If there were Olympic medals for overthinking, tweaking, and rewriting an email twenty times, I’d have a shelf full of gold ones. My perfectionism didn’t start in the workplace—it began at the kitchen table, beside a stack of decent report cards and the glowing legend of a family friend who could apparently outscore Einstein. The intention was motivation. The impact? A lifelong whisper: You could do better. Perfectionism, it turns out, isn’t about having high standards—it’s about trying to frost a cake with a toothpick. Painstaking, exhausting, and rarely satisfying. It masquerades as ambition, but underneath, it’s usually just fear—fear of failing, of being judged, or of being seen as not quite enough. For leaders, perfectionism can quietly sabotage performance, innovation, and connection. But the good news? It can be reframed—without lowering your standards or losing your edge. Perfectionism tricks us into thinking in absolutes. It's either perfect or it's a failure. Win or lose. Succeed or flop. Perfectionism is something that I see quite often in my coaching clients, especially among leaders. Smart, capable, high-achieving people who still feel like they’re not quite measuring up. It’s sneaky like that. It shows up as endless revising, delayed decisions, being hard on themselves and others, or a quiet sense of “not enough.” And I know it firsthand. When we chase perfection, we miss out on so much: the learning, the creativity, the unexpected discoveries. Course corrections aren't proof we failed. They're invitations to adapt, to grow, to create something even better. I used to overthink everything until I slid right into procrastination. The anxiety would start to bubble up — 'It’s not good enough yet… maybe it never will be.' Sometimes I wouldn’t deliver on time. Other times, I'd submit something I didn’t even like anymore because I'd picked it apart so much. And sometimes, I'd become so paralyzed that I wouldn’t deliver at all — I’d avoid sending the paper, or skip the meeting or conversation altogether. Looking back, I can see: what does that accomplish? How does that honor my desire to help, to contribute, to be of service? It doesn’t. It only keeps me stuck and silent when what I really want is to show up. Perfect, it turns out, is an illusion. It’s subjective — what looks 'perfect' to one person will look completely different to someone else. Even my own definition of 'perfect' changes depending on the day, the project, or even my mood! What It Costs Perfectionism is like that overachieving dinner guest who insists on cleaning the kitchen before dessert. It might seem helpful at first—but it quickly becomes uncomfortable and sucks the joy out of the evening. It can manifest in lots of ways: When only flawless is acceptable, starting becomes terrifying. Repressed creativity or desire to innovate. Slower or stalled decision-making. Forgetting that no decisions are decisions! Lower productivity and missed timelines. Joylessness—even after success. Relationship strain from overly high expectations. Chronic anxiety and stress. There’s always something to fix, redo, or [...]