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&lt;p id=&quot;yui_3_17_2_1_1562757528131_254&quot;&gt;Our work needs&#160;to be perfect, right?&#160;Isn’t the risk too great if&#160;it’s not?&#160;As a&#160;legal&#160;professional, you are likely to answer a resounding&#160;“Yes!”&#160;to&#160;both of the above.&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But, is perfection even possible? And, perhaps more importantly, is it worth trying to achieve?&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Merriam-Webster defines&#160;perfectionism&#160;as “a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.”&#160;This means&#160;that&#160;the&#160;perfectionist will&#160;continue to perform&#160;tirelessly&#160;until&#160;&lt;em&gt;they believe&lt;/em&gt;&#160;the&#160;work product is perfect.&#160;But&#160;– and herein lies the problem – that belief is entirely subjective. So,&#160;the perfectionist may never believe&#160;they’ve achieved&#160;perfection. Spurred on by self-doubt, they labor&#160;interminably&#160;on&#160;a task,&#160;impacting&#160;overall project&#160;workflow, frustrating colleagues,&#160;straining&#160;imminent deadlines, and ultimately disappointing clients.&#160;(We’ve all&#160;heard the phrase “analysis paralysis,” and it may&#160;actually be&#160;the result of a culture of perfectionism.)&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Have no fear of perfection - you&#39;ll never reach it.” &#160;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;― Salvador Dali&#160;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, what about high achievers? Don’t they harbor the same tendencies as perfectionists? In some senses, yes.&#160;But there are key distinctions.&#160;“Although perfectionists and high achievers&#160;[both&#160;desire&#160;to]&#160;excel in their goals, there is a significant difference between the two,” says Robin Farber, an Executive Coach and Psychotherapist. “Perfectionists are driven by a perfect outcome as a way to seek temporary emotional relief from a painful feeling.”&#160;This&#160;suggests&#160;that perfectionists&#160;are motivated by the&#160;fear&#160;of&#160;failure or rejection.&#160;“Perfectionists find it difficult to enjoy the small wins along&#160;life‘s journey,”&#160;continues&#160;Farber, “which can take a toll on the individual, the team,&#160;and the organization.”&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;High achievers, on the other hand, while also&#160;striving&#160;to produce an exceptional deliverable,&#160;cope better with&#160;disappointment&#160;and are not afraid of it. They&#160;see mistakes and failures&#160;as necessary steps on the road to success. Thus, they&#160;tend to have a more positive mindset, are less anxious,&#160;and&#160;find&#160;ways to celebrate even minor accomplishments and milestones.&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, you might say,&#160;“But clients demand perfection!” In truth, clients&#160;frequently&#160;tell us that they need their&#160;lawyers&#160;and&#160;team members&#160;to demonstrate agility,&#160;creativity,&#160;and openness to change&#160;in pursuit of an excellent&#160;result.&#160;A&#160;hyper-focus on perfectionism&#160;contradicts&#160;those&#160;competencies.&#160;Though&#160;perfectionists&#160;will&#160;claim&#160;– and believe – that&#160;they are focused on&#160;producing&#160;exceptional&#160;work product,&#160;their&#160;underlying&#160;fear of failure inevitably stifles the competencies our clients&#160;say&#160;they value.&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sandy Rubenstein, CEO of&#160;the&#160;digital&#160;marketing firm&#160;DX Agency,&#160;sums the problem up perfectly.&#160;“A&#160;perfectionist can be the downfall of a creative environment,&#160;limiting the free flow of ideas and possibilities.”&#160;She&#160;adds, “Although&#160;perfectionists&#160;are typically great project managers, in&#160;today’s fluid business environment a perfectionist can sometimes&#160;have difficulty with the non-tangibles, the curve balls,&#160;and out-of-the-box thinking.”&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes the best ideas are borne&#160;from&#160;the&#160;analysis of a mistake. While certain mistakes can&#160;indeed&#160;be costly, if your firm&#160;consistently punishes even the slightest error,&#160;then&#160;a variety of valuable,&#160;constructive,&#160;and creative&#160;activity&#160;will be&#160;avoided&#160;for fear of embarrassment or rejection.&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What if you work alongside a perfectionist?&#160;As noted by author and therapist John Amodeo, PhD., “People who are addicted to perfection are often isolated. They don’t have many friends. They’re afraid that people will see through them, so they don’t let anyone get too close.”[1]&#160; Thus,&#160;you can&#160;enhance the effectiveness of your interactions&#160;with a perfectionist&#160;via&#160;a handful of proven methods, one of which is empathy. “The most important thing is to be empathetic,” says&#160;David&#160;Robert, Chief Strategy Officer at Loeb Leadership. “Remember, perfectionists tend to fear rejection,&#160;so it’s important to let the person know that you understand their perspective.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps more challenging is how, as a leader, you should&#160;provide feedback to perfectionists&#160;vs. high achievers.&#160;High achievers,&#160;fortunately,&#160;welcome&#160;it.&#160;They&#160;require just a bit of &quot;TLC&quot; feedback to improve (i.e., &lt;strong&gt;T&lt;/strong&gt;imely, &lt;strong&gt;L&lt;/strong&gt;imited to one behavior,&#160;and clearly describing the&#160;&lt;strong&gt;C&lt;/strong&gt;onsequences of the behavior).&#160;For example, “Yesterday,&#160;we missed a deadline&#160;to get&#160;a draft to the&#160;client for review. The client is not happy.”&#160;This type of&#160;feedback, however,&#160;will land better with a high achiever ready to&#160;discuss&#160;what&#160;happened&#160;than with&#160;a&#160;perfectionist&#160;who&#160;may look to&#160;point&#160;blame elsewhere.&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, because perfectionists tend to respond defensively to criticism, leaders often choose not to give any feedback. This&#160;is a mistake, because providing no feedback&#160;contributes to the loneliness that perfectionists can feel.&#160;It becomes a bit of a vicious circle.&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The good news is that, in our experience, most perfectionists are not unreasonable&#160;and will work with you to&#160;find some middle ground. “Once you demonstrate an understanding, then you can try to establish a shared vision,”&#160;notes&#160;Robert. “If you can agree on a&#160;shared vision, you’re in a better position to clarify where trade-offs can be made.”&#160;Robert suggests&#160;focusing on&#160;the client experience&#160;as a way to&#160;frame that discussion. Allow the&#160;common&#160;desire for exceptional client service to guide the process for getting work done.&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Creating an environment that rewards high achievers is the best way to ensure your team&#160;demonstrates the agility, creativity, and openness to change that&#160;clients&#160;value. High achievers “know that they are always learning and are striving to improve. Cultivating a culture that promotes high achievement and incorporates frequent feedback is often the way to the more ‘perfect’ outcomes, since high achievers are always striving,” says Natalie Loeb, CEO and leadership coach for Loeb Leadership.&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And don’t worry.&#160;If you describe yourself as a perfectionist, you’re in good company. Perfectionists who are self-aware tend to be more open to finding a middle ground as compared to those whose perfectionist tendencies reside in their blind spot. “One thing you can try immediately,” says&#160;Robert, “is to seek feedback from&#160;trusted&#160;colleagues. The more self-aware you are, the more likely you are to shift your mindset.”&#160;&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While striving for high-caliber&#160;results&#160;is&#160;any attorney’s&#160;goal, it must be balanced with rational and reasonable expectations of oneself and others.&#160;Lawyers never want to fail their clients, but incorporating&#160;certain successful elements of&#160;the&#160;tech&#160;mindset, “fail fast and fail forward,” can be helpful&#160;as we look to find a balance in our&#160;daily&#160;battle with perfectionism. Mistakes happen. Rebound quickly (fail fast) and learn from them (fail forward). Leaving space for non-perfection&#160;creates&#160;opportunities to&#160;build resilience, coping skills,&#160;self-confidence,&#160;and self-esteem.&#160;All qualities of high achievers.&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;Amodeo, John, PhD. (2018). 4 Perils of Perfectionism. Retrieved from &lt;span&gt;&#160;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;https://psychcentral.com/blog/4-perils-of-perfectionism/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; data-saferedirecturl=&quot;https://www.google.com/url?q=https://psychcentral.com/blog/4-perils-of-perfectionism/&amp;amp;source=gmail&amp;amp;ust=1562853745130000&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHF_z7FdgADIKUJ8MRZYbOgpL2mwQ&quot;&gt;https://psychcentral.com/blog/4-perils-of-perfectionism/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This post originally appeared on Loeb Leadership&#39;s website under the title, &lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;https://loebleadership.com/insights/2019/2/13/who-reallyperforms-better-the-perfectionistor-the-high-achiever&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Who Really Performs Better: The Perfectionist or High Achiever?&lt;/a&gt;&#160;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the authors&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;https://loebleadership.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Loeb Leadership&lt;/a&gt; is dedicated to helping others succeed through innovative and practical leadership development coaching and training.&#160; LOEB cares about the employee experience and the culture firms aim to create.&#160; Together LOEB and their clients build behaviors to support those successful firm cultures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;David B. Sarnoff, Esq., is Director of Strategic Partnerships of Loeb Leadership, Executive Coach and Leadership Trainer. You can reach him at&#160;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;mailto:dsarnoff@loebleadership.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;dsarnoff@loebleadership.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Natalie Loeb is Founder and CEO of Loeb Leadership and a Leadership Coach. You can reach her at&#160;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;mailto:natalie@loebleadership.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;natalie@loebleadership.com.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gordon Loeb is COO of Loeb Leadership and an Executive Coach. You can reach him at&#160;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;mailto:gordon@loebleadership.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;gordon@loebleadership.com.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;​David Robert is Chief Strategy Officer of Loeb Leadership. You can reach him at&#160;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;mailto:david@loebleadership.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;david@loebleadership.com.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/14337731/sarnoffdavidloeb.jpg?width=0&amp;amp;height=0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; data-udi=&quot;umb://media/fd4e9fa4ca3f4897a3fa53f0e074dbc7&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/14337732/loebnatalie.jpg?width=200&amp;amp;height=251&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; data-udi=&quot;umb://media/346d508b7b8741c4817ed04d5e1a1203&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/14337733/loebgordonloeb.jpg?width=200&amp;amp;height=251&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; data-udi=&quot;umb://media/0b74fa51ad6d4b608793bb9b0b7f97e9&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/14337734/robertdavidloeb.jpg?width=200&amp;amp;height=251&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; data-udi=&quot;umb://media/d1485e4681d546b7873adbb7ae39808b&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;

David B. Sarnoff, Esq., with Natalie Loeb, Gordon Loeb, and David Robert—Loeb Leadership

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