Is Perfectionism stopping you from progress?
One of our favorite speakers to follow is Brene Brown. As a professor, motivational speaker, and distinguished author, she has created a career based on understanding courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. Though these are not topics generally talked about in a corporate setting, we are seeing the necessity of discussing these in our coaching and training engagements. Not only do these topics fuel real change, they help to build great organizational leaders.
In 2013, Brene was a speaker in an Oprah "Lifeclass" and spoke specifically about the topic of perfectionism. She reasons that perfectionism is driven by the need to avoid conflict. That unless we are driven for excellence as an internal motivator, we are using perfectionism as a shield. See a snippet of that class here:
As leaders in organizations, it's imperative that we see the difference. Additionally, it's imperative that we see the difference in our leaders who we manage ourselves. "You can't really do anything brave, if you're wearing the straight jacket of what will people think." This is as true in the workplace as it is in life.
