Perfectionism can look like high standards, but in professional services it usually hides something deeper — a high need for control and an overactive fear of mistakes.
You’ll see it in leaders who hang on to too much work, edit every detail, or wait until something feels flawless before sharing it. It slows everything down, and eventually they become the bottleneck.
Even when they do delegate, they often keep too much ownership. The ambitious people — the ones who want to stretch — move on to teams where growth is encouraged. What’s left is a team that operate either in their comfort zone or in a state of heightened anxiety. The team rarely perform at its best.
Over time, the constant checking and correcting erodes trust. Teams stop sharing ideas because they’ve learned that new or unfinished thinking creates stress. The unspoken rule becomes: stay safe, stay small.
How HR can help
Start by helping leaders see that capability grows through progress, not polish. The more room people have to try things, the faster they build their own judgement and confidence.
Reframe delegation as a development tool. It’s not just a way to clear a busy diary — it’s how capability and confidence are built across the team.
Encourage leaders to notice who they delegate to. Many fall into the habit of giving stretch work to the same safe pair of hands every time. It feels efficient, but it quietly limits the team’s overall capacity. Supporting leaders to share opportunities more evenly helps spread capability, reduce pressure on high performers, and create a stronger pipeline for the future.
When perfectionism surfaces, stay curious. Questions like, “What’s one thing you could let go of this week — and what would that make possible?” open up reflection without judgement.
Encourage small, low-risk experiments. Ask leaders to delegate a contained piece of work, give feedback on the outcome, and notice what happens — to their time, to their team, and to quality. Once that feels safe, stretch the next experiment a little further. Over time, they’ll see that the areas of work that truly demand perfection are far fewer than they think.
If you’d like a simple way to start these conversations, I’ve shared a short piece on The 5 Levels of Delegation Toolkit— it helps leaders choose the right level of ownership for each task and person.
Read it here.
