Is Healthy Competition Good For The Workplace?

Great athletes have one thing in common – they are better than their competitors.

The role of sport coaches is to train their athletes to be the best, and then pin them against their peers to see who will be the better performer.

Although the office is not a sports arena, it is a place that can benefit from healthy competition.

Many industries, especially sales, can implement a competitive workplace to motivate employees to do their best.

However, it is important to encourage competition in a healthy way, lest a culture of backstabbing ensues.

In this article, we will offer tips on encouraging healthy competition at the office.

Team First

Competition is not only about the individual, but also about the team.

In football, for example, there are star players, but what matters most is that the team that wins.

To accomplish this, it is imperative for managers to create true teams, where members work for a common purpose and help each other.

In addition to providing incentive bonuses for individuals who outperform, consider setting team goals, and rewarding all the individuals in the team when they collectively meet or exceed the goal.

When the collective exceeds a certain sales goal, make sure to explain to each person how their contribution made a real difference to the overall success of the team.

Set Goals

You can only encourage your staff to work as hard as they can or try their best so many times.

However, as the coach of your department, it is up to you to create specific goals to motivate your employees to achieve.

For example, for a group of sales professionals, use last quarter’s sales, and urge each and every person to raise those numbers by 10%.

Then, you must carefully document each employee’s progress towards the goal, congratulate those that are on track to meet the goal, and motivate those that aren’t having as much luck.

As well, having access to their colleagues’ sales number will motivate all employees to compete against one another.

Have Fun

The most important part of promoting competition at the workplace is to keep it fun.

If your workers think that you will evaluate individual results to determine actual salaries, or even worse, to decide which employees to let go, the competition will quickly turn ugly.

Always stress that the competition is only for fun; while you can reward outperformers with bonuses, make sure that all employees know that the most important thing is to try hard and support other members of the team.

A little competition can go a long way in motivating your team to succeed.

Use the three strategies above to promote healthy competition in your office.

Thanks again

Mark Williams

Head of Training and Development

MTD Training