Competitive Employees

Most people's work life is deeply linked with employee competition. Most businesses foster an environment where employees contend with one another for praise, bonuses, and promotions, whether publicly or discreetly.?

Competition does indeed lead to a higher level of physiological and psychological engagement, preparing the body and mind for greater effort and enhancing performance. Employees, however, have a variety of options for achieving their goals. Nonetheless, via innovation, employees can also outperform the competition. Internal rivalry may convert into a true competitive advantage for firms if staff compete by identifying new chances for serving clients or coming up with a means to launch a new product faster. It depends on how the staff members feel about the rivalry.?

Some competitions induce worry and anxiety in the participants because they keep their attention on the probability for layoff, income loss, or public humiliation. Other competitions put the emphasis on earning a coveted bonus or public acknowledgment, which arouses people but also causes them to feel eager and anticipatory.?

Two extremely distinct emotional reactions to a competition are anxiety and thrill. More importantly, these feelings influence how people behave.?

Employees are less likely to choose innovative problem-solving strategies and more likely to act unprofessionally when they interpret their competition-related arousal as worry. On the other hand, when people perceive their arousal from a competition as enthusiasm, they are more likely to use original problem-solving strategies and are less likely to engage in unethical conduct.

Employees may feel nervous or thrilled about competition depending on how leaders talk about it. One effective illustration is for executives to encourage staff members to use their "signature qualities" in a way that benefits both them and others. Therefore, executives might encourage employees to use more of their special talents while creating a competition. Leaders can also highlight how organizational success will benefit customers and further the purpose of the company.?

Employee competition can increase performance and may be an unavoidable aspect of many people's work lives. The desire to lead via fear must be resisted by leaders if they are to make sure that competition releases innovation instead of questionable practices.?

● Assess the Situation?

First things first, you need to assess the situation and make sure there aren’t any misunderstandings. Every workplace is different, so it’s worth considering whether you’re being a little sensitive to the situation, or if it is as competitive as you think. Assess if it’s one particular colleague that seems to be competitive, or if it’s the team as a whole.?

● Don’t Lose Focus?

It’s easy to let a competitive coworker negatively affect your work life, deliberately making you lose focus, and, ultimately, creating an easy win for them. Learn to fight the temptation and concentrate on what you were hired to do.

● Talk to Them?

If it’s a specific colleague that’s constantly competing with you, the mature thing to do would be to call them out by talking to them in a calm manner. After all, they may not even realise that they are being overly competitive and that it’s hurting team morale.?

Make sure you can provide a couple of examples of when their actions were out of line; this may be all it takes to kick their competitive behaviour to the curb and establish a friendlier and healthier environment.?

● Compete with Yourself?

Competitive people are frequently very motivated and perform at a high level, so they can often inspire others to function and perform to the best of their abilities as well. So by adopting this mentality, you could be inspired by your competitive colleague and utilise their techniques to improve your work output.?

In conclusion, not descending to an over-competitive coworker's level is the greatest strategy for dealing with them. Maintain your integrity and keep your attention on your professional ambitions. Although dealing with competition can be difficult, you should be able to do so if you use the tips provided here. If you're still having trouble, it might be time to look for a position or team that values cooperation over competition and promotes teamwork over individual accomplishment.