Good Enough versus Perfectionism

Two attitudes that can cripple a career are "Good Enough" and "Perfectionism."

The first one may seem obvious but it can hide within the pressure of deadlines and multiple priorities. "Wrap it up and get it out the door" often makes sense and yet its attractiveness should also breed caution. "Good enough" may not truly be so and overwhelmed managers and employees can be a tad too eager to slap it on mediocre work. Taking a break and revisiting the project or having it reviewed by another person can help to reveal the product's real level of quality.

Perfectionism is equally harmful because it can produce paralysis. No matter how high the quality, there is always one more item to polish and one more point to tweak. Consider some of the classic novels that are honored as important contributions to civilization. Do you think that Dickens or Tolstoy thought their books were perfect? Probably not. Despite the number of previous drafts, had they gone back over their manuscripts one more time it is likely that they would have wanted to change at least a word here or there. They knew, however, that the work was the finest they could produce at that time and so off it went to the publisher.

I haven't seen any empirical studies on these two attitudes but in my experience seasoned veterans are susceptible to the Good Enough attitude while younger employees are prone to be felled by Perfectionism.

Regardless of how many years we have in the workplace, it makes sense to be on the alert for both of them.