Women Need To Learn Perfection Is Not A Good Thing
Save Precious Time: Avoid Perfection
I like to include the latest research whenever I can so you’ll feel confident when you buck conventional wisdom. However, perfection is tough to measure. If you want the truth, you only have to ask yourself, “Am I guilty of thinking my work is not good enough because it’s not perfect?” Whenever you answer “yes,” I want to you put time above perfection on your priority list and take another look.
Sometimes that 3-page report is sufficient for the task and that 76-page rendition you could deliver would set you back in three ways. The first is that you would be using up time that could be put a high visibility or a high return item, such as acquiring a new client for your company. The second setback—which happens all too often to women—is that your company will assign this task to you permanently since they know no one else would want to do the next 76-pager. And the third setback is that higher up execs will think, “She’s one of those Busy Work Women.” That certainly creates an image, and it’s not the image you should be striving for.
Are you going to have a problem with this? I bet quite a few of you are. If so, do not under any circumstances, present the report with a disclaimer, such as, “I just didn’t have enough time to do a good job.” Chances are it was good enough. Chances are other employees would not have done a better job. Chances are after hearing your disclaimer, everyone will be looking for evidence of a lousy report. And what you look for, you usually find. So, instead, talk to your boss soon after the report has been assigned. Remind him, or her, of your other higher priority tasks and make it known that you’ll do a good job, but won’t sacrifice these other tasks. See if he approves. I bet he will and you will be off the self-imposed perfection hook.
Tip: Once you’ve been labeled one of the Busy Work Women, it’s an uphill battle to transform others’ image of you to that of Executive Woman. It can be done—just as a fallen celebrity can sometimes recover—but it’s not easy. It would be easier for you to look into transferring to another department, or even better, to another company where you can do an excellent job on that Executive Woman first impression.
Further Reading:
WomensMedia, Lois Frankel, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office
WomensMedia, Pat Heim with Susan Golant, Making the Most of Criticism and Praise
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