Perfection is the Enemy

This is an unintentional third part to the Perfection Series. In the first episode, "Excellence Vs. Perfection", I share some stories from struggling solo cleaners as they clean. The takeaway is this. Perfection is selfish. You are trying to make something so clean to scratch the itch you have. You are doing it to please you, not the customer. Here's an example. If perfection represents a 10 in cleaning, excellence is around 8. You can get to an 8 quickly and efficiently. But taking an 8 to a 10 may add hours. These extra hours costs you money and inconvenience for the customer. The irony is that you'll never get to 10 anyway. Go for excellence, which is learning what makes the customer happy and accomplish it every time.

Part two of the perfection series was a revisit of perfection from the mental health side. In "Accept the Uncertainty", I unpack a therapist's tool for helping OCD patient's break free from the perfection. Some of you that struggle with perfectionism also deal with OCD or other mental health. If you can treat your mental health and learn some tools like accepting the uncertainty, you will be able to clean at the excellence level and be okay with it.

In this third part, I'm taking another look at perfection. I'll even go as far as to say that perfection is the enemy! Craig Rochelle is a Christian pastor and leadership coach. He uses the term GETMO, which stands for Good Enough to Move On. We've already covered this in the first two podcasts for cleaning. GETMO is excellence. What is good enough? What is the level of cleaning and customization to each customer that makes them mostly happy. Figure this out, do it, and MOVE ON. That's GETMO. That's excellence. Do you GETMO it?

Let's move this concept of GETMO vs. perfection into the area of building a team. I'm way past perfection in cleaning, but team-building is a different story. I know the exact type of person, personality profile, professional status, and such that I'm looking for. I have designed filters an hoops in my hiring process to eliminate the wrong ones and attract the right ones. This is great and over time may yield the team I'm looking for. There are some problems.

1. I haven't built a team, so how do I know for certain all of the variable I think I know?
2. I have a short time to delegate my entire business so I can take my family to Florida for a month. Can I get by with less than perfect team members?
3. Am I chasing away the right people with too many hoops? Is my process too tight?

Coach Josh has been pushing me on this. He wants me to move away from perfection and use discernment in hiring. In my world of systems and being an engineer, I want the right people to filter through my mechanical process like robots. But people are not robots and I may be losing great people because of the perfection that I'm after. Does this trigger anything for you? What is your next goal for your team? You may be like me where my next goal requires team A, but my longer term goal requires a entirely different team B. Why should I perfect my process for team B members when I just need GETMO team A to get 'er done?

I'm seeing my perfectionism creep up in various places. It may be gone in cleaning and on the way to being gone in team-building. But what about planning? Ouch! Hot button. I am a classic overthinker and over planner. Perfection is buried inside of overthinking. You have to make it perfect in the planning before you execute. Let's evaluate perfectionist tendencies. Are you trying to have a perfect plan (meaning are you overthinking everything to death)?. Are you trying to find the perfect customer and filtering out so many that you don't make enough money? Are you trying to find the perfect employee? You'll never get there. Perfection doesn't exist in my worldview as a Christian either, God is perfect and Jesus lived a perfect life. Other than that, perfection doesn't exist. Therefore you can never achieve it. So why are we trying? Instead go for excellence or GETMO in each instance. Make the plan good enough and take action. Find the best customers and team members that you can and move on. Define what good enough looks like and hold yourself accountable to moving on!

Do you need help in defining good enough and setting forth a plan to move on? Make sure to check out the many free & paid resources of the Smart Cleaning School.