Saboteur Spotlight: The Stickler – perfectionism is Mission Impossible.

Do you consider yourself to be a perfectionist?

Do you set yourself the highest standards for your work? Do you wear your perfectionist trait like a badge of honour?

If this sounds like you, then it is likely that you have a strong Stickler Saboteur.

The Stickler Saboteur can feature prominently among Account Managers and Sales Leaders.  Why? Successful salespeople are more often than not highly organised, diligent and gain comfort from a sense of order in their role.  

In this article I want to provide some insight into how the Stickler Saboteur can impact your short and long-term performance and what you can do to combat its negative influence.

What is the Stickler Saboteur?

As identified from the research conducted by Positive Intelligence™ there are 10 Saboteurs.  These Saboteurs are responsible for hijacking our minds and generating the negative emotions we feel like shame, guilt, disappointment, and anxiety.   In the case of the Stickler Saboteur, it installs an obsessive and unhealthy need for perfection and order in its host.

How does the Stickler negatively impact your performance?

You may be sitting there thinking that the impossibly high standards you set for yourself is not a bad trait and has been responsible for your career achievements thus far.  Sure, you may fall short sometimes, but your perfectionism drives you to get the best possible results you can achieve, right?

To understand how the Stickler Saboteur can hinder your performance, let’s first consider some of its characteristics. 

People with the Stickler Saboteur set astronomically high standards and are crystal clear on their guiding principles.  They have tremendous self-discipline and will work fastidiously until a task is completed to the best of their ability.  Due to being highly principled, they are also direct in their communication style, seeing and calling things as they are.

These characteristics I’ve mentioned are desirable strengths when harnessed in a positive way.  However, it is important to note that these natural strengths transform into Saboteurs when they are misused.

In the case of salespeople with a prominent Stickler Saboteur, the first obvious way in which their perfectionism has an adverse impact on their performance is by decreasing their productivity. 

When everything you do has to meet such high standards, you end up spending a disproportionate amount of time on even relatively simple tasks, like sending updates on in-store execution.  The Stickler in that person will waste time creating Powerpoint slides with perfectly formatted photos, whereas a simple email with photo attachments would do the job. And I reference this example because I personally used to do this myself!

Performance can also be negatively impacted by the Stickler taking on additional work over and above his or her responsibilities.  Why do they do this? They do this to make up for what they perceive to be “sloppiness” or “laziness” in other people’s work.  An example of this might be a manager overwriting his or her direct report’s forecast, which they consider to be inaccurate.

Your way is not necessarily the “right” way.

In the case of most people with the Stickler Saboteur, the overarching feeling they have is that they know what is right and what is wrong, and therefore their way is the right way. 

This constant need to be “right”, can make Sticklers very difficult characters to work with.  From a leadership point of view, their direct reports can experience constant frustration and disappointment in striving to meet their manager’s unreasonably high expectations.  It can become exhausting and eventually these direct reports become completely disengaged. 

And who is to say that the Stickler’s way is the right way? In Matthew Syed’s fascinating book “Rebel Ideas” he proposes that humanity’s progression has been fuelled by sharing and building upon diverse of ideas.  Each member of a team brings unique and valuable experiences and points of views, which if exploited can fuel the innovation cycle, and this can in turn lead to better processes and best practices. 

If a leader is hijacked by their Stickler, this can shut down all the wonderful ideas their team can bring to the table and stymie any co-creation.

Furthermore, their directness in communication can come across as cold and harsh.  The Stickler will focus on the 1% that is bad rather than the 99% that is good, and this can be taxing and demotivating for those employees who work for them.

Criticism can threaten the Stickler’s identity.

Unsurprisingly people with a strong Stickler Saboteur can be very sensitive to criticism.  Their identity is so closely linked to perfection and order, that when they receive negative (or constructive) feedback, this can be perceived to be an assault on their sense of self.

As a result, they can become very defensive over their position, whether that relates to their processes, their management style, or the way in which they engage their customer. 

If you are going to challenge someone with a strong Stickler Saboteur, you may need to lace up your gloves in preparation for a fight!

Not every task requires perfection – apply the 80/20 rule to diminish the Stickler’s damaging impact and improve your productivity and relationships.

So now that you have an awareness of the destructive impacts of the Stickler Saboteur, what can you do overcome it?

The application of the 80/20 rule to one’s responsibilities can really help to weaken the influence of the Stickler.  What does this look like?

You can create two buckets where 20% of the work you do gets completed to the highest possible quality.  This could include forecasting, customer presentations, negotiation prep or JBP updates.  For the other 80% of less critical tasks, accept that “good enough” is good enough and move on.  If the work on these tasks does not meet the required standard, you will get that feedback from others in your team, and have the opportunity to improve its quality.

This will ensure that you do not spread yourself too thinly, which will result in higher productivity and lower stress levels.

On a related topic, a person with a staunch Stickler Saboteur can apply this 80/20 rule to their own leadership style.  If your direct reports see you easing your standards on the more menial tasks, then this will free up their energy to complete the truly important tasks to their highest possible standards.  You will be able to better motivate your team using this approach.

How building Mental Fitness allow you to harness the strengths and weaken the destructive impacts of the Stickler Saboteur.

Hopefully you’ve gained some insight from this article on how your Stickler Saboteur can hijack your mind and adversely influence your performance.  However, to create lasting habit change, only 20% of the necessary work is attributed to insight.

The other 80% of work is attributed to mental muscle building to construct new neural pathways.  This takes at least 6-weeks of intense work.  If you are interested in intercepting your Saboteurs and shifting to a more positive mindset then take the Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment https://www.positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/ and then book a free 30-minute coaching call with me at https://www.expcoaching.co.uk/ to find out more!