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What if the drive to get everything exactly right is actually getting in the way of doing your best work?
Charles Glassman, MD returns to What’s Your Work Fit? for a conversation about perfectionism, fear, psychological safety, vulnerability, and discernment that can influence how we respond to pressure at work.
Charlie explains why perfectionism isn’t always a strength. It can become a fight-or-flight response—what he calls the Automatic Brain—driving us to overwork, procrastinate, avoid discomfort, or obsess over outcomes we cannot completely control.
His distinction is simple and powerful: being the best is largely outside our control. Doing our best is always possible.
Joining Executive Producer and Host Dan Smolen in the conversation is co-host Marian Anderson; she brings a workplace and HR perspective to the discussion. Together, they explore how our past experiences follow us into the workplace, why psychological safety shouldn’t mean eliminating all discomfort, and why our brains can confuse what is possible with what is probable.
We also turn to the future of work. As AI takes on more tasks, discernment—the human ability to reflect, question, and determine what is true—may become increasingly important.
And Charlie makes the case for something we don’t always associate with workplace success: humility and vulnerability.
In this episode:
- Why perfectionism can become self-sabotage
- How the automatic brain shapes workplace behavior
- Why employees don’t arrive at work as blank slates
- Psychological safety versus avoiding discomfort
- The difference between possibility and probability
- Why vulnerability can be an asset
- The growing importance of discernment in an AI-enabled workplace
- Why Charlie defines his own Work Fit through connection
What’s Your Work Fit? explores how career professionals can make work a wonderful part of their day while doing other wonderful things.
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Our best days lie ahead.