The Hidden Costs of Perfectionism: Why Your High Standards Might Be Hurting Your Business
IN A HURRY? HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE
Perfectionism in business manifests as endless tweaking, reluctance to delegate, and fear of mistakes, ultimately becoming a significant bottleneck to growth and success. The hidden costs of perfectionism include wasted time, depleted energy, missed momentum, and lost opportunities to function as a true CEO.
To overcome perfectionism, leaders need to get comfortable with “good enough” by setting clear expectations, establishing strategic checkpoints, and embracing the idea that small improvements are better than delayed execution. A professional Virtual Assisting team can provide the structure, consistency, and accountability needed to break free from perfectionist tendencies, allowing business owners to focus on strategic growth rather than getting stuck in the details.
GOT A MINUTE? HERE ARE THE DETAILS TO CONSIDER
Is perfection your standard? It’s OK to have high standards, but when it crosses the line into having impossible standards, you’re going to drive yourself crazy – and you’re probably driving your team crazy as well. And the bad news is, if perfection is what you are always aiming for, you will always be the bottleneck in your organization.
But how does perfectionism show up? It’s easy to put a blanket statement on it, but I want to dig deeper into this today, and talk about how this shows up in a business, and more importantly, what we’re going to do about it. I’m going to show you how to get past this, what to do if you find yourself running your business with perfectionism as your standard, and how to move past this so you can continue to lead your team and grow your organization.
We’re also going to discuss how to shift your mindset around perfectionism, and how to leverage a Virtual Assisting team to shift out of control and into clarity, earning back your momentum!
Signs and Stories of Perfectionism
Here’s a client story that illustrates this problem of perfectionism perfectly:
She had invested a significant amount of money in a brand-new, beautiful website. She hired the best website designers and developers, working with them for many months. Every time I met with her during our growth-mapping sessions (which take place on our clients' half and full-year anniversaries with us, and we talk about their goals for the next six to 12 months), I would ask how the new website was going. She would always say, “It’s almost there, just making a few more tweaks,” or “It's almost there, just going to swap out some photos.”
Guess what? Eventually, the web design company dropped her as a client! They just could not continue tweaking without going “live” on the final website. Certainly, she had full rights and access to the website, and she was able to find another team to pick up the work, and eventually, they brought that website online. But it took SO many more months than it should have!
The website is beautiful, but it stayed under wraps for too long. And the reason was that the client was agonizing over every little detail, bogged down by her own perfectionism.
Here’s another example: I often meet people who want to develop an online course. They’ve put in plenty of work, and it’s 80-90% finished, but they never quite launch it so people can actually take the course. You might be nodding along, thinking of projects in your life that are 75-80% finished, but you just can’t get them to a point where they’re ready to see the light of day. Sound familiar?
Yes, this problem of perfectionism shows up in my own life, too!
In my business, it’s team payments. We’re working on simplifying bookkeeping processes within my company, and we’re doing this in steps. My goal is to hand off team payments to my bookkeeper so that she can run the direct deposit payments twice a month when our team gets paid out.
But that feels scary to me – she gets access to our banking system, and what if someone sends an invoice that’s wrong? And then she pays it, and our cash flow gets screwed up? Fear of making mistakes or losing control definitely falls into the line of perfectionism, and this shows up in my own business, too, which slows us down from making progress and building efficiencies.
On the marketing side of things, perfectionism can manifest as delays in social media posts going live, promotional emails being sent, or launches being postponed. Client deliverables can get delayed repeatedly, with endless editing and stress over whether they’ll like it. This can eventually escalate into missing deadlines with the client.
So, to review, all of these are signs of perfectionism:
Endless tweaking on projects
Reluctance to hand things off
Feeling like you’re the only one who can do something
Worrying, “What if a mistake happens?”
Missed deadlines with clients
Why is Perfectionism a Problem?
When we have impossibly high standards that are not sustainable for you or your team to attain consistently, they are quietly stalling your growth.
Think about the website that didn’t get launched, the course that never went live, or another exciting project or offer that never saw the light of day. Ultimately, those were solutions to help solve problems for clients and people all around the world. These things don't come to fruition and don't actually happen because of perfectionism holding them back!
Let’s touch on making mistakes, for a moment.
Of course, nobody likes to make mistakes, and mistakes can be costly. But we’re human and mistakes happen. When we have an extreme fear of making mistakes, as in “no mistakes can EVER be made,” that's when we start stunting our own growth.
I can think of several people off the top of my head who are at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to having the fear of making mistakes! They love to experiment, try new things, mess up, break the system, and put it back together again. That’s creativity and innovation. Those people are in the minority compared to the majority that I tend to work with on a daily basis. But if you know someone like that, it’s worth listening to them and considering, “Am I holding on TOO tight? Where can I experiment? The sky’s not going to fall!”
Also, unless you’re reading this and you truly are a medical professional, we are not brain surgeons, here. No one is going to lose their life because of our mistakes! We are not curing cancer, and this is not an emergency room.
My team and I provide administrative and marketing support. All of these functions are important for businesses and nonprofits in order for them to operate and grow, but no one will lose their life if an invoice is paid late or a social media post goes out at the wrong time.
Perfectionism can disguise itself as having high standards. But the problem arises when it starts to cross over into procrastination and, ultimately, self-sabotage.
Perhaps you have a great course that's just waiting to be published. You just need to hit send on that email. There's probably something just waiting in the wings, ready to be revealed for all to see. And when we hold back on doing those things, we are self-sabotaging our own growth and our own expansion, and even being a blessing to those who should get that information!
Four Hidden Costs of Perfectionism
Perfectionism comes with a lot of hidden costs, too.
Time is a cost of perfectionism. Think about the website that sat at 98% finished for months and months. That's a whole lot of time that the website could have been online, making her business money.
Energy is also a cost of perfectionism. I hate the feeling of open loops, and I notice that my stress level increases when there are too many. When I think about perfectionism and the energy of that fear of control, having “mostly finished” projects, or being afraid to hand something off, it's costly in terms of how you could be feeling, instead.
Missed momentum is another cost of perfectionism. If you are building and creating something, but then you start holding back because it's not quite where you want it to be, you lose that momentum. And if you're working with a team, they can feel that loss of momentum as well, because we've been talking about putting something out there, but now the program is on ice.
Missed CEO opportunities are another cost of perfectionism. When you, as a leader, become the bottleneck due to your perfectionism, and you add up all the internal things that you just can’t let go of, you’re not able to do the bigger and better work that you're meant to do as the CEO of your company.
Curing Perfectionism in Your Leadership
So, what do we do about all this? By now, you should have a pretty clear picture of where perfectionism has been showing up in your business and where it has cost you time, money, energy, and angst. Ultimately, it’s time to get comfortable with “good enough” and learn to overcome perfection.
If you have a significant fear of making mistakes, you may need more than the advice I’m about to give. I’m not a life or business coach, and I’m certainly not a therapist. If you feel significant anxiety or fear around collaborating with a team, making a mistake, or having an upset client to the point where it is affecting your clarity of mind and your decision-making, this is probably something that you want to explore a little bit further. You may need to consult with a more targeted professional to access the tools and strategies to work through those deeper issues.
The advice I have is practical and actionable:
Get clear on your expectations, and set them clearly. You can give examples of how you want work done, but then give your team space and allow them to meet your expectations.
Have checkpoints throughout a project so you can review without micromanaging or taking the entire thing over.
Remember that small improvements are better than delayed execution. For example, with that website project, it could have launched and then, after a few weeks, they could have swapped out a few photos or made minor adjustments to the content.
A good Virtual Assisting team brings structure, consistency, and accountability to your business, the project, and your working relationship with your clients. I can’t stress this enough: Get your team involved with implementation! Give them the chance to take ownership of tasks and projects. You can always refine over time, but allow them to implement.
Having processes for extra sets of eyes on things is also important. Within our team, we have multiple sets of eyes on tasks and projects that we are doing on a day-to-day basis.
As we wrap up, I’ll share a real-life example of two different approaches to delegating tasks.
My first business coach insisted I create an exhaustive manual before my maternity leave. I documented every tiny detail of my client work, down to which menu items to click. It was overwhelming and inefficient.
Four years later, another coach gave me a much simpler solution: hire someone experienced, walk them through the process once on a Zoom call while they document it, then simply review their notes. This approach saved time while still ensuring quality and accuracy.
Which approach works better from an overcoming perfectionism standpoint? I’ll let you guess!
Are you tired of perfectionism holding your business back from its full potential? Let's explore how a professional virtual assisting team can help you break free from the perfectionism trap and create sustainable systems that drive real growth!