I gave up long ago on the illusion of perfection. However, the pursuit of progress and reaching toward both individual and collective potential remain significant parts of most days. My parents made the merit of becoming the best version of myself extremely clear early on in my life. To this day I am far from the best at anything, and yet I continue to pursue the endless quest of becoming my best. That commitment continues to be both a blessing and a curse.
Over the years, I have been lucky enough to be a part of many high-performing teams. Whether it was sports or the workplace, I have been surrounded by teammates who have a shared case of the ‘pleased, but not satisfied’ mindset. In fact, I have grown so accustomed to the shared diagnosis that I assume coworkers I have yet to meet benefit from the same philosophy. That is until I am reminded that few assumptions are safe.
I distinctly remember one high-performing individual who was visibly stressed out about an upcoming test. She cared deeply about being and doing her best in all facets of life and in this case, she was committed to doing far more than merely passing the test. One of my well-intentioned peers took her aside just before the test and reminded her to relax and that “the minimum score wouldn’t be considered ‘good enough’ if it was not good enough.” I both overheard and watched this conversation occur. As she heard his words, her smile diminished as such a philosophy was counter to the person she took great pride in being. Me being me, later that day I pulled my peer aside and helped him understand the flaws in his well-meant pep talk and how cultivating a culture where we were satisfied with good enough would eventually undermine mission accomplishment. I circled back with the young lady and we had a proper pre-test conversation, congratulating her for being so well prepared and committed to being her best.
Today I find myself in a very different situation professionally. I am part of a young company who, though equally committed to doing our best, has a very different relationship with good enough. Having high standards, not a day passes when I don’t see flaws in my personal and our collective execution. It’s not that I am actively looking for shortcomings, but my affliction makes it difficult for me to overlook them. As a software as a service (SaaS) company, we are good enough to earn the sale. Good enough to enjoy a renewal. Good enough to meet customer expectations. And good enough to ensure a growing audience sees value in both the capability and the service we provide. I struggled with this and professed to my boss that for me good enough just wasn’t cutting it. We cannot be satisfied with being just good enough.
After a lengthy conversation, he helped me understand that in the start-up world ‘good enough’ is often the goal. Every dollar counts. If we can meet sales goals without adding headcount, let’s not add another salary to the payroll. If we can effectively engage with our customers and renew their accounts without purchasing that customer success software, let’s revisit the need next quarter. Though in a very different context, he was giving me a similar pep talk to the one I was so critical of years ago. I did not enjoy hearing it, but he was right. Sometimes being good enough is the best you can hope for and is the very definition of success, at least in the short term. Companies that aren’t good enough, aren’t around long. The challenge is in decoupling good enough outcomes from being less than your best in the execution.
In sports, we hear some coaches celebrate an ugly win and we see others find solace in a well-executed loss. Both perspectives have merit. My current team is certainly generating many of the right business outcomes and our customers love us. I have every expectation our execution will one day be far better than good enough. As odd as it is for me to admit, being good enough at this point in our evolution is all that we can ask for and is in fact good enough. In some circumstances, good enough just simply isn’t. In others, expending resources to be more than good enough is irresponsible. I love seeing the same situation from different angles. I love rethinking and having reason to change my opinions. Turns out, good enough is oftentimes worthy of celebration.
- Are you focused on being the best version of you possible?
- Are you encouraging or letting your team off the hook with a ‘good enough’ philosophy?
- What is your relationship with good enough?