What Does it mean to have a Healthy Competition?

So I and my work colleague who had become friends with me, always had a competition going on. We would jot down our tasks and have a contest on who can finish what faster. The loser buys lunch. Pretty basic, highly enjoyable and productive. In the wonderland of free lunch imagination, we would get on with our tasks and do so efficiently. This made a whole lot of reduction in the ‘usual slacking-off’ department.

It is hard to imagine a world without competition. We always have a contest for one thing or the other. Many times even subconsciously, we are trying ways to get ahead of others. Sometimes these competitions can get people carried away and can harm one another, just to emerge as the bigger person.

Healthy competition is a necessary competition. It makes you learn and grow. It can be as fun and understated as what my friend and I did, or as dramatic as a Boss’s call, ‘the best team gets promoted.’ Holding competition with your colleagues, to do more than asked and to do better than expected, can become a driving force to work with determination. This does not always require a physical reward, sometimes it can be as subtle as a sense of confidence and the joy of winning that can drive significant competitions.

Healthy competition leads to progress

Competition has always brought out great ideas. The race for putting the first man on space and then the first man on the moon, made the US and the USSR advance their research and development department. This extended the worldly technological development and made use of the most brilliant minds on this planet available such as Sergei Korolev from Russia and US hiring  Wernher Von  Braun from Germany. Both of these where great aerospace engineers, and space architects in their own rights.

The competition between the countries pushed mankind to progress in technology. They couldn’t be more of help in the technological advancement of the world. Even healthy debates can bring out real opinions and be a nest to put forward ideas. Competition becomes a catalyst for innovation and improvement.

Staying out of the race can still make you trip

Those who feel they are the best that no one can beat them and there is nothing to surpass, they fail. History is filled with examples of such events, from Nokia to Blackberry in cell phones and website Yahoo to IBM in laptops, these giants went down because they refused to recognize the potentials of their compititors. Feeling invincible might be a good feeling but closing your eyes doesn’t mean nothing exists.

Learning from these mistakes can be great in order to not make your own. When you are aware that your greatness can be challenged, be fair, compete with fairness, and work hard at reaching your goal.

Unhealthy competition

Competition has always been an excellent way to get the best out of people. It can, however, sometimes can get the worst out of people. Often people who compete with each other get carried away. Something that starts with a healthy disagreement can turn into a negative notion. If competition is just out of hatred and is not bringing you any progress, it’s not healthy competition.

No matter what your differences, be fair to your counterparts. Make sure that your competition isn’t getting in the way of your good relations with others at your workplace. Your competition shouldn’t drive you or your colleagues in a wedge that is too overwhelming to solve.

Remember no matter the reward or the satisfaction, if it is hindering your team spirit or your relations, it’s not worth.

Compete with your self

Ultimately, the most important competition is the one you have with yourself. The competition of being a better person today than what you were yesterday. You may set a benchmark that you need to surpass certain person’s knowledge. But you will ultimately only succeed when you surpass your previous self.

Read more: How to Become a Successful Corporate Trainer?

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