I recently heard Mark Cuban from ABC’s Sharks Tank say in an interview that business is the most competitive sport there is. Given our modern day world, we don’t always know where our competition will come from, and we certainly have no control over everything in our field of play.
Often, people shy away from competition; they may only give a 50% effort or withdrawal altogether. Alternately, they may view competition as a win or lose battle, with no middle ground.
Progressive organizations know that they must be competitive in order to succeed. They are highly aware of the positive values that competition brings to their organization and harness its power. Here are just some of the benefits of competition:
Resilience
Competition teaches people and teams how to be resilient and how to recover quickly from setbacks. This could be in the form of providing a new service, or looking for ways to improve a product that has not quite made the grade. They are clear on their goals and they take the necessary steps to stay in the game and persevere through challenging situations.
Failure forward
Competing at the highest level requires people and teams to fail, recover quickly, and move forward. Without taking prudent risks, organizations will either disappear or be taken over by their competition. Competition teaches us the importance of the synergistic relationship between failure and innovation.
Learning
A true competitor is a lifelong learner. Organizations need people who are committed to continuous learning and improvement. Competition encourages continuous reflective thinking, which is one way a person and a team can learn to: enjoy the challenges of competition.
All the best in achieving your highest performance.
Paul
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