Cut Out the Competition with Your Coworkers

Source: ConvergenceCoaching, LLC Inspired Ideas

The following excerpts from a blog post by Jennifer Wilson are reproduced with permission.

Competition is a hallmark of our free market system. Competitors drive us to improve, grow and change. In many respects, competition helps our companies to be vibrant and healthy.

But in my travels this year, I have visited many organizations where members of the leadership team are no longer focused on their formidable external competitors. Instead, these bright and capable professionals have begun to compete internally. The one-upmanship has eroded trust among partners, respect from the staff and sapped precious inspiration, motivation and collaboration from the team.

Why do we compete internally? We all want more (and certainly not less) of four things in our work together:

• Money
• Time and control over our time
• To look better or to be held in high esteem
• To feel good, with less stress, strife, upset and commotion

But internal competition between two or more leaders usually causes people who work with the competitors to feel that they have to take sides, or carefully ride the middle, to remain “safe” in their jobs. It causes people who are trying hard not to upset the delicate balance between the competitors to do things that aren't necessarily right for the clients, staff or firm just to maintain the peace. This balancing act drains our people, reducing creativity and drive and replacing it with resignation.

My counsel to those engaged in [internal rivalries] is simple — stop measuring yourself against your teammates and begin to measure yourself against your external peers. If you must compete, compete to be the biggest giver in your firm. Give away some credit, responsibility, authority, and even some ground every day.

For the complete post, read “Why Compete Internally?”

From Convergence Coaching, LLC Inspired Ideas, blog.convergencecoaching.com, September 22, 2010.