Vitale Buford Hardin
Symptoms of perfectionism can include unrealistic expectations, fear of failure, procrastination, control, people-pleasing, self-criticism, conflict avoidance, feeling stuck, imposter syndrome, indecision and anxiety.
Perfectionism impacts 92 percent of people, according to a recent study commissioned by The Hardin Group and conducted by the Social Research Lab at the University of Northern Colorado.* Perfectionism is pervasive. It does not distinguish between a person’s personal and professional lives. In the workplace, perfectionism impacts your leaders, your culture, and ultimately, your bottom line.
In fact, 86 percent of leaders believe perfectionist expectations impact their work. Some examples might be a leadership team that struggles with work/life boundaries or people who struggle to say “no” to unrealistic expectations and timelines. Team members may fear failure and lack confidence in their roles, or a manager lacks the skills to mitigate conflict and handle difficult conversations. Employees may be afraid to share ideas or speak up, and there may be low levels of engagement, motivation and trust.
According to the study, 66 percent of workplaces have cultures of perfectionism and one-third of employees are thinking of leaving because of perfectionist expectations. Perfectionism impacts leaders’ abilities to innovate, contributes to feelings of burnout and hinders our creativity, productivity, relationships, confidence, teachability and sense of belonging. It creates workplaces that lack trust, collaboration, psychological safety, e.ciency, openness, accountability, clarity and adaptability.
And to all those who say it’s a “woman thing” — think again. The data showed higher percentages of perfectionism in those who identify as male versus those who identify as female. It’s a human thing.
Internal and external pressures drive perfectionism. Internal pressures include a desire to avoid failure or harsh judgment. External pressures include workplace and societal pressures to be, act and look perfect. We then allow these internal and external pressures to define who we are, the decisions we make and the life we lead.
If perfectionism is this big of a deal, then why aren’t we doing anything about it? The idea of perfectionism as a workplace issue is novel. Organizations that choose to lead with excellence — rather than expectations driven by perfectionism — will attract and retain the best talent.
The first step to fixing pervasive perfectionism in the workplace is realizing it’s a problem. Start getting curious about your workplace symptoms and issues and commit to making a change. Change is possible, but perfectionism isn’t cured overnight and it doesn’t fix itself. It takes endurance, buy-in and ownership from the top levels of leadership and a long-term commitment to systemic change.
An organization that embraces excellence over perfectionism values trust, accountability, integrity, clarity, communication and growth. It values the employees over the institution. It’s a growth-oriented organization that finds ways to improve and strive for excellence. It’s an organization that will win because it puts its people first.
* Research findings are based on data collection from a panel of 1,217 national survey participants, employed full-time between the ages of 25 and 55. The study was finalized in the spring of 2022 and is a combination of an electronic survey administered through the survey platform Qualtrics in December 2020, and 34 in-depth interviews conducted with diverse leaders in 2021.
Vitale Buford Hardin is a leadership consultant, strategic advisor and author of “Addicted to Perfect.” As CEO of The Hardin Group, a leadership consulting firm, she empowers teams and companies to transform the way they work, produce and relate. She can be reached at vitale@thehardingroup.co.