4 WAYS TO PROMOTE HEALTHY COMPETITION IN THE WORKPLACE

Competition between employees is an inevitable part of working life. This is due to the fact that companies create a dynamic to facilitate competition between staff, whether that is for recognition for promotions, or employee of the month/quarter. But, does competition make staff feel inspired, or does it hinder their motivation?

According to research, competition in the workplace can increase motivation of employees. This is because they are wanting to do better than others and essentially ‘win’, resulting in increased effort to achieve the desired results. However, competition means comparing oneself to the behaviour of others, and the comparison can lead to unhappiness of staff. So, how can you promote healthy competition at work while avoiding any potentially harmful effects?

With the help from the entrepreneur online, I have devised a few tips that can help you promote some competition in your organisation:

• Teach and promote healthy conflict: Encouraging your team to discuss a certain work-related topic can result in many new ideas being brought to the table. However, it is important that you ensure that all team members are listened to and feel comfortable to state their opinions. This means no aggression, just an open environment to have a healthy debate. When all members of a team understand how to have a healthy debate, it becomes a catalyst for innovation and improvement for your business.
• Reward excellence: It is important to highlight when someone has exceeded expectations. There is nothing more demotivating than a lack of appreciation for excellent work. You may ask, why can’t you just reward everyone, why must people compete for rewards? Well, rewarding people equally, regardless of performance, will eventually create an environment of mediocracy. Moreover, other employees will be motivated to work harder in order to exceed the performance of a rewarded employee.
• Give honest performance feedback: Discussing an employee’s performance is extremely important for further improvement (I have discussed this topic in a previous blog post). Telling an employee when they haven’t necessarily hit the mark, will increase performance and make them more driven to succeed.
• Find time to have fun: Just finding a little time every couple of weeks to have a fun game will really promote healthy competition at work. This could be anything from a quiz to a funny race across the office on your wheelie chairs. These fun activities will really bring out everyone’s competitive side, but also allow team members to have some fun in a potentially stressful environment. Doing this will bring you closer together as a team, making you stronger to tackle any company issues in the future.

Competition is likely to support the success of your organisation, so, by taking these tips into consideration, you can reap the benefits of healthy competition, without affecting teamwork and motivation.

What are your opinions on competition in the workplace? Do you have any other tips that could help people out? I’d love to hear your thoughts, leave a comment below!