I haven’t written a blog post in over two months. I want to write something from my heart - something that will grab your attention and lead you to share this blog with all of your friends. If I’m honest, I want more than that. I want you and your friends to hire my team and I.
So it feels like I have to be authentic, relevant, and insightful. I’ve filled myself with a perfectionistic pressure, creating a level of expectation that I cannot meet. So, yes. It’s been two months. I hid behind busyness when I needed to just be vulnerable, real, and let you in.
What is perfectionism?
Perfectionism is an attempt to control or manage ourselves, others, and others' perceptions of us - and it often thrives on intangible goals. In the workplace, perfectionism can be a chronic source of stress that actually leads to procrastination and a lack of productivity. When we are worried about accomplishing intangible goals, we tend to bypass or dismiss the attainable ones that lead to progress. In an attempt to be perceived as productive and successful, we then mask our procrastination with busyness. The hardest part of perfectionism is the drive to stay hidden instead of risk being vulnerable and seen.
The first goal, then, is to recognize the presence of perfectionism in our lives and become aware of its' impact on ourselves, our work, and our relationships.
As a leader, how often have you hid behind busyness instead of letting your team or others in?
How much have you let perfectionism get in the way of connection?
Next, we can choose to be vulnerable, let our flaws be seen, and let trusted people into our perfectionism and the fear that drives it.
What would happen if you let your team into the insecure places of your heart?
What if they joined you and felt a freedom to be real with you as well?
Finally, we can choose to see it as an opportunity for growth, shared human experience, and connection with our team.
What would it be like to see your team come alive, engage, and accept you right where you are?
What would it be like to become an agent for real change where your team knows they can be human at work?
No need for them to hide, manipulate or front that they have it together. No need to live in fear of being exposed. Every team member will know that they can be who they are and be accepted, wanted and pushed to be their best self.
Ultimately, cultivating authentic relationships is the key to building healthy teams and organizational cultures.
In authentic relationships, trust soars and people can easily see your strengths and know how to leverage them for the good of all. In teams that value authenticity, politics are at a minimum, engagement is high, turnover is low, people produce more and go about their work with far less confusion.
It feels risky to be real. Yet when someone in the room risks being real, the rest of us admire them and feel a pull to be real as well.
Someone has to start that. You as the leader are the best one to start.
Chew On This:
What step will you take to be real today?
Ryan C. Bailey is President and CEO of an organizational effectiveness company that supports leaders in developing in-demand high performing teams
*This blog is an amalgamation of a few different clients. No one single client is being singled out.