Competition in the Team
Competition stimulates business! In teams too? Well, that depends…
Competition can stimulate a team and encourage everyone to give good performance. However, competition can also the lived at the expense of another. If that happens, then one’s own success is achieved at the cost of another’s failure. Withholding information and knowledge, refusing help, isolating, allowing someone to trip up etc. are all common phenomena.
Whether the one or the other interaction pattern develops, strongly depends upon how the team parameter is seen: “Low performers do not belong to this team!” or “Those who don’t pull their weight, are against us!” usually has different effects than “We help those who struggle!” or “Those who raise themselves up at the cost of others, will be reprimanded!”.
The destructiveness of mutual protection as well as that of leaving each other in the lurch in favour of self-presentation and personal optimisation is surprisingly often ignored or trivialised. Competition forms that separate team members from one another hinder teams more than any other form of competition with regard to all guiding processes.