There's no doubt that competition is critical to the success of a company. Without competition and drive to be the best, no business would ever get off the ground, let alone stay ahead of the pack. However, too much internal competition between employees can destroy a company from the inside out. When personal competitiveness overtakes the focus on organizational goals, employee productivity is misdirected. Instead of concentrating on ways to outperform industry competitors, employees devote their time to outsmarting each other. Managers must curb these detrimental tendencies and direct employee competitiveness toward more productive endeavors.
Instructions
1. Lead by example. If you reward competition among employees by promoting or awarding a raise to a perceived "winner" or if competition is fierce at the executive level, then you cannot expect to minimize competition between employees. Recognize employees for their individual performances, rather than performance in comparison to others, and be cognizant of your own competitive behavior in the workplace.
2. Avoid creating a win-lose culture. Establish situations where all employees can win, even though some will naturally perform at a higher level than others. For example, instead of rewarding only the top salesperson with a bonus, award a bonus to all employees if the overall company sales exceed a certain target or award a smaller amount for every sale closed. This approach motivates all employees to perform at the highest level, instead of pitting employees against each other and creating a situation where employees benefit from the poor performance of their peers.
3. Set shared goals. By giving employees a joint goal to work toward, you increase team collaboration and reduce competition. Involve employees as a group in setting goals, so that all workers have the opportunity to contribute to the idea and share responsibility for its success. Otherwise, in an extremely competitive environment, you run the risk that an employee might deliberately sabotage a project to prevent a competitor's idea from succeeding.
4. Cross-train employees. Emphasize the importance of a "big picture" view of the organization. Staff members who have a greater understanding of each others' jobs, goals, motivations and responsibilities and who understand the importance of reaching those targets on overall organizational performance are less likely to focus on competition between departments and divisions.
5. Focus employee competitiveness on external threats. Employee motivation and innovation is negatively affected by internal competition, but positively increased by competition with an external industry competitor, according to a 2009 study from the University of North Carolina. Provide employees with details about a competitor's products, advertising initiatives and market share. Ask workers to brainstorm strategies for the company to compete with the perceived external threat and then implement them.
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