Shawnee Love   •  
May 15, 2012

Last week I started on the topic of healthy competition and my observations on the qualities that make competition healthy.

This week, I thought I would look at how to employ healthy competition at work.

First of all, what not to do.  Assigning multiple people with the same task to see who finishes first or does it the best is a way to create unhealthy competition. It might work the first time or two, but it will swiftly decline into every man for himself at any cost.  Consequently, your employees will begin to view each other as enemies and treat each other accordingly whether there is a contest or not.  When you reach this stage, you have created a cancer that will eat your your company from the inside out.   Only amputation or a serious external threat will have any hope of refocusing your employees on the big picture.

So how do you create healthy competition?

1. Have a good cause (vision or purpose) that people want to be a part of.
2. Believe in abundance.  In business, winning doesn’t always mean others have to lose.  Especially if winning causes others to innovate and find other ways to win.
3. Appreciate mistakes.  They are the best way to learn what not to do, and if done well, should prevent future similar mistakes.  They also might lead you to something remarkable.
4. If Winning is it’s own reward, you don’t need to reward it.  Instead, reward and recognize the positive, constructive ways in which the win was achieved.  E.g., In hockey, assists count.  Make sure in your business, the assists count as well.
5. If you need to reward, consider rewarding overall results, so those who achieve the most have incentives to help others achieve as well.  This works particularly well with sales people who have exclusive territories (i.e, aren’t competing over the same customers).
6. Be clear about the “rules” of the competition.  Don’t let anyone get away with behaviour that negatively affects the big picture.  As @techprose_ca put it, “Healthy competition is that which results in a clear, profitable ‘Win’, both for the market, and for the consumer/client.”  People seriously breaking rules (whether laws, ethics or simple handshake agreements) might easily win the battle but lose the “war”.
7. Value progress and improvement.  Those “team players” who help create success but never actually score the big client or come up with the great idea are the ones hoisting the star players on their shoulders.  You need utility people to allow the stars to shine.

Competition is a great way to engage and energize people towards a cause, but only healthy competition lasts.  Any further ways to create healthy competition?