Despite the growing interest in perfectionism and its many facets, there is a lack of research on this phenomenon in the context of leadership. Attending to this deficit, the present study is the first to investigate the relationship between the three facets of perfectionism (self-oriented, socially prescribed, and other-oriented perfectionism) and three types of self-rated leadership behavior. In Study 1 (N = 182), leaders’ perfectionism and its association to their organizational, goal-oriented leadership behavior—self-rated as transactional (management by exception) and transformational leadership—is explored. In Study 2 (N = 185), the relationship of leaders’ perfectionism to their servant leadership as a people-centered leadership behavior is investigated. In line with the perfectionism social disconnection model (PSDM), we assume other-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism to be positively related to management by exception (i.e., monitoring behavior) and negatively related to transformational and servant leadership, whereas the opposite pattern is primarily predicted for self-oriented perfectionism. Our findings in Study 1 reveal a negative relationship between leaders’ self-oriented perfectionism as well as positive relationships to their other-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism in management by exception, while no substantial correlations with transformational leadership have emerged. In Study 2, a negative association between other-oriented perfectionism and the forgiveness dimension of servant leadership is revealed, indicating a possible barrier to building interpersonal relationships of acceptance and trust. Additionally, self-oriented perfectionism has been proven to be a rather favorable trait in servant leadership.

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Why do dimensions of perfectionism have different effects on employees’ engagement, exhaustion, and job satisfaction? Combining the perfectionism literature and self-determination theory, we expected self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) and socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) to be differently related to employee well-being through the fulfilment or lack of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction. We attributed a unique role to autonomy satisfaction in fostering work engagement. Data were collected at 2 time points, with a 3-month interval, in an online study. Several results from path analyses including data from 328 (T1) and 138 (T2) employees were consistent with our expectations. SPP was negatively related to work engagement and job satisfaction via a lack of autonomy satisfaction and positively related to exhaustion via a lack of relatedness satisfaction. Additionally, SOP and SPP showed different associations with competence satisfaction. Overall, our findings highlight the motivational differences inherent in perfectionism that translate into well-being via need satisfaction and unique effects of the three needs.