Leadership often comes with high expectations, both from ourselves and from others. The desire to excel and meet these expectations can sometimes lead us to chase an elusive goal: perfection. Every leader has this: whether you’re working for an employer or if you’re working for yourself, like a business, there’s always this expectation to strive harder, to do better. Even small things that maybe the average person doesn’t pick up on, they’ll want to perfect it.
This could be improving the parking lot for their storefront by hiring professionals from EverLine Coatings and Services, or it could be buying tailored suits with the hopes of looking perfect, even right down to the very small things like tone and pitch of voice. Sure, improvements in a business-oriented setting are always great and should be cheered on, but sometimes, there are limits.
However, striving for perfection can be counterproductive and detrimental to both your well-being and your leadership effectiveness. So, as a leader, how can you fight this urge for ever-changing perfection? Well, here’s what you need to know!
Is This a Problem?
When it comes to perfection, how is it for you? Are you wanting to perfect yourself as a whole? Are you wanting to perfect your business as a whole? Is it just small things, such as only working on the storefront, product, or website of your business? So, what is it are you wanting to focus on perfecting? Reflect on your leadership style and identify moments when your pursuit of perfection has hindered your effectiveness or caused stress. Is this actually a problem? Are you getting in the way of your business actually improving because of constant changes in the name of perfection?
Consider a Shift in Your Mindset
Sometimes, it’s all about your mindset, so it might be best to just replace the quest for perfection with a focus on excellence. You’ll need to understand that excellence allows room for learning, growth, and improvement, while perfection often leads to stagnation. So, start shutting out your inner complainer and begin shifting your mindset for the better.
Are Your Expectations Realistic?
This is expectations for everything: your performance, your team’s performance, how clients react, the product, the service, how the business functions and the list can go on and on. So, how realistic are your expectations for all of this? So, what you’ll need to do is set achievable goals and expectations for yourself and your team. You’ll need to recognize that mistakes are opportunities for learning and growth, and they are an inherent part of any leadership journey. It’s not a set backward or anything.
You’ll Need to Learn to Trust
If you’re a leader, then that means you’re leading others, but as a leader, you need to keep in mind that trust goes both ways. You’re immediately expecting your team to follow you, listen to what you say, and to trust your judgment. But here’s the thing: you’ll need to trust them too. You need to trust that they’ll do what you want, it might not be the exact way you want, but you need to trust that they’ll at least do it right.
Share this Post