Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Competitive or perfectionist - which one are you?


H.L. Mencken defined wealth as "any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband." (1949)

We call that positional concerns.  

From an anthropological standpoint survival depends upon belonging to the tribe.  Ideally we have enough in common with the tribe to accepted as a member, but bring enough value-added that we are prized within the tribe. 

And since status is relative, people compete to be seen as the most valuable players.  Sometimes they want to be the richest, other times they want to brag about the colleges their kids attend.  Whatever they think will give them an edge.

Myers-Briggs tells us that ~60% of us value relationships over task - so the majority of us probably compete for elevated status within the tribe.

Perfectionists on the other hand march to a different drummer.  If all you care about is being perfect then you don't care about your performance relative to others.  You just want to be perfect.

So while most people would be content with a 98 out of 100 on a test, as long as it was the best grade given, perfectionists will focus on those other two points regardless.

Knowing which type of person you are dealing with is the key to motivating them.  So, which one are you?





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am definitely a perfectionist for the better or worse. I had the privilege of taking two of professor Lehrer classes while at NYU and I still remember her saying " I would never hire a perfectionist." I thought a lot about her statement and try to make sense of it. Now a year later I think I understand it.

Perfectionists pride themselves on striving for the best and not settling for anything less than 100%. The problem with this behavior, in my opinion, is that your marginal effort for that extra 2 % is going to be so high, you could probably learn something entirely different instead of chasing those 2%. In the workplace, it comes down to this, if your work meets a certain standard, your boss would want your work ASAP.

Since my conversation with Professor Lehrer, I have changed my interview strategies and never mentioned "perfectionism" again.

PJ Lehrer said...

I'd make an exception for a perfectionist who is open to coaching. ;-)