“Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.”
~Leonard Cohen’s Anthem
Leading others can be a messy business and for those among us who crave perfection at every turn, from others and from ourselves, the journey will likely be long and painful. Many among us still equate leadership with perfection, like the person leading must be better than everyone else, otherwise, why would he or she be in front leading the way? But really, perfection is at times the opposite of progress.
Leadership is as much about being bold as it is being the best. And perfection is often about doing the same thing so many times that you eliminate any mistakes. In leadership, progress is so much more worthy a goal than perfection. Progress is about moving forward, continually, steadily and yet it often involves missteps as you carve out a new path.
Sometimes with leadership, you are going to have to get it wrong before you can get it right. Now of course, the very best leaders are skilled explorers able to course correct as needed. After all, your legacy as a leader will ultimately be judged by your success. But when your goal is perfection, you all too often lose the ability to Experiment, Innovate and Evolve. You resist getting better to get it right and this is where perfectionist leaders often get stuck. Perfectionists put too much emphasis on the tried and the true forgetting the new and improved.
“When your goal is perfection, you all too often lose the ability to Experiment, Innovate and Evolve. You resist getting better to get it right and this is where perfectionist leaders often get stuck.”
Don’t get me wrong, standards are critical, competitiveness drives effort and innovation. Who doesn’t like to see something so perfectly realized that it feels perfect? But perfection or near perfection should be the occasional boost and not the end game.
So embrace your imperfections or cracks, and recognize them as the opportunities they are for letting the light in shining on areas you can grow and evolve. Don’t we sometimes learn the most from our most spectacular failures? Besides the ego punch, are we really any worse for the wear after those wrong turns?
And embrace mistakes and missteps with your team, treat them like a normal part of the process of growth that they are. When you create this kind of environment, you support cautious risk taking, balanced experimentation, innovation and most importantly, trust.
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