If you’re performing open heart surgery, strive for perfection and don’t make the first cut until you’ve accounted for any unknowns that you can.
If you’re leading a sales team, perfection can be a double-edged sword, and one that cut by cut can significantly slow down results. Let’s explore this paradox:
Perfection's Sneaky Side Effects:
Perfectionism, while well-intentioned, can often lead to analysis paralysis. Organizations set up priorities linearly because that’s cleaner and easier for internal alignment.
“We can’t do this until…” is a common mindset that focuses on things happening perfectly according to plan. Again, great for surgery, but detracts from sales results in a way that’s often hard to measure.
Progress, The Imperfect Hero:
Embracing progress means acknowledging that perfection is an elusive goal. It doesn't mean lowering your standards; or creating confusion and chaos.
It means focusing on continuous improvement and learning, it means adopting a philosophy and “operating platform” that allows small and regular improvements to happen even while the big priorities are underway.
A simple starting point is to lay out all the priorities, narrows this down to those that align with the key mission/goals, and then instead of picking 1-2, segment them into what must be perfect, and what can benefit from progress (rather than paralysis). There’s more steps but start there and call us.
In conclusion, while perfection may be a noble goal, sales leaders who prioritize progress are the ones who shine year after year.