Perfect Vs Good Enough
I need your help.
I have a problem that’s been plaguing me for a while and the solution seems more unattainable than ever. It’s a problem that permeates through everything that my current team and I are doing — both big strategy items and smaller day-to-day tasks.
It comes down to this: Should you constantly strive for perfection or should ‘good enough’ be, well, good enough?
80% Will Do
The reason I ask is because I recently found myself telling a member of my team that, ‘Usually 80% will do.’
What I got back was not good. But I feel like that was my fault. I gave that team member permission to fail or at least permission to not even try to achieve the best they could.
I felt frustrated. Did I really just advocate for shitty work? How thoroughly demotivating.
I love what I do (marketing) because I get to try to be exceptional, every day, in so many different ways. Writing an email, placing a print ad, scripting a TVC… why not let that piece be the best piece of work of which I am capable?
I’ll tell you why not… because of the ‘To Do List’ that currently sits at 54 items and is growing fast.
The Real World
The truth is we don’t always have time to think, produce, solicit feedback, refine and then send. Sometimes getting the damn thing out of the door when you’ve got a million other things to do feels like an achievement in itself.
And to top it off, I keep reading compelling advice suggesting as long as you learn and modify as you go, then striving for perfection is unnecessary. It could even be a barrier; it slows you down, reduces the number of customer touch points, reduces opportunities for feedback and, in extreme cases where fear causes paralysis, can mean you to produce nothing at all.
So, that’s where I’m at. None the wiser. I want my team to feel like they can reach for and attain a level of quality to be proud but I know the sheer quantity that they have to get through. It’s a toughie…
…and that’s why I’m genuinely interested to know what you think? Should you strive to be perfect in all you do or should we all learn to live with imperfections? How do you manage this in your business or your team? Leave me a message.
