Category: Personal and Professional Development

Ending Perfection Paralysis: How do successful people end the compulsion to rework projects and move on to create new ones?

My Personal Struggles with Ending Perfection Paralysis

I have worked on drafts of articles so many times that I have lost track of what I had in mind when I started writing the article.

Additionally, in reviewing older blog posts, I see ways that I could have written the post better.  However, few people will ever see those posts. Taking time to continually review and rewrite old material takes away from my time to create new work.

The Perfectionist as a Manager

The worst case of perfection affecting performance I have seen was the case of a former supervisor.  He placed so much emphasis on everything being exactly the way he wanted that everyone struggled through countless changes to meet his expectations. Whether dealing with correspondence, maintenance, or production, he would continue to look for flaws in everything.  He would insist that things be done to meet his idea of how they things should be done.

When this person left, his replacement was just the opposite in his management of people and requirements for perfection.  He knew that he had intelligent, conscientious people working for him.  He would carefully review the finished products and perhaps make changes.  However, he also knew that countless unnecessary revisions were just a waste of time.

Peak performance comes from knowing when to move on to the next project.

Money Saved and Money Earned.

The first obvious benefit of ending perfection paralysis is that people become more productive.  However, there are other benefits.

The principle of ending perfection saves money and builds businesses to make more money.  Every time a company revises or reworks anything, the company spends money and creates delays in profitable productivity.

Reduced Risks of Mistakes

Additionally, some products may undergo changes that introduce errors that must be caught before the revised product can be released. Every time I revise my material, I risk making errors in the new material.

Changes of schedules or procedures in groups of people create risks of confusion.  Inevitably the more changes to a schedule will result in an increase in the likelihood that more people will fail to know and meet the schedule.

I first observed this when I was a young manager and there was a flight change involving eight people.  No one got the information about the change.  All eight people missed the flight. Having been involved in countless scheduling situations since that time, I have made it a practice to hold people to their commitments to stick to schedules.

Solutions to Ending Perfection Paralysis

Some people may need professional help to end their endless perfection. These people have a compulsion.  Consistent with compulsions in drinking or taking drugs, people with a compulsion to rework their projects may have an addiction. These people may need professional help to overcome their addiction to perfection.

On the other hand, learning the signs of perfectionism can help you let go of the desire to rework a project.  Here are some techniques that may work for you.

Get feedback. Work in teams where consensus can help you release your work and move on to new projects.

Establish parameters.  State the purpose of a project.  Layout out the details. Once you have completed a project so that it fulfills its purpose, you can know when it is time to release the project.

Set the project aside for a day. Backing away from a project to let yourself view your work objectively will help you recognize when you are reworking a finished project.

Respect: What do people do to gain respect from others?  Here are 10 things that will help you build relationships and increase the respect that others have for you.

Life is much easier when people respect us to the point that they want to give us their support. ~ www.jaywren.com

Relationships and Respect

The quality of our personal and work relationships is the result of the respect other people give us and the respect that we give to other people.

Although what other people do is beyond our control, the most powerful people know how to influence the response of the people around them. You can as well.

Give Credit

People gain respect when they give credit to the correct person.  Giving credit is a compliment with substance.

On the other hand, people who claim credit for the work of other people lose respect.   People who know that these people are undeserving of that credit will resent the dishonesty.

If you give credit, you will gain respect among your friends and among people who can affect your career.

Admit Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes.  Successful people admit them and do not repeat them.  People will respect you if you correct your mistakes and move on.

Don’t make excuses for failing to do your work.  Be honest.  You just did not do the work.  You regret it.  When you admit your mistakes and not repeat them, you will get respect.

Do Your Job

Get a copy of your job description.  Read it with your boss.  Discuss what you are doing with your boss.  When you are uncertain about what you are doing, ask your boss for information.

And don’t just do your job. Be conscientious about the way you do your job.

Everyone will respect you for knowing and doing what you are supposed to do.

Let Other People Do Their Job

First, don’t let people take advantage of you.  Being a team player and helping other people occasionally is one thing.  Having people use you to do their work is not the way to get respect at work.

Second, do not interfere with other people by meddling in their job.  People do not always want your advice.  People certainly do not want you to do their job and take credit for what their work.

By respecting the space of other people to do their job, you will get respect.

Lighten Up

Don’t take yourself too seriously.  Insisting that your priorities are the only things that matter will create resentments.  If you come to work every day and load the workplace with pressure, you will create tension.

Be sincere.  Work hard.  Be straightforward with your supervisors, co-workers, and people you manage.  Take your work seriously.  However, don’t take everything so seriously that you can’t accept mistakes and adjustments in the daily routine.

Lighten up. People will enjoy working with you, and you will get respect.

Keep Your Word

Honor your commitments.  If you know that you can’t do something or that you will not do something, be honest about it.  Don’t make a commitment to do things that you can’t or will not do.  Keeping your word is basic to getting respect.

Be Punctual

If you are late all the time, people will quickly get weary of dealing with you.  Arrive at your appointments early.   Complete your work ahead of time.  Reduce the pressure on others having to worry about when your punctuality.

You will get respect when people know they can trust you to be at work on time and complete your work on time.

Avoid Gossip

A quick way to ruin relationships is to gossip.  Avoid people who gossip.  The only people who respect people who gossip are other people who gossip.

Protect Confidences

When someone tells you something personal or private, keep it to yourself.  Even if you do not make a commitment to keep the information private, respect the trust that people have given you. People do not respect people who break their confidences.

Peak performance is not only about how effective you are today, but how effective you are throughout your career. ~ www.jaywren.com

Here are 8 steps that will help you manage and build your skills to accomplish more.

Peak Performance

1. Seek Advice
2. Gain the Extra Yard
3. Do One More Task
4. Read
5. Focus on Solutions not Problems
6. Turn Your Solutions into Services
7. Build and Diversify Your Network
8. Set Goals

Seek Advice

Seek advice before acting on important decisions. It is so easy for me to go into difficult situations and make large decisions with the belief that I already have all the answers.  It is equally easy for me to overlook things that I should have considered before acting. I better understand my circumstances and find far greater solutions by discussing my decisions before acting,

Gain the Extra Yard

Get the greatest results from each activity. The National Football League wide receiver Jerry Rice holds 23 NFL records.  He caught long passes.  More importantly is the number of yards he gained after he caught the pass. It is those extra yards that enabled him to set so many of those records.

Business professionals can do a better job for their company by identifying those small details that turn mediocre projects into hugely successful projects. They do the same tasks everyone else does and achieve greater results than anyone else.  One example of how these people achieve excellence is that they set a finished product aside overnight and return to it when they have a fresh perspective.

These people build companies like Apple, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, and so on across the spectrum. What these companies have in common is they gain the extra yards to make their products exceed the quality of their competitors.

Do One More Task

When you finish your work before the end of the day, do at least one more task before leaving work.  It is easy to sit around at the end of the day. It may feel good to leave early.  By starting and completing one more task on the days when you have extra time, you will find that your production will rise dramatically.  If you add and complete one extra task per week, you will complete fifty more tasks over the course of the year.  Your company will benefit.  Your value to your company will grow.

For example, when I was a new sales rep at Procter & Gamble, I went from last in the district to first and held that position throughout my time at P&G.  What did I do to change my standings? After I finished my schedule for the day, I made an extra sales call. Sometimes these calls were just retail visits.  However, these small efforts added up to make a huge difference in my productivity.

Read

Regularly read articles and books about your job and your goals.  Nearly every job continues to evolve.  Many jobs disappear entirely. New information and tools become available to make job performance easier and make you more marketable.  Take advantage of this information to grow in professional value and for personal enrichment.

Focus on Solutions not Problems

Everyone has problems.  Everyone encounters obstacles.  It is easy to procrastinate or give up instead of acting on these obstacles.

However, by focusing on solutions, you can develop effective, often new ways of dealing with these obstacles.

Turn Your Solutions into Services

As you create solutions, look for ways to help other people use your solutions.  People have founded companies based on providing products and services to overcome common obstacles.   If you can sell the solutions you have developed in overcoming obstacles, you have a business.

Build and Diversify Your Network

Continue to expand your network of friends and mentors.  My son has multiple circles of friends.  The people in each of these circles are people he has met at different times and in different settings.  Some of these friends are from high school classes. Other friends come from his sports activities.  Additionally, he has friends from college and his career.

Since graduating from college, he has met these people from different circles to pick up new hobbies and to travel. Additionally, he has long-term relations with people in his career. These people are valuable assets to help with solutions in his career.

Set Goals

Continue to set goals.  Goal setting will help you focus on your daily plan. Furthermore, goal setting can have a subconscious power to drive your actions even when you are not working directly from a daily plan.

Having goals can give you a sense of purpose and a feeling of accomplishment.  Rather than focusing on the ruts of your life, you can focus on your goals and how to move toward them.  Goals lead to peak performance.

The most successful people do many things to live successful lives.  Here are four practices that enable them to keep a clear head, make better decisions, accomplish more, and have a well-balanced life.

The most successful people focus on solutions.

These people don’t obsess about things that worry them.  Worry is a normal emotion and helps us by calling our attention to the problems that we face in the future.  Successful people don’t allow themselves to ruminate over the future.  They see opportunities, solutions, and success.  Next, they create plans and take action.  Additionally, they are too busy becoming successful to spend time worrying.

The most successful people pause when they feel panicked.

They know to pause rather than surrender to the panic emotions of fight or flight.  Rather, they pause and clear their mind.  They take a deep breath, and step away from the problem.  Additionally, they don’t dash off text messages, emails, or make hasty phone calls that make problems worse.

The most successful people do not become embroiled in hasty arguments that ruin relationships. They rise above the visceral feelings that hijack their intellect and block their critical thinking.

The most successful people get in and get things done.

I worked with a recruiter who would drop her kids off at school, go straight to her office, and work until 3:00 PM.  She would then pick up her kids, drive home, and prepare dinner.  Where many recruiters work forty to fifty-hour hours a week to fill twenty jobs a month, she would fill seventy-five to one hundred jobs a month and only work thirty-five hours a week.  I examined her routine carefully.  Although she did not few things that differently from other recruiters.  She just did them more quickly.

The most successful people have a balanced life.

Successful people live a balanced life.  They work hard.  Sometimes they push themselves to finish a project, even weeks at a time.  But they know to take breaks.  They take time for their family.  Many of these people take time to give to their communities and their causes.  They make wise choices in the food they eat.  Additionally, they take time to exercise.  They take time to rest. They take time for recreation and entertainment.

In Conclusion

The most successful people follow many practices that lead them to live successful lives.  Four of these practices enable them to keep a clear head, make better decisions, do more, and have a well-balanced life.

Communication:  Effective speaking and writing are part of the job for professionals in all types of fields and responsibilities. Here are some ideas to make your business and personal communications more powerful.

Headlines

Even when speaking, you will help people understanding you with a headline.  The headline states the topic. “Bill, let’s talk about the plan for this weekend” is a simple sentence that let’s Bill know what you are discussing.

In writing, where you put the headline depends on what you are writing. In a letter or an email, the headline goes in to the subject. In your LinkedIn profile, the headline goes next to your name.  In a resume, the headline can be a short statement below your contact information.

Clear Communication: The Opening Paragraph

For most effective communication, state the purpose of the discussion in the opening paragraph.  Note that the purpose is more than the subject.  The purpose includes the subject and the reason for discussing that subject.  For example,

“So, that we don’t overlook anything, Bill, let’s talk about the plan for this weekend.”

One Subject at a Time

Whether writing or speaking, you will have more success by sticking to one subject at a time.

Busy people tend to look for the point.  Once they find it, their mind is ready take action or to file the information.

Additionally, jumping back and forth on different subjects confuses people.

New Subject Introduction

Sometimes, you need to discuss several subjects in one meeting or correspondence.  When you do, you can help the other person follow your discussion with transitional tools.

In a conversation, you can state that you are moving on to a new subject.

When writing, use subheadings, all caps, bold type, or initial caps at the beginning of each subject.  The switch from normal style to one of these four styles highlights that you are moving on to a new topic or subtopic.

The reader may only have time to scan information.  Your key points stand out in the brief statements that you highlight with subheadings and initial caps.

Transitional Devices

Transitional devices are a bridge to help the reader follow you from one sentence or paragraph to the next.  Additionally, these words or phrases can help your reader know whether you are adding more information on a subject or moving on to a new one.

They are signals to smooth the flow of your message.
Here are some examples.

1. Write a transitional statement such: “Now I would like to discuss a new subject.”
2. Use transitional words such as “also, so, for this purpose, later, furthermore.
3. Time categories help you reader following your message: First, Second, Third, and so forth.
4. Additionally, bullet points or numbered lists are excellent when making short phrases are statements.

Proofreading

Grammar is as important as content. I carefully proofread what I have written and use word processing software to check for mistakes.  I still make mistakes.  If you see any mistakes in my writing, please let me know.

Vocabulary Development

I make it a habit to look up words I don’t know.  Furthermore, my curiosity prompts me to read articles about new terms.  Today, in this digital world, the flow of information gives me the opportunity to grow professionally and personally.

Here are some examples of new words or topics I have learned in the past 5 to 10 years.

“Disruptive” in reference to innovation “Emotional Intelligence” “Mindfulness” in reference to focusing attention on the present moment; also, in reference to breathing meditation

Conclusion

In conclusion, the formula for saying or writing anything is simple. Start with a headline.  Second, state the subject in the opening sentence.  If you wish to write about multiple topics, just say so clearly in the opening.

Use capital letters, subheadings, and transitional devices to introduce each new subject.

Your listeners and readers will appreciate your effort to communicate effectively.

Furthermore, you will find that people take more action and give you better responses with effective communications.

Collaboration where the goal is to create results where, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” ~ Aristotle

How do companies create teams where team members produce greater results together than working separately? How do great leaders create powerful teams? Here are some ideas to help answer those questions.

Collaboration by Combining Different Skills and Different Experience

For the greatest power of synergy, surround yourself with people who know things that you don’t know.

Synergy is the process of combining the efforts of individuals or organizations to produce greater results together than the total combined results of working separately.

For example, let’s say that companies X, Y, and Z earn a total of $5 million working separately.  However, by merging their efforts, these three companies earn $10 million.

The efforts of the synergistic teams do more than add more hands working on the assembly line.  These teams add people who empower each other through the combination of their different skills and experience.

First-Hand Experience

There are multiple reasons why collaboration is so effective.  One of the reasons is that synergy fills in the gaps of knowledge among individuals or among individual organizations.

A simple example is my experience in teaming up with other recruiters to share work. Together, we each made more money by combining our resources than each of us would have made working alone.  I had recruiting contracts and job applicants.  The other firms had different recruiting contracts and different job applicants.

By working with each other, we could accelerate filling jobs by helping each other find job applicants for our recruiting contracts.

In most companies, departments work separately to do their jobs.  Sales planning does sales planning.  Marketing does marketing.  Manufacturing does manufacturing.

But some projects require knowledge from each of these departments.  Collaboration empowers teams from separate departments to produce greater results by filling in the knowledge gaps among the teams.

Collaborating with Specialists

A simple Case study:  Collaborating with specialists helps people focus on what they do best. Writers know how to write.  Some writers can do a reasonable job of editing their own work.  Also, most writers can figure out how to copyright their material.  However, writers can produce far more material by just writing and having experts handle the other tasks in publishing a book.