L’ensemble des contenus Business Digest est exclusivement réservé à nos abonnés.
Nous vous remercions de ne pas les partager.

Change, Self-efficacy, Performance, Action Tip

20 November 2023

Action Tip

Tone down your perfectionism

Perfectionism is a downright plague: it’s synonymous with counter-productive behavior, mental distress, and the inability to work in a climate of collaboration and caring for others. These are some of the good reasons to tone down your perfectionism!

Based on

The Perfection Trap : The Power of Good Enough in a World That Always Want More by Thomas Curran (Scribner, 2023).

1/ UNMASK PERFECTIONISM

There’s a good chance you won’t spot perfectionism if you associate it with compulsive behaviors such as re-reading an unimportant email 10 times before hitting send: it takes forms that are much more subtle!

It’s multi-faceted. Perfectionism isn’t only about having exacting standards. Its world view, based on total control, is unattainable and unrealistic. But it’s sometimes difficult to spot, because it can take so many different forms. A perfectionist may be muddle-headed and always run late, precisely because of excessively high standards.
It’s well hidden. Ask a perfectionist how they’re doing, and they’ll say: “I’m totally submerged” – and will take a degree of pride in it – or they’ll settle for “I’m managing” i.e. they’re still in denial.
Perfectionism is difficult to uncover, and is more often identified by its many and varied manifestations, such as depression, exhaustion, psychological harassment, eating disorders, anxiety, and so forth. But it’s not sexist: it’s found in men and women in equal measure!