Breaking Free from Perfectionism: How Good Enough Drives Progress
👋🏻 Hello growth seekers,
Ken Chenault didn’t get eased into the CEO chair. Only months after taking the role at American Express, September 11th tore through New York and through his company: 11 employees were lost, and the headquarters near the World Trade Center was severely affected. In the days after, he brought tri-state employees together at Madison Square Garden—not to deliver a flawless “vision” but to do something far harder: show up without armor. He acknowledged grief, named uncertainty, and still offered a path forward—steady enough to calm panic, honest enough to be believed. That moment matters for perfectionism because it exposes the lie at its center: that you can wait until you feel fully ready. You can’t. In real leadership, the cost of “one more round” is often paid by everyone else—in confusion, delay, and a slow leak of trust. Chenault’s move was “good enough” in the most demanding sense: not a polished performance, but the right action at the right time, with the courage to be seen as human while carrying the weight of the system.
🧠 Why perfectionism stalls careers (and teams)
In corporate life, perfectionism rarely announces itself as anxiety. It shows up as “standards,” “rigor,” “I’m just being thorough.” But psychologically it often functions as a control strategy: if I can make the output impeccable, I can avoid the discomfort of uncertainty, criticism, or the possibility that I’m not enough. That’s where Carl Rogers’ humanistic thread becomes practical without ever being academic. When people feel evaluated mainly through “conditions” (approval earned only through performance), they drift away from congruence—the ability to be honest about what they know, what they don’t, and what they’re learning. They start managing perception instead of managing reality. The corporate symptom is familiar: decisions get deferred until they feel defensible, drafts become overworked, and leaders unintentionally teach teams that safety comes from polish, not from truth. “Good enough” flips the operating system. It creates a learning loop: act, get real feedback, adapt, repeat. And it’s not the absence of excellence—it’s excellence deployed with judgment. Chenault’s leadership during crisis illustrates the point: communicate early, reduce ambiguity, and give people room to act responsibly rather than waiting for perfect instructions. During the 2008 financial crisis, he leaned on frequent, visible communication—town halls and direct outreach—because momentum is partly emotional regulation at scale: if the nervous system of the organization calms down, it can think again.
🎯 The “two-speed” rule: where perfect belongs, where it doesn’t
If you want a career advantage that compounds, borrow Chenault’s calibration: separate the work that must be near-perfect from the work that must be fast. In a trust business like payments, some domains are sacred—risk management, compliance, customer commitments. Those are “one-way doors”: small errors can cascade. But most of what makes you promotable lives elsewhere: prioritization, narrative clarity, stakeholder alignment, product bets, talent decisions, and the ability to correct course without ego. That’s where perfectionism is a tax, not a virtue. “Good enough” in these domains means: choose the smallest decision you can make that unlocks the next piece of information; state assumptions explicitly; keep choices reversible when possible; and invite dissent early—before people have invested in a perfect story. This is also Rogers, translated into boardroom language: create conditions where truth can surface without punishment, and people will bring reality to you sooner. That is how you accelerate without becoming reckless: high standards on outcomes that protect trust, high tolerance for iteration on everything that creates learning. If you adopt this, you’ll notice something almost immediately: your team stops performing competence and starts producing progress. And your own leadership presence changes too—you become less dependent on immaculate outputs for confidence, and more confident because you can move in uncertainty without losing your integrity. That’s what “good enough” buys you: speed with self-respect, ambition without brittleness, and a reputation for delivering forward motion when others are still polishing.
Practical tools
In this "Practical Tools" section, we've put together a set of resources to support your personal growth journey. Chosen for those keen to explore deeper and refine their leadership qualities, these tools are designed with genuine intention. Here, it's all about taking meaningful steps towards personal betterment. Let's begin!
🧭 The “two-speed” expectation map
Picture your week as a series of invisible contracts. Different generations often sign different ones without noticing. A Gen Z colleague may assume fast feedback and autonomy; a Gen X leader may assume you earn trust through quiet reliability; a Boomer stakeholder may expect deference to experience and process. Your advantage is to make these contracts explicit in your own head before they become friction in the room. Treat every project as two tracks: what must be flawless (risk, compliance, client promises) and what must be iterative (drafts, experiments, internal choices). Then communicate your “speed” choice early, so others stop guessing your standards and start matching them.
🧠 The “identity vs. behavior” coaching move
When generations clash, it’s usually framed as personality: “they’re entitled,” “they’re rigid,” “they don’t commit.” High-performing leaders reframe it as context and incentives. Instead of correcting the person, adjust the environment: clarify what “great” looks like, shorten the feedback loop, and remove one blocker that creates learned helplessness. This is where productivity spikes—because you stop fighting identity and start shaping behavior. The quickest ladder-climb comes from being the person who can unlock performance without drama.
🔁 The “translation layer” meeting ritual
Before any decision meeting, run a private translation: what does each generation in this room likely optimize for—speed, certainty, recognition, stability, learning? In the meeting, summarize options in two currencies: outcomes (what changes) and process (how we’ll get there). This reduces misalignment instantly because you’re speaking to both risk-tolerance and ambition. You become the leader who makes mixed rooms decisive.
📈 The “reversible bet” portfolio
Make progress visible by structuring work as small, reversible bets. Older colleagues see prudence; younger colleagues see momentum. You gain political capital because you’re not asking for blind trust—you’re buying information cheaply. Over time, this compounds into a reputation: you move fast without breaking things, and you bring others with you.
Food For Thought
Welcome to the "Food for Thought" section, your gateway to a curated selection of resources that will nourish your curiosity and inspire your creative journey. In this corner of Growth Republic, we bring a collection of insightful resources that you can look for on the web, from thought-provoking podcasts or books, to illuminating online articles that can expand your horizons and deepen your understanding of the topics we explore. Consider it your intellectual pantry, stocked with ingredients to feed your mind, and ignite your creativity. Dive into these resources and let the feast of knowledge begin.
🧠 Paper: The fearless organization: creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. If you want the Rogers-aligned “conditions for growth” translated into an operating system for teams, this is it: how to make truth-telling safe so people iterate faster and fail smarter.
🪞 Book: On becoming a person: a therapist’s view of psychotherapy. The conceptual backbone behind humanistic, growth-oriented leadership: self-concept, congruence, and why acceptance accelerates development (useful if you want the theory under the essay’s “drop the armor, raise the performance” idea).
🎧 Podcast episode: HBR: dealing with perfectionism. A tight, workplace-specific conversation (with a clinical lens) on when perfectionism helps, when it harms, and how to shift toward “high standards + faster loops.” Feed needed: the HBR podcast feed (Apple Podcasts/Spotify or any podcast app).
🧩 Article: HBR: good enough can be great. A sharp managerial argument for calibrated standards: where “good enough” unlocks momentum, and how leaders avoid turning perfection into a bottleneck.
Quote Of The Week
«Done is better than perfect.» - Sheryl Sandberg
About the Author
Hi, I am Cesare Zavalloni. I am a Certified Executive Coach by IMD business school and Associated Certified Coach (ACC), member of International Coaching Federation (ICF). I bring more than 20+ years of experience as corporate executive in Fortune 100 companies and as outdoor adventurer. My purpose is to guide, encourage and inspire young professionals and executives like you to see your authentic leadership nature and the new possibilities this realization creates.
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