039: Defeating Perfectionism

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Today I talk about perfectionism and how it limits our potential.

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perfectionism often comes from an insecurity. When we fear others only seek their approval, we can aim to be more perfect on our work, or not even started at all. But it actually detracts because we don't focus ourselves on the most important parts of the task, because we are trying to have an answer for everything. perfectionism, wastes time and effort. Please enjoy the episode. Welcome to the finance leader podcast where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. This is episode number 39. And I will be discussing defeating perfectionism. perfectionism is a limiting belief, and I'll be talking about the following.

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Number one, you are perfectionist due to an insecurity. Number two, perfectionism has a high opportunity cost. Number three, a perfectionist tries to fully account for what they don't control. And for progress over perfection, Gloria Steinem said, perfectionism is internalized oppression. This year has been on fire for me. After the new year and Episode 36. I talked about goal setting. Subsequent episodes, I've been discussing key issues so you can achieve those goals. I love talking about goal setting, because it's about possibilities and achieving your potential and achieving your purpose. Because you have a purpose. In Episode 37, I challenge you to be more coachable. Because a coach can help us see things we can't in our performance. Our coaches see us in a different way. And we need this perspective to change and to move on, and to develop and improve our goals. Last week, I focused on limiting beliefs, which are beliefs that may be holding us back. There are so many ways we are holding ourselves back. And we are robbing ourselves of our potential, we are robbing ourselves of achieving those goals that we have set for ourselves. And we have more work to do in the coming weeks. And we need to continue to improve.

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Every week, we're going to solidify our goals and get really good at listening to feedback. And then applying it to our career. We have lots of work to do. Today, we are talking about perfectionism. And it's a deeper dive into the limiting beliefs that I discussed last week.

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perfectionism robs you of time, and energy and peace while you continue to work a task that was already good enough probably hours before, or maybe you didn't even start. Because you're worried about judgment, good enough can still be at a high level of excellence. If you focus on what the heart of the task is. And the greatest impact you can have in the shortest amount of time. Focus on over delivering quality, instead of quantity is what you are including add value to the final product. How much extra information? Do you have this extra information also waste the time of the person who is reading your work product, stick to the most important pieces of information that are relevant and add value? How many of you obsess over a task even after it is complete? Or obsess over a task? before you even get started? Do you get stuck in how you will even face the challenge of a task? You don't know how to start or worried about the outcome? before you send a task answer or file? Do you suffer an agony before hitting send on the email. And then a few minutes later, you might open the email multiple times, thinking you misspelled a word or didn't write coherently. You obsess over it, then no one responds for hours or even days, they might have felt your email and work product was horrible and that you didn't even deserve a response. Do you ever feel like that? Do you feel like this sometimes or all the time you feel like that after you send that work product that you toiled and spent time over? The you tried to answer every possible way, what the task was asking you to do. And this robs you of peace. And that robs you of potential for something that you have that's even greater in your career to come. In the army we coach and we teach leaders to develop a 60 to an 80% solution to a problem or a plan because we know things are gonna change.

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Trying to develop the perfect plan is a waste of time and it takes away valuable time from subordinate leaders plans change, especially during execution. And there's definitely a loss in returns for when we spend too much time on a task. I had to learn this over and over again during my army career. always rely on your training and the experience. You Continue to gain, follow the established processes and ask for help when you need to, I figured out that I don't have all the answers and asking for help is better for the organization, when you truly get stuck at an obstacle. Now let's discuss how we can stop having the need to be perfect all the time. Number one, you are a perfectionist due to an insecurity, you have a need for control, or you have a fear of not measuring up to others.

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Maybe you have a fear of losing out on something, something that's greater something you want in your career or a goal.

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And you have to be perfectionist in order to measure up to that.

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Are you worried about being judged? Do you think that every submission of a completed task that you're going to be fired, your supervisor is not even thinking about that, if you get no feedback about a task, I want you to really embrace the old saying that no news is good news. If you get no immediate feedback about a task, your supervisor is extremely busy, especially if your supervisor is an executive. It's also possible your supervisor may be an extreme micromanager, which is on the opposite end of what I hope which probably results in your insecurities. But that requires a different conversation, and a coaching session to determine what you should really do. The need to be perfect often refers back to imposter syndrome, where you don't think you're good enough or smart enough to perform your jobs. So you overdo the task to cover everything. And then you rewrite and rewrite and recalculate and recalculate everything, everything you are working on. You recheck every cell of that spreadsheet, because you believe you have not answered it, you believe you're not good enough, you believe that you're not good enough to complete the task you were asked to do. And number two, perfectionism has a high opportunity cost, you probably waste time on individual projects or tasks, when a task could be done in an hour or so.

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So you probably take three hours. Sometimes a task doesn't take a lot of time, but you are taking too much time trying to provide information when it isn't even needed. Or it doesn't add any real value to the final product. This needs to be perfect might even prevent you from starting in the first place. You are trying to cover everything, or you don't even know how to start, it becomes overwhelming to you, because you're trying to think of everything. And then you're going to be judging yourself for what you may end up being the final product. But you need to work on what is the most important. And what you are asked to do. Every additional minute you waste on a project is one less minute you have on the next project. And one less minute you have to achieve excellence, excellence can be achieved with less information than more information, its quality and impact over quantity. Number three, a perfectionist tries to fully account for what they don't control. And you can't really control everything anyway. So you've got to get that out of your mind, you can only control what you have responsibility for you are trying to control the reaction of the recipient of whatever you are working on. And that's not going to happen.

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Focus on what you are being asked to do. And over deliver on the quality, be confident in your abilities. And know that if you weren't good enough, you probably would be gone already.

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And number four, and I talked about this last week, and we're going to talk about it briefly again. And that is progress over perfection. Learn to draft out your work product without worry, without pouring self judgment on yourself with every word. And every step you take and every calculation. And every time you put a number into a cell on a spreadsheet, get started on the task, shake off the judgment in your head, and I'll say it again, shake off the judgment in your head, just get the task started. And then you can go back and you can make some improvements, but at least get started. Getting started is a huge first step for the perfectionist. Now this all wastes time and energy when you don't get started. And you worry about the judgment that's in your head, know what impact your work will have and focus their focus on the impact of the task you are being asked to do. Maybe it's a routine task. Maybe it's a report that you do every week, but you just get this feeling that I need to be perfect. They need to account for everything I want you to focus on over delivering on the quality and not the quantity, the number that you calculate or the insights that you derive or whatever else that you are being asked to work on. Figure out the sowhat of the problem you are being asked and focus on that over deliver on the quality of the sowhat of the task. keep improving your situation, keep improving your skills, keep improving everything that you do and you need to learn to let it go. Let go of the stress once you can Complete the project or task and then move on to the next task.

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Defenders of being perfect, say they perform at a higher level, which can be true, but you take way too much time, which then takes away from something else.

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That extra effort that you're putting into try to answer everything is really going to be diminishing returns on the next task, or even in the tasks you're working on. Now, it may not really add any true value to the recipient of whatever you're sending to you have too much on your plate every day to spend so much time on one task, you have to spend extra time then do it on the most important tasks first, and which have the greatest impact for quick and easy tasks, get them done quick and then move on. Now for an easy win today. For the next project or big task you have, I want you to follow the following checklist. Number one, ensure you know exactly what you're being asked to do. Number two, I want you to write out a checklist of the requirements.

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Now this is critical write out that checklist of everything you are being asked to do. Number three, plan out the execution of the task. Number four, gather the information that you need.

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Number five, ask for help where you need to number six, complete the task based on your training and experience and what you are being asked to do. Number seven, verify that you completed every requirement based on what you were asked to do. Go back to that checklist you did in number two. Number eight, prepare the answer to be sent. Number nine, I want you to send it and don't think about it again. Move on to the next task, which is the toughest part about it. Just send it move on. focus your energy on the next task, mark this task off your list it's done, mark it off, put a line through it, check it off, you are done with it, you are moving on. I have a free guide for you.

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It's called the leadership growth blueprint for finance and accounting managers. In the guide I talked about three leadership areas communication, team growth, and empowerment.

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Plus a few recommendations around challenges with the systems you are probably using to complete your work. The link to the guide is in the episode description. Or you can go to Stephen mclain.com. Please use it to help you with a few leadership wins today. Thank you. This episode is sponsored by my new online course offering through finance leader Academy.

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It's called adventure finance and accounting career developing a promotion strategy that will set you apart. Are you having difficulty getting recognition from your leadership despite all the hard work you pour into your job and your organization. This course helps you analyze what you bring to the organization, how you can set yourself apart from your peers through high visibility work and developing your leadership skills. Plus how you can devise a strategy to move ahead please go to Stephen McLain calm. For more details.

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Today I talked about overcoming perfectionism and discuss the following points. Number one, you are a perfectionist due to an insecurity. Number two, perfectionism has a high opportunity cost. Number three, a perfectionist tries to fully account for what they don't control and for progress over perfection. Now fighting perfectionism is tough. The need to be perfect is rooted in worry that you don't measure up or you will be judged, you might believe that you are in danger of being fired after every task because you didn't do enough.

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You are not in danger.

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perfectionism robs you of peace.

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Rely on your training and experience to complete your work. Trust yourself, trust your work. After a task is done. Move on, you don't have time to dwell on that last task. You have to move on. You have to find peace.

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And you have to defeat this need to be perfect with everything that you do. Just over deliver on the quality. Find that great insight, make it brief, get it down in whatever form you have to deliver, write that email, send it and forget it and move on to the next task. Next week, I will be discussing about stop playing safe in your career. So you can achieve your goals and achieve your potential. And it's about taking risk. I've talked about taking risk before and we're really going to focus on stop playing safe with what you're doing right now you have to get out of that comfort zone and move on so you can have more opportunities to advance and develop out those skills and develop out your experience so you can get the next big job. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast dedicated to helping you grow your leadership. I hope you enjoyed the show. You can get this episode wherever you find podcasts. Until next time, you can check out more resources at Stephen McLain calm and sign up for my updates so you don't miss an episode of the show. And now go lead your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you

039: Defeating Perfectionism

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