Perfectionism at Work: Why Done Beats Perfect Every Time

I have a confession to make.

I am almost finished with my Master's Degree in Human Resource Management. My final class before I graduate has me writing a research paper, and the topic could not be more fitting for what I do every single day: Effective Training Design: Examining Behavioral Change and Skill Retention.

I love the topic. I love the research. I love where it is going. I cannot wait to finish so I can really dig into what I have found and start turning it into implementation ideas I can share with businesses, organizations, and the people leading them.

Here is my confession: on every other assignment in this class (discussion postings, summaries, all of it) I have gotten 100%.

On my research paper? Anywhere from 94 to 96%.

And every single time I log in to check my grade, I am disappointed.

Read that again.

I see a 94% on my graduate research paper and I feel disappointed.

When a 94% feels like a failure, something has gone sideways in how we measure success.

I know how ridiculous that sounds. I can say it out loud: it makes zero difference. My grade in the class is an A. It will stay an A. The final grade will be an A. And yet, 94%? I want to do better. How crazy is that?

The Performance Evaluation Trap

A trap in the woods that someone could fall in.

Here is where it gets even more interesting. If you have ever evaluated someone else's performance, you already know you should not give everyone the highest score. Outstanding performance deserves recognition, absolutely. But so does room for improvement. You cannot have meaningful feedback if everyone always gets a perfect mark.

Now flip it around.

When YOU receive a performance evaluation and you do not get the highest possible score, how do you feel? Like you were shortchanged. Like you could have done better. Like the person evaluating you missed something.

Also crazy. But also completely normal.

Here is the thing about grades, scores, and ratings that we seem to collectively forget: by definition, a C is average. Passing. Acceptable. And yet how many of us would feel okay about a C? In school, at work, in performance reviews? Not many. We have somehow decided that anything less than the top is a problem, and we carry that belief around everywhere without ever questioning it.

Perfectionism at Work Is Costing You More Than You Think

I have lived this in my own career more times than I can count. Let me give you a few examples that might sound familiar.

I have been working on a policy manual that could make everything perfectly accessible to every employee. It could be organized beautifully, easy to search, simple to navigate. Do you know why it is still not done? Because I have not found exactly the right platform to make it work the way I envision. So it sits. And employees continue without the resource I want to give them.

Then there were the job descriptions. I spent way too long trying to get them just right. The language, the structure, the accuracy of every single duty listed. And then we had to post the jobs. We had an actual deadline. Good enough had to happen, ready or not.

You know what? They were good enough. The jobs got posted. The right people applied. The world did not end because the job descriptions were not perfect.

And right now, I have a personnel manual that needs updating. I cannot quite get the language where I want it. So it keeps getting pushed. Keeps staying unfinished. Meanwhile, people need it.

The policy manual that waits for the perfect platform helps no one. The one that gets finished, even imperfectly, helps everyone.

Sound familiar? I bet you have your own version of these. The presentation you have revised twelve times. The email you have rewritten so many times you have forgotten what you originally wanted to say. The project that is 90% done and has been 90% done for three months because the last 10% has to be exactly right.

Perfectionism Is the Enemy of Done

Don't focus on getting something 100% perfect. Perfection is the enemy of done.

There is a phrase that has been rattling around in my head lately: perfectionism is the enemy of done.

That is not permission to do sloppy work. It is not an argument for carelessness or cutting corners. It is a recognition that at a certain point, the extra hours we pour into something rarely return anything meaningfully better than what we already had. The energy we spend chasing perfect is energy we are not spending on the next thing, the next person, the next project that actually needs us.

And here is the uncomfortable truth: most of the time, the people receiving our work cannot even tell the difference between our 94% and our 100%. They just know they got something useful, or they did not.

So What Would Happen If You Let Good Enough Be Enough?

I want to ask you something honestly. What would happen if you decided that good enough was actually good enough?

Not forever. Not for everything. Not as an excuse to stop caring about quality. But for the things that have been sitting unfinished because they are not perfect yet. For the decisions you have been delaying. For the project that is ready but you keep tweaking.

Would you feel like you were failing? Maybe at first. Our brains are wired to equate done with settled, and settled with giving up.

Or would you get a whole lot more done? Would you move faster, help more people, clear the mental load of a hundred half-finished things sitting in the back of your mind?

My job descriptions got posted. They worked. My research paper earns a 94% and I am still getting my Master's degree. The personnel manual, when I finally finish it, will be used and appreciated even if every sentence is not perfect.

Done and imperfect helps people. Perfect and unfinished helps no one.

What is sitting unfinished in your world right now because it is not perfect yet? And what would happen if you decided today that it was good enough to finish?

As always, carry social kindness with you everywhere you go. The world needs you and your positive mindset!

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If you want to consult on training or coaching for your team, please reach out.

Linnea@leadwithlinnea.com

269-621-5282