Progress Over Perfection: Why This Should Be Your Business Mantra

When you start a business, however small or big it is, you always aim for perfection. You want everything to turn out exactly how it’s planned and employees to perform their tasks to the T. This eventually turns out to be a recipe for disaster since there is no scope for mistakes.

Without making mistakes we would never learn what’s working and what’s not, or never stumble upon more creative ways to achieve goals. When you put pressure on yourself and your employees to deliver perfection, you are inevitably signing yourself up for long-term disappointment. 

Instead of craving perfection, your focus should be on progress. Here’s why:

Builds a positive work environment

Imagine a scenario where there was no tolerance for mistakes and only top results were acceptable. Such an environment can create stress and make it very difficult for employees to cope up with.

A little healthy competition is fine, but constantly driving your employees crazy to only give the best results can take a toll on their mental health. On the contrary, when you acknowledge the progress made by an employee it creates a stress-free and healthy work environment.

Your business productivity increases:

The desire for perfection often crushes productivity. No matter how well an employee performs you will always be looking for a certain kind of result. This lowers employee confidence and demotivates them. A demotivated employee can quickly transform into a disengaged employee. 

There is nothing worse than a skilled and valuable employee becoming disengaged because it lowers their productivity. When you choose to focus on how well an employee is doing as compared to their last performance and appreciate them for it, it will accelerate their productivity.

Your employees feel valued:

As a business owner, when you push employees to deliver perfect results you end up treating them as a ladder to your success. Treating employees like objects is not a sign of a good leader. It may end up making your employees feel frustrated.

Your most important task as a leader is to motivate your employees to give their best and recognize their achievements. This will allow you to understand how to guide each person and make them valued. This increases their morale and enhances their performance.

Steady business growth:

If you drop the need for perfection, you can then focus on the fact that there are areas of improvement that need to be worked on. For instance, there are skills gaps that need to be covered for better work productivity. 

You can provide your employees with relevant learning opportunities to enhance their skill set. This will ensure they perform better in their roles which ensures good business growth. The best part is, providing learning opportunities with tools like Absorb LMS saves both time and money. This makes it a very valuable investment towards business growth.

It helps in retaining employees for the long term:

Employees value a good work environment where they are allowed to grow. Pressuring them is like putting them in shackles which restricts their growth. It also prevents them from thinking more creatively as you have decided the ideal way to do things for them.

Such an environment becomes very toxic and leaves no room for innovation. This may push employees to quit their jobs and find something more fulfilling. But when you give them the autonomy to do things their way and celebrate their wins, it makes them feel their efforts add value to the company. This compels them to stay with the company longer.

Conclusion:

Striving for progress instead of perfection does not mean you accept sub-standard work. It means your core goals are that your employees must consistently evolve and improve.