Comments on: Strive for Adequate aka The Curse of Excellence

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:31:37 +0000

My perfectionism gremlin has just come down with a case of vertigo. She’s swirling and about ready to throw up. How can you treat her this way after all the years she’s been here for you–yelling and screaming that you’re just not good enough yet. (Ever.) Pushing you harder to do better and to do more and to do more better. Now, you’ve given her a dose of reality. My my. The vertigo is slowing, now it seems to be going in one direction. Can it be? Hope, for the first time in a long time. It’s an adeuqate starting point. Thank you Michael, Box of Crayons.

By: veronika

veronika — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:29:19 +0000

If you’re a dedicated entrepreneur, then your “adequate” may very well be someone else’s idea of perfectly good work! I’ve found people are very satisfied with what I think is good, adequate, not bad, decent, ok stuff I’ve done… have gotten high praise about things I wish I could do 10x better! So, this is great advice as it allows you to accept the happiness of your clients and have more time to really put the wow factor into a GREAT project!
V-

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:05:00 +0000

This certainly speaks to the strife for perfectionism by which many of us are plagued! I have misinterpreted these words – “Adequate” sounds so close to INadequate, and sufficient sounds, well, adequate without the beating. Thanks Michael, this one really hit home for me. And thanks to everyone else who posted on this article, too. Take care, DEB

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:54:47 +0000

Juli

Great question. I’d start small – pick a task or a project and pick a person or a team who might be open to this. In other words – start doing this where it’s easiest. My guess would be trying to do this across a whole department is, as the saying goes, “trying to boil the ocean” – a miserable and almost impossible task.

Start small. See where you get to. And then do it again.

By: Juli M

Juli M — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:29:12 +0000

It’s a fantastic idea and one that requires some instruction to implement. When you are working in a culture where excellence is both demanded and expected in spite of an overwhelming volume of work, it is easy to become paralyzed. That’s where I am today and I really am striving to get “un-stuck.” SO…where do you start? I’d like to implement this throughout my entire department!

By: erich Kayser

erich Kayser — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:58:57 +0000

I agree, our business is called CoreXalance, excellence to the core, most of the time it is at great effort maintaining the standard. Braking down the work from this umbrella of excellence to the responsibility of just doing great work sounds like an excellent digestible idea!!