Why the Best Leaders Focus on Progress Instead of Perfection

There is a common belief that you must be perfect to succeed.

While it’s accurate that great performances like presentations, recitals, or sales pitches can often look perfect, they never are.

Regardless of the size, there are always incremental ways to improve. However, most people act and think like they are falling short because they aren’t perfect.

Take Martha, a sales manager in a high-growth technology company, as an example. After five years as an enterprise sales rep, she finally got her shot to lead a team.  Instead of looking through the lens of progress, she demanded perfection.

She highlighted even the most minor errors with her reps and rarely provided recognition for a job well done.  Her team hated working for her because it felt like it didn’t matter what they did; Martha found something wrong.  Eventually, high turnover and lack of team performance caught up with her, and she was let go.  If only Martha had a coach or manager who helped her see that perfection isn’t possible. If achieving perfection was her only measure of success, she would miss the point of what she was doing altogether.

Perfection isn't possible, and if achieving perfection is the only measure of success, you will miss the point of your actions.

Unfortunately, the mindset of wanting and or needing things to be perfect doesn’t stop with new sales managers; it is an epidemic among leaders and professionals.

What is Perfection?

Perfection is defined as the action or process of improving something until it is faultless or as faultless as possible. While the definition isn’t all that scary, no one currently living is faultless or even close to it. The word perfection comes from the Latin word perficere, meaning “to complete,” which has nothing to do with being faultless.

Perfection is cruel because it seems attainable, but in reality, it’s impossible. It’s even more impossible over long periods versus small moments in time.

The reality is that perfection doesn’t help you; it hurts you. It creates unrealistic expectations that further prevent you from performing at your best. Instead of focusing on perfection, pivot to progress.

The reason is that a perfection mindset is outcome-focused, but a progress mindset is process-focused. That’s important because the best leaders and performers are processed-focused instead of outcome-focused.

The best leaders are processed-focused instead of outcome-focused.

Striving for Progress vs Demanding Perfection

Most managers fail at leadership because they demand perfection instead of embracing progress. This is a massive problem because the best leaders understand that progress compounds. Small gains over time lead to big wins in the future. Said differently:

Be patient with outcomes and impatient with progress.

As if that weren’t enough, the research shows a business impact of having a progress mindset vs. a perfection mindset.

• Employees in growth-oriented environments are 47% more likely to say they are happy at work

• Businesses that prioritize improvement over perfection experience 21% higher profitability

Being a leader who looks for progress creates a culture of growth, improvement, positivity, and constant improvement. Conversely, demanding perfection causes anxiety, depression, and people who never meet their potential. If that weren’t bad enough, it causes team members to burn out and quit themselves and their jobs.

So whether you are a manager or simply trying to perform at a higher level, I want you to write down the following somewhere you can see it throughout the following week.

You must be willing to be imperfect even to get close to perfection.

Said differently, you have to be willing to be imperfect to make progress. You must be ready to struggle, fail, learn, and overcome to perform at your best. If you are lucky enough to have a leader who prioritizes progress over perfection, it will help you persevere when you feel like a failure.

Closing

Becoming a leader who constantly strives for progress over perfection will take work. No one wants to make mistakes, errors or fail at something they care about.  But if you want to reach your potential and help others, it’s time to get comfortable with a different mindset.