You can't beat this blog - The art of competition.

If I was to compare my current workplace to my old one, a key similarity would be the element of competition. I use to be an extremely competitive person, to the point that winning was so important that it did not matter what the competition was. I remember how much of a sulk I sank into just because my top score of 186 at bowling was beaten by my friend who scored 201. I didn’t speak to him for the whole journey home, which made it quite difficult for him to drop me off when he didn’t know where I lived.

I have since become far more disciplined in the art of competition. I don’t let losing bother me as much as it did and I’m even at a place where I can genuinely congratulate someone who’s bested me without feeling bitter. Such discipline was tested to the limit in my previous job in telesales. As I mentioned earlier, it was an extremely competitive environment and unfortunately, not everybody handled that environment well. There was a lot of backbiting, underhanded sales and even stealing leads from colleagues. Competition was integral to the role, but it was not utilised effectively.

If I compare that to my current job at Dale Carnegie, there is still that sense of competition but the atmosphere it creates is entirely healthy and motivational. Since I’ve been here, I have challenged people to table tennis games, been absolutely annihilated at Scrabble and been verbally abused in a game of Pictionary. As before, the office is full of competitive people, but everyone combines that mentality with one of team work. There is a genuine desire to see those around you succeed. Sure, we each have our individual goals and use the idea of competition to motivate us, but never at the expense of another in the team.

I would encourage you to look at how you deal with the idea of competition. Is it a healthy motivator? Or does it create conflict and negativity with those around you?

Visit our website http://www.london.dalecarnegie.co.uk/ to find various solutions for avoiding such conflict in your workplace.

Brett Mills