Can one be competitive and collaborative at the same time?

At first glance, competition and collaboration may appear to be fundamentally opposed. Competition is often seen as the drive to win, to achieve personal success or recognition, while collaboration is the pursuit of collective goals where individual aspirations may be subordinated to the group’s success. However, these two forces are not inherently contradictory. In fact, they can complement each other, leading to richer, more effective outcomes when properly aligned.

The Need for Significance in Collaborative Spaces

One crucial element that connects competition and collaboration is the individual’s need for significance—the desire to feel valued, central, and powerful within a group or system. When someone is not in touch with their own competitiveness—which can manifest as a healthy desire to demonstrate their unique skills, competencies, or leadership—they may struggle to understand what value they bring to a collaborative space. This can make collaboration less effective, as the person may not be fully aware of their contribution or how to assert their strengths in a way that benefits the collective.

Take, for example, team sports like football. While each player on the team works together toward the same goal of winning the game, there is also a competitive edge within the team. Players compete with each other to be recognised as the best in their position, to secure starting spots in the lineup, or even to attract professional endorsements. Yet, these personal competitive desires don’t detract from the team’s success; they can actually enhance collaboration. The key is that each player’s competitive spirit drives them to excel, while also recognising that their individual success is intertwined with the team’s performance. In this way, competition fuels collaborative excellence.

Dysfunctional Competition: The Role of Insecurity

Competition becomes dysfunctional when it stems from a place of insecurity. This often happens when individuals fear being excluded, dispensed with, or dispossessed. Such insecurity leads to a constant need to prove oneself, not because of a genuine desire for growth, but out of fear that others will outshine or replace them.

For example, in a workplace, an employee may sabotage their colleague’s work or withhold information because they feel threatened by their colleague’s potential success. This dysfunctional competition not only undermines collaboration but can also degrade the overall team dynamic, causing distrust and creating a toxic environment.

What causes this dysfunctional competitiveness? Often, it stems from a mistrust in the system or competitors. When people believe that the system they operate within is not fair, just, or ethical, they resort to cutthroat behaviour, fearing that collaborating will only serve to make them more vulnerable. In such cases, the lack of trust in the system prevents collaboration, and competition devolves into a destructive force.

Trust as the Foundation for Collaborative Competition

The antidote to dysfunctional competition is trust—trust that competitors will play fair, that the system will be just, and that one’s contributions will be valued even in a competitive environment. Without trust, collaboration falters because people become too focused on guarding their own interests and suspicious of others. But when trust exists, competition can fuel collaboration by pushing individuals to bring their best to the collective table.

A good example of this can be seen in open-source software communities. Developers from different parts of the world contribute to a common project, often driven by the competitive desire to showcase their coding skills. Yet, they are collaborating toward a shared goal—the creation of a high-quality, freely available product. The presence of trust—both in the community and in the platform—allows for this balance between competition and collaboration. Each coder knows that their contribution will be acknowledged and that the collective good will enhance their own reputation.

In the business world, this dynamic plays out in partnerships between companies that may otherwise be competitors. For instance, tech giants like Apple and Google may compete fiercely in the smartphone market, yet they often collaborate in other areas, such as developing standards for web technologies or privacy regulations. Their competition drives innovation, while their collaboration ensures that shared goals—such as the development of ethical standards for data privacy—are met.

Harnessing Competitiveness for Collaborative Success

For individuals and organisations alike, the key to balancing competition and collaboration is to foster an environment where both are valued and aligned. Here are a few ways to do this:

1. Recognise and Embrace Individual Strengths: Encourage team members to become more aware of their unique skills and competitive advantages. When people are conscious of their value, they can contribute more effectively to the collective effort without feeling insecure or undermined.
2. Build Trust in the System: Create a system where fairness, ethics, and transparency are central. This helps individuals feel secure in collaborating, knowing that their efforts won’t go unrecognised or unappreciated.
3. Foster Healthy Competition: Encourage individuals to push each other toward higher standards without undercutting one another. In sports, for instance, this is known as friendly competition, where each player’s success motivates others to step up their game.
4. Celebrate Collaborative Achievements: Acknowledge collective success, but also take time to recognise the individual contributions that made the collaboration possible. This reinforces the idea that collaboration doesn’t dilute personal achievement; rather, it enhances it.
5. Shift the Mindset from Scarcity to Abundance: Dysfunctional competition often arises from a scarcity mindset—the belief that there aren’t enough opportunities or rewards for everyone. By cultivating an abundance mindset, people can see that there is room for multiple successes, allowing them to collaborate while pursuing their own goals.

Competition and collaboration are not mutually exclusive; rather, they can complement each other when approached with the right mindset. A healthy competitive spirit can enhance collaboration by pushing individuals to bring their best skills to the table, while collaboration can provide the support and structure needed to allow those skills to shine. However, for this balance to work, there must be trust—in both the system and the players involved. By fostering an environment of fairness and inclusivity, organisations can harmonise competition and collaboration, creating a space where individuals thrive and collective goals are achieved.