Don't strive for perfection, aim for good enough

Recently, I reviewed a strategy document outlining our next steps for our company's Sales Platform. A teammate had been working on this document for nearly two weeks.

Within the first five minutes, I was disappointed. I couldn't understand why it took two weeks to produce something so off-target. Initially, I felt angry with my teammate. In a startup, two weeks is an eternity. After my emotions settled, I remembered the adage, "As the leader, the buck stops with me."

So, what was the root cause?

Perfectionism.

From a young age, we are encouraged to be perfectionists. This mindset is ingrained in us through school. Remember writing essays and submitting them for grading? You always aimed for perfection.

When you enter the workforce, you carry this perfectionist mentality into your tasks.

Sometimes, we take it too far. We create unnecessary work in the pursuit of perfection.

So, what's the solution?

Drafting and iterative feedback.

Imagine you're planning a birthday party. Begin by outlining the high-level tasks: the date, the venue, the theme and dress code. Share this outline with a friend or partner and ask for their input.

They'll suggest additions and subtractions. They also point out that you missed an important point where there are people who must come for the birthday (Sam's best friend, Sam's mom) whose schedule needs to match up with the date, time and location.

In the next iteration, you can go into more details.

How long the party goes for, what time should you ask guest to come? What type of allergies to watch out for? What dietary restrictions are there for the guests? How to get RSVP from guests?

Share this draft again for feedback.

With each iteration, you ensure that everyone's expectations are met and managed.

By trusting this process, you'll achieve excellence, but not immediately. The inner perfectionist may tempt you to spend too much time on each iteration, create unnecessary work, procrastinate through excessive research, or avoid the task altogether.

You'd notice your inner perfectionist creeping up on you in each iteration in tempting you to delay getting feedback.

It'll make you doublethink the guest list. It'll make you create unnecessary work by providing suggestions for birthday gifts. It'll make you procrastinate on little inconsequential decisions like stating the dress code exactly instead of saying ballroom or casual. It'll make you get into too many details in a particular iteration like specifying exactly what toppings should be in the pizza instead of just saying 20 Hawaiian and 20 Bacon Cheese.

Overcoming this challenge requires courage.

The courage to be good enough!