Staff Trainer | A Human Resource & Management Blog

I’ll never forget one of the most important things I learned in college- from my economics teacher- is that just because something is worth doing DOES NOT mean that it is worth doing perfectly. He gave us an essay I haven’t been able to find since, and I don’t remember the author, but it was called On Doing Things Well.” Notice it says “well” not “right.” He and the essay gave examples- that for some people it may be better to rent, for some people it may make more sense to work for ten years after high school before going to college. These examples go against so-called “conventional wisdom” but may be the best choice depending on the situation.

We have only limited resources, time being among them. We choose where we spend our time and for everything we choose to do, we loose time that could have ben spent on something else. This is a problem for the perfectionist because they spend more time doing something “right” than it’s really worth- to the detriment of whatever you took time away from.

Have you known people who move their furniture every time they vacuum? Does that mean that it’s not worth vacuuming if you don’t have time to move your furniture? It may to the perfectionist. The balanced person, however, would vacuum the areas that would be seen before a party, doing the job merely “well”, but would then have time to see to their other responsibilities. Time can only be spent once- so spend it well.

One way to find out if you are a perfectionist is to take this quiz.

Read Managing the Alpha Male by Inside Training to get some insight on someone most of us work with or for.

While personality tests such as the Color Code, the Enneagram and my favorite, Myers-Briggs, are helpful for understanding how people work and smoothing interaction at work and home, they are not meant to be omnipotent.

People can act in generalized ways that can be categorized. The key word is “can.” People don’t always act in their percieved category. Beyond randomness of choice there are other factors that cannot be ignored- namely physical, emotional, and mental health.

If we are physically sick we may have too much “noise” from the pain and too little energy and desire to always act in consistent ways. Some do manage to do so regardless of pain or illness, but as most of us know, this is very hard to do.

With emotional pain, disruptive thinking patterns or life experience the pain, thoughts, or conditioning we have gone through override our natural tendencies.

Mental health factors such as Attention-Defecit Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Bi-Polar/Manic Depression can radically alter our natural reactions. Even if you are healthy, chances are you work with someone with a mental disorder of some kind, whethere they are diagnosed or not. Many people with Asperger’s Syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorder, are naturally drawn to seek employment in the High-Tech fields. Obsessive-Compulsive people are drawn to positions of power.

Think of a personality test as a way to generally categorize the healthy tendencies of people and not as a complete picture.

Badbossology.com is the most comprehensive site for dealing with difficult bosses I’ve found.

Want to learn the basics of Excel formulas in less than an hour? Take this free course from Microsoft.

The phrase “think outside the box” is now cliché. The principle is true, we should think beyond our normal paradigm, but the phrase itself has become so overused it has become cliché- and clichés are typical “in the box” conventions that generally don’t cause the listener to adjust how they think.

And not every box needs adjusting.