The Hidden Cost of Perfectionism at Work

Perfectionism tends to get a good press in organisations. It looks like high standards. It looks like commitment. It reads, on a CV or in a performance review, as someone who really cares about the quality of their work. But the evidence tells a more complicated story.

A major academic review, published in the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and authored by Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Professor of Organisational Psychology at UCL and Columbia University, examined perfectionism across multiple studies and meta-analyses. The findings are worth sitting with: perfectionism shows weak or no association with actual job performance.

What it does show strong associations with: burnout, chronic stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, and persistent difficulty switching off from work. As Chamorro-Premuzic frames it in his Fast Company article, perfectionism reliably depletes people without reliably improving output.

The Threshold Effect

The research isn't suggesting that high standards are the problem. At moderate levels, perfectionism can look and function a lot like diligence and professional pride. The difficulty begins when it crosses a particular threshold.

When Perfectionism Looks Like Commitment

Once it does, something shifts. The driving force is no longer excellence. It becomes fear: fear of making mistakes, fear of judgement, fear of falling short of an invisible standard that keeps moving. And that fear has recognisable organisational consequences. Indecision. Micromanagement. Burnout. Relationships that fray under the pressure of impossible expectations.

Brené Brown names this dynamic "life paralysis": the opportunities we miss, the ideas we don't voice, the risks we don't take, because putting something imperfect into the world feels too dangerous.

Why Organisations Inadvertently Reinforce It

Here is the part that makes perfectionism particularly difficult to address: in most workplaces, it is actively rewarded.

Cultures that celebrate overwork, self-criticism, and constant busyness tend to read perfectionist behaviour as dedication. The person staying late to rework something for the fourth time looks committed. The leader who cannot delegate because no one else will do it to the right standard looks thorough.

Which means many people are being quietly reinforced for the very behaviour that is burning them out. The feedback loop is invisible, and it runs in the wrong direction.

The Alternative: Excellencism

The researchers point to a concept they call "excellencism": very high but flexible standards, pursued without the fear of failure. The distinction is an important one. High standards paired with a willingness to learn, adapt, and tolerate imperfection as part of a process look very different from high standards pursued through fear and control.

In our Braver than Before® leadership development programme, we describe this as a shift in the internal question leaders ask themselves. The perfectionist question is "What will they think?" It is driven by fear of judgement and keeps attention focused outward, on perception and threat. The excellencist question is "How can I improve?" It is driven by curiosity and growth, and keeps attention focused on learning.

Both questions can exist in the same person on the same day. The practice is learning to notice which one is running, and making a deliberate choice about which one to follow.

What This Means in Practice

Psychologically safe environments, where people feel able to raise concerns, ask for help, and admit mistakes without fear of blame, are precisely the conditions that make excellencism possible. When the fear of judgement is lowered, high standards and genuine learning can coexist.

This is not about lowering the bar. It is about questioning what the bar is actually for, and who set it, and whether the fear underneath it is helping or hindering the work.

For leaders in healthcare, where the consequences of mistakes are serious and the culture of scrutiny is intense, this distinction has particular weight. Speaking up, asking questions, and acknowledging uncertainty are not signs of inadequacy. Research on psychological safety consistently shows they are the behaviours that improve outcomes, for patients and for teams.

The full article by Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is available in Fast Company. The underlying academic review is published in the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology.

If you are interested in exploring how Braver than Before® supports leaders in building psychologically safe, high-performing cultures, you can find out more about the programme or get in touch.