People who have impostor syndome tend to continually raise their standards. So perfectionism does pay off a decent percentage of the time, but then it's harmful in other cases. People with impostr syndrome feel like high achievement is the only thing helping them escape disaster. They feel that their impostors status will be revealed if they make any mistakes. And of course, lix society really reinforces perfection.
If you’ve worked your way up in a competitive field — or are anxious by nature — you may have perfectionist tendencies. Maybe you’re a hard-driving, obsessive worker who thinks a task is never quite done. Or maybe you’re avoidant, struggling to start a project because you want it to be done just right.
We all know society holds women to a higher standard than men and rewards us for not making mistakes. But internalizing other people’s expectations — or what we think they expect — will only burn us out. To keep rising in our careers, we need to get in tune with our own standards for what’s a good, or good enough, job.
It is possible to keep our perfectionist tendencies under control. We talk through tactics with Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist turned writer and author.
Our HBR reading list:
“How Perfectionists Can Get Out of Their Own Way,” by Alice Boyes
“How to Focus on What’s Important, Not Just What’s Urgent,” by Alice Boyes
“How to Collaborate with a Perfectionist,” by Alice Boyes
“Perfectionism Is Increasing, and That’s Not Good News,” by Thomas Curran and Andrew P. Hill
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Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.