Leaders who build effective organizations and teams consistently promote collaboration instead of competition within their ranks. They understand that the time and energy team members spend competing with one another detracts from the organization’s overall success.
When teamwork is truly valued over internal competition, leaders must guard against unwittingly promoting the latter. Throughout the organization, leaders’ behavior and all of the rewards and reinforcement systems must be aligned to credibly demonstrate that we collaborate inside our organization and compete outside it.
Promote collaboration by consistently making clear that teams and their members have more to gain by helping achieve the organization’s shared goals than they do by pursuing their own narrower agendas that might ultimately conflict with the common good.
Thanks Phil. I think your post hits a key emphasis. I have seen the other approach - usually in sales organizations (which I think is a bad idea) but even in some IT shops. Instead of trust, you breed caution. No one wants to open and share ideas. Might help someone else.
ReplyDeleteI recently saw a clip on TED where they challenged the whole idea on performance incentives. Still much to learn.