Internal Competition

Internal Competition

In one of my recent articles, I discussed Teamwork—how important it is, both for your business’s success and for your own, personal success.  But now, I would like to focus on the opposite side of workplace politics: Internal Competition.   For as crucial and admirable as Teamwork is, it would be foolish not to acknowledge that all of your colleagues are not simply your teammates—they are also your Competition.

If you work in a traditional business environment, opportunities for career advancement are extremely rare.  This is because virtually all businesses operate on a pyramid model: most of the workers are at the bottom, with a smaller number of supervisors, even fewer executives, all the way up to the single CEO.  Of course, if you work for a small or non-traditional business, this may not be exactly accurate—but generally speaking, there are significantly more low-level workers than upper-level, which means that competition for promotion amongst the lower-level workers is inevitably tough.  All your co-workers, especially the ambitious ones, are going to be aiming for the same promotions that you want for yourself, and most of you are not going to receive them.  So while it is extremely valuable to think of your colleagues as your teammates, you have to also keep in mind that on a real basketball team, none of the players are going to be promoted to coach if they work hard enough.  Basketball and other sports teams do not contain the sort of Internal Competition which your workplace will feature.

As you can see, it can be very difficult to walk the line between being a Team Player and being Competitive.  If you are too much a Teammate, then you may lose credit for your own work and make your colleagues appear to be better employees than they are, while you will appear worse.   If you are not Competitive at all, then you will inevitably lose out to more self-interested, ambitious co-workers.

As detrimental as being insufficiently Competitive is, however, it is far better than being too Competitive.  Being overly aggressive and Competitive in the workplace has the potential to cost you greatly, in several ways.  For starters, if you are constantly angling to position yourself ahead of your colleagues , you will isolate yourself socially from those you have to work with all of the time.  Not only will this be awkward, but it will also make performing your job difficult, as you will undoubtedly require cooperation from time to time.  Even more importantly, being too Competitive will also jeopardize your opportunities for career advancement.

You see, interpersonal skills are extremely important for all leaders, and by demonstrating that you cannot work well with your colleagues, you show that you lack these skills.  Additionally, bosses do not want to promote employees who work hard solely to advance their careers—they promote individuals who work hard because they care, because they are dedicated.  By being overly Competitive, you may give the impression that you only care about advancing your career—and this will actually damage your career opportunities.

But there is a balance between being a Team Player and being overly Competitive.  Essentially, the goal is to be Competitive indirectly.  Do not steal your coworkers ideas or sabotage their projects—beat them by being the best.  Work harder, work more efficiently, and be a better Team Player than anyone else.  This doesn’t mean letting others take credit for your work—it means helping others, but ensuring that it is known that you helped.  Make your efforts visible without showing off.  Then, you will have the best of both worlds: a pleasant, efficient workplace in which you accomplish as much as possible, and in which you are clearly the best worker on the team.  When it comes time for your employer to promote one of you, his decision will be obvious, and you’ll find yourself one step higher on the business pyramid.