4 Ways to Promote Healthy Competition as an Entrepreneur

Competition is often perceived as being bad; the truth is that healthy competition is actually necessary for an organization. Competition between employees is an inevitable part of working life; it motivates employees to do better and makes them more productive.

However, to avoid adverse working conditions, managers or team leads must understand how to drive competition to benefit the organization effectively. To promote healthy competition in your organization, practice these strategies below.

1. Reward outstanding performance: Feeling unappreciated can kill motivation; it can make your staff think they are not needed in the organization. If you place a general reward system for every employee, why should any staff remember to strive to stand out and do their best? Rewarding every team member equally regardless of performance would, in the long run, create an environment of mediocracy. Creating a reward system motivates people to work harder to surpass their rewarded colleagues.

2. Give honest performance feedback: Feedback is essential in the workplace; it is the greatest give you can give to an employee. Informing an employee when they meet an excellent mark is important and would increase performance. The same applies to when an employee hasn’t necessarily hit the mark; your feedback would make them more driven to succeed. For an organization to function effectively, the needs to be a balance between reward and consequence.  An environment that is skewed heavily as overly positive or negative will result in dysfunction.

3. Find an opportunity for fun: Initiating games and creating a little tme to have fun can assist greatly in promoting healthy competition at work. This could range from a quiz to a fun race across the office on your wheelie chairs. These fun activities will bring out everyone’s competitive side and 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.

4. 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, you must 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 team members understand how to have a healthy debate, it becomes a catalyst for innovation and improvement for your business.