I am a recovering perfectionist. As an aerospace program manager, I steer projects from start to finish. This requires systematic planning, holistic problem assessment, and being on top of… everything. I believed that my perfectionism would demonstrate my potential, leading to sky-high evaluations, bigger raises, faster promotions, and overall workplace success. That’s how it works... right? Well, research says I’ve had it all wrong: perceived potential is NOT based on perfection.

Managers carry a bias called the Peak-End Effect (Geng, Chen, Lam, Zheng as cited in Soliman and Buehler, 2017, p. 53). This means that, during an evaluation, your most recent period of performance is given an inordinate amount of weight that overshadows past performance. In other words, ending on a high note (a “peak-end”) makes your managers have a higher view of your overall performance... even if, along the way, your overall performance was weaker than that of your peers.

Not only does the Peak-End Effect impact the perception of your past performance, but it also alters the perception of your future; it causes your managers to project your trajectory of growth onto future tasks and positions. See how far along she has come in the past six months? Imagine how great she will be performing six months from now!

Exacerbating this Peak-End Effect is a concept called the Availability Heuristic, which is a fancy way of saying that managers often place greater emphasis on events they can easily recall. Showing recent improvement or correcting a recent failure is memorable, keeping you more top-of-mind than the perfectionists who are always excelling in the background. 

What does this mean for your workplace performance? When you are being evaluated or are evaluating candidates for increased responsibility, know that there is a major bias at play. Here’s what you can do about it...

Take Action: Managing Perceived Potential

• If you are a manager, decision maker, or performance evaluator...you likely have an unconscious tendency to associate someone’s potential with whether or not they’ve shown recent improvement. Be aware that there are individuals who are high performers from the onset. With this bias in mind, establish clear reference points as the basis for evaluation, such as average performance over a relevant period of time.

• If you are an individual contributor...highlight your areas of greatest and recent improvement. This may cause your managers to view you as more hardworking, as having more potential, and to favor you in selection decisions.

• If you are undertaking a difficult task or project...face it with confidence. You do not need to be perfect! Focus on Minimum Viable Performance (MVP): the minimum level of effort required to ensure competency without establishing expectations of perfection among your managers (the real MVP!). It is likely you will experience mini-failures. Be comfortable with this. As you correct these mini-failures, your improvement will cause managers to view you as having high potential.
  

  Here’s one important caveat for applying these principles in the workplace: do not self-sabotage or set yourself up to underperform just to show improvement. Instead, perform with competence, ease up on your perfectionism, get comfortable with mini-failures, and keep improving.

  
  Thanks for reading. Project [Re]Work will be back in your inbox next Monday morning with new research to enhance your workplace performance. If you missed the last article, catch up here. Now, go be the real MVP!

Join The Conversation

Are you getting or giving a performance review this month? Consider a new approach based on this research. Share your experiences and feedback on LinkedIn, or over email. If you learned something new today, share this article with a colleague or friend.

Definitions

• Peak-End Effect: the end point of a sequence can have an inordinate effect on appraisals of the entire sequence.

• Availability Heuristic: greater emphasis is placed on events that can easily be recalled.

• Minimum Viable Performance (MVP): the minimum level of effort required to ensure competency without establishing expectations of perfection.

References

Soliman, M., & Buehler, R. (2017). Why improvement can trump consistent strong performance: The role of effort perceptions. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 31(1), 52-64. doi:10.1002/bdm.2039 (Article Link: Here)

Kupor, D., Reich, T., & Laurin, K. (2018). The (bounded) benefits of correction: The unanticipated interpersonal advantages of making and correcting mistakes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 149, 165-178. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.08.002 (Article Link: Here)

Soliman, M., & Buehler, R. (2017). Evaluating performance over time: Is improving better than being consistently good? The Journal of Social Psychology, 158(3), 271-284. doi:10.1080/00224545.2017.1341373 (Article Link: Here)

Bazerman, M. H., & Moore, D. A. (2012). Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, 8th Edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Global Education. (Article Link: Here)