a cliché

Perfectionism, however, is a real challenge for many. Especially for many a leader who are stuck in a pattern of perfectionism. It might have served them well at an earlier stage in their career, when an attention detail, a drive to deliver the best quality work possible and work long hours helped them get ahead.

However now when they are in a leadership position themselves, perhaps in middle management, or above, they find themselves drowning. Drowning under their own expectations of excellence, the lack of trust in others’ ability to perform and the needs of the organization they serve.

They are exhausted and have begun to question their own ability to lead and deliver, and their own abilities overall. When we dig deeper into what is holding them back, it is perfectionism.

So what can you do to shift a perfectionistic mindset into a growth mindset?  A mindset built upon a belief that everyone can learn, be better and that mistakes are the greatest lessons.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Learn to identify your perfectionistic tendencies!
  • You have trouble delegating and trusting others to do a task well
  • You have extremely high expectations of yourself and others and only the absolute best is good enough – and could always be better.
  • You get increasingly anxious as a deadline looms, because the project will never be good enough to submit and finalize. You can’t sleep, you doubt yourself, your team and the quality of work done and you procrastinate.
  • When someone submits a piece of work to you for approval, you can not resist changing it, even if it could have been submitted as it was.
  • You tend to think in extremes. Something is either great or worthless

• Commit to taking small steps to gradually change your thinking, feeling and behavior
  • Shift your mindset – challenge yourself to accept that some things can be done less than perfect,  and let them go- see what happens next? Will the world end? No
  • Prioritize.  Evaluate each project, which one is it worth spending that added time and effort on and which ones can you let go of.  It really is about control.

• Create a system of quality review or a checklist
  • The purpose is to be in control and give yourself permission to let go.
  • Create a system of actions and steps to take, including reviews, asking for feedback from others, perform a risk assessment etc. Once you have followed your own system to ensure quality, then end the project and move on.

• Finally, learn to understand what the deeper reasons for your perfectionism are. What causes your anxiety? What are you afraid of? Once you have identified your fears you can learn how to manage them.

Perfectionism is the enemy of innovation & creativity. Playing with a new perspective can help us break free and discover a new world. Let’s commit to this.