You’re a perfectionist but your boss is not

Your desk is tidy and your day is planned well. You’re early to meetings, meet your deadlines, you submit reports that are flawless and you fulfill your commitments. If you’re a work perfectionist it may be frustrating if co-workers aren’t as impeccable as you. It’s even more frustrating if your boss is not a perfectionist.

We’ve asked career experts how to manage your Type A approach to work with your boss’ Type B.

Keep the focus on what you do

The impact of your role at work is something you can control. “Focus on the impact you are making within the company and define those tasks or projects as ‘wins’ when executed,” says Dean Campos, founder of ClearLegend, an operational performance training company in Fort Collins, Colorado. He has worked with many millennial professionals driving them to success due to tactics acquired from a research-based perspective. In addition to remaining focused in your own work, Campos says to make sure you are highly aware of your emotions at work.

“Take a step back in your mind and ask yourself how you can use the situation as an advantage to gain experience or expertise,” he adds.

Focus on what you can control in this situation: you.

Realize your boss may be results-oriented

Your boss doesn’t have to adjust to your perfectionism; they have their own path they follow. Sometimes perfectionism just takes more time, and the results may be the same- with better time management approaches.

“Perfectionism requires many hours and in the business world, every minute counts,” says Vaida Kardokaite, a marketing manager Angle180, a marketing firm in Chicago. “Sometimes you get stuck on the details and spend hours on things that don’t matter.” A result-oriented manager may see a project path differently but the goals are the same – success.

Embrace the differences

Debra Benton, an executive coach, who is president of Benton Management Resources, and author of 11 books including her latest from McGraw-Hill titled, The Leadership Mind Switch: Rethinking How We Lead in the New World of Work, says a good boss always tries to hire someone smarter than her/him and has different skills.

“So if you are a Type A hired by a non-type A that is a good boss rounding out his or her team,” she says. Your task is to find out the “thing” the boss sees in your which enhances the team, Benton says.

Manage your emotions

By remaining calm and collected, it demonstrates your professionalism, even if you want to take control of every situation. Offering initial steps to move forward in hectic, critical or timely situations, you can succeed without making a boss feel you are in control or threatening their position or authority, says Jill Tipograph, co-founder of Early Stage Careers in New York, a coaching service focused on helping college students, college graduates and millennials successfully launch their careers, and optimize their early jobs.

Your steady emotions can help diffuse a testy situation and keep the lines of communication open and successful.