You've got to love some workplace drama...The Friday Deep Dive

A culture of competition isn’t always a bad thing

Author

Reece
November 16, 2024

Ahoy,

Welcome back to another Friday deep dive!

I just want to remind everyone of something I put out on Wednesday.

“This is entirely a one man show. And although I genuinely love writing this, it does take a considerable amount of time to do.

To that end, in the very near future I will be ceasing to run the Friday Premium edition.

You will continue to get the Monday edition completely for free as always however, there will no longer be the opportunity to get my answers to the Wednesday scenarios in my Friday Premium version.”

That means, very shortly I’m going to stop releasing these. However, the decision is yet to be made with regards to what happens to the Wednesday edition.

So please, if you haven’t already please let me know below, do you still want to receive the Wednesday scenarios?

Do you still want the Wednesday scenarios?

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This also means this will be one of your last chances to subscribe to the premium edition.

Not only will you get the remaining premium editions to come, but also access to all previously released editions on the website!

But enough of that, lets actually jump into what we’re really here for!

Here’s a quick review of this week’s scenario in case you missed it.

Two of your best performers, Mike and Anna, are constantly competing with each other, leading to tension and occasional conflicts that affect team dynamics.

  1. How would you address this competitive behaviour with Mike and Anna individually and as a pair?

  2. What strategies can you implement to channel their competitive spirit into more collaborative and productive outcomes?

  3. How can you use this situation to foster a team culture that balances healthy competition with cooperation?

A culture of competition isn’t always a bad thing.

We want our team to push each other, to encourage each other, to consistently be doing better. That’s one of the ingredients to a highly successful team!

However, there is clearly a difference between healthy competition that motivates, and conflict.

Conflict has the opposite affect of healthy competition.

While competition can drive each other to do better, conflict can often tip over into the realm of just ensure the other person does worse…

And when that happens, the team are diverting their energy into unhelpful areas.

And if we take a further step back we can ask ourselves the question:

“Has having a bad relationship with a colleague ever improved my performance at work?”

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