Internal Competition vs. Teamwork

Competition is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes and on top of our game. We need a competitive spirit to be successful in business. However, we also need to be a good team player and, when necessary to show strong leadership. Is it possible to have a mix of all three in the same individual? Sometimes, maybe not. But the ideal employee should have a good measure of them all.

I recently watched a reality television show where bakers were competing for a prize as a top baker. The winner would get a large check and be offered a position in a top national bakery. The owner of the bakery set the individuals up as teams for one particular competition. One of the bakers was deliberately sabotaging the project as she was given ‘immunity’ from being sent home for that part of the competition and she wanted one of her two teammates to lose and be sent home as they were her toughest competitors to winning the entire contest.

The baker was quite boastful behind the scenes about her sabotage and reason for it. I was saddened by the lesson coming across in this reality show. It was promoting internal competition at the cost of teamwork. If this team were working for a real bakery in competing to get a customer’s order, the bakery would fail and ultimately the entire bakery and all of its employees would suffer.

I kept thinking that the baker who was sabotaging her internal competitors, should instead have tried to help her team win that competition. While a little internal competition (for example, among sales persons to see who can bring in the most sales), is a good thing for a company; having a marketing or production team competing against each other is not.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.