Progress over Perfection – the continuous Leadership Dielemma

The Gifts of Imperfection by the most amazing Brené Brown is by far the best piece of writing on what causes perfectionism and how to recognised the patterns. Many of us do not even realise how much of our work never sees the day of light and comes to anyone’s attention as we keep it in our heads, hearts and thoughts just not out in the open, getting messy with it like the playing with the clay dough – no one get’s it right the first time.

Fortunately, since Brené’s work after her decade long research, this topic has become mainstream in the traditional corporate world. There is an open realisation and acknowlegement that what seemingly worked a long time ago, is not working. And this brings following questions to mind:

What causes Perfectionism in the first place, how to identify it?

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What could leaders do to identify it in themselves and others and create space to encourage progress and learning over Perfect results

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Shall we measure progress with boldness, risk and trying out new things too – together with repeatable work which beyond a point is only creating an illusion of success?

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I don’t have perfectly crafted answers to these questions however imperfect actions I do by doing the following:

This is a great resource to take the first step – reflect, realise and acknowledge

SHIP IT – A little pamphlet for people who can – for those inspired by Seth Godin’s Linchpin