Competition with Rivals: Competition is everywhere and it comes within the law of nature. We have been used to it since we were in school. It all starts with who got the highest marks in school. But apart from that, integrity is also equally important.
We even read about the competition through Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest” evolutionary theory. And when it comes to any working place there has to be competition to get ahead of others.
WHAT’S IN IT
Introduction
Competition is undeniable & inevitable everywhere & the workplace is no exception, but it should be a healthy competition, not rivalry.
There’s so much to compete for in any organization like employees competing for promotion & recognition for their work while maintaining integrity.
Even nowadays in many organizations managers intentionally keep incentives programs where they will judge based on which employee work was the best & they will get bonuses or incentives at the end of the month.
Healthy competition is okay as it helps everyone to thrive & give goals to achieve while maintaining integrity. But what about Unhealthy rivalry?
It will mess up with your mental peace & create hindrance in your career, that’s why we need to keep on maintaining integrity.
These are the signs of Unhealthy rivalries:
Signs of Unhealthy Rivalries:
- They will try to dominate you by bullying.
- They will pass some demeaning comments to you, in front of higher authorities & colleagues.
- Make fun of your weakness in front of everyone.
- They will try to sabotage your reputation behind your back.
- Will never work with you.
- They will have passive-aggressive behaviour.
Now if you are facing an Unhealthy rivalry or competition in your work-place, then these tips will help you to deal with it.
Tips to Deal with Unhealthy rivalry or competition
1. Be aware of the situation:
Make sure you have understood the whole situation & you have analyzed the situation well.
You can access the situation by knowing more about other colleagues, the more you know it, the better understanding you will get while keeping your integrity.
2. Talk it out:
You must try the mature way to handle this kind of situation by talking it out and maintaining integrity. Just approach that jealous colleague & calmly talk to them.
Maybe they might not be aware of their behaviour that it’s coming across to everyone. Just tell them calmly that this unhealthy rivalry or over competitiveness is not good for our team environment.
This small talk between you & that individual might be all it needs & it completely removes competition out of the scene & you & he/she could work with each other happily.
It could be the outcome, without trying you never know.
3. Don’t lose focus:
If your assessment is right then you must focus on your work more than ever. Because that individual isn’t into the healthy competition, he wants you to lose focus & they get ahead from you.
Try to calm yourself down & try to remember what was your dream, goals, objective before when you entered your workplace to achieve.
Make this your motivation & focus only on your work rather than focusing on your workplace rivals.
This approach will take you to new heights in your career while maintaining integrity.
4. Action Speaks Louder:
If you are dealing with a passive-aggressive individual who’s trying to get ahead of you unethically. Don’t lose your focus, there’s a saying “Action speaks louder than words” so keep your cool & do what you’re good at “work”.
Let them wasting their time in this stupid game to bring other people down to get ahead. Just work & let your work speak for itself.
Just a suggestion, if you’re the type of individual whose’s an instinct to reply, don’t.
Don’t reply! That’s what they want, to tarnish your reputation by twisting things by saying he has some problem with me & dragging you to the bad light in front of everyone.
5. Make an alliance:
If you’re facing someone who can go any limit to bring you down then it’s time to build a reputation & strong relationship with other co-workers & form an alliance.
How can you do this? Now you know what type of personality you must ignore, right! Those who always try to compete.
Try to find approachable people, help them if they are facing some problems in their work, compliment them for their achievement, exchange conversation about before work & teenage life.
If you build an alliance now you have people who know your personality & this will be your shield against that unwanted rival.
6. Take advantage of this Unhealthy rivalry:
You might be confused by reading the heading & be like What? I’m trying to get rid of it & this guy is saying to take advantage, that too by keeping your integrity.
Well yes, you read it right. You can take advantage of any situation even the bad ones, it’s all about perception.
With the help of this unhealthy competition, you should take it as a motivation to work even harder to improve your skills & develop yourself more.
When people are in the competitive mode, they generally get things done & work with more discipline than ever, it will also develop a never give up attitude until & unless you get what you desire.
Healthy Competition or unhealthy competition spirit enhances the level of motivation inside everyone who has it & they perform at its peak.
They have so much motivation that they can even inspire others to do well in their job as well.
7. Try a friendlier way:
The unhealthy rival of yours may be behaving like this because they feel insecure & intimidated by you.
They think you’ll get ahead of him/her & they make an image of you as an enemy without even knowing you properly.
So you can try to be friendly with him/her & make them realize that you are quite the opposite.
And mostly who get envy the other generally are insecure beings. So try to flatter them by complimenting them for their work or anything & it will boost their ego.
Try this & see if this works or not.
8. Apply social distancing with them:
This 2020 year teaches us a very good habit to stay away from viruses through social distancing. Apply this social-distancing with him/her, avoid any kind of interaction with them.
9. Speak for yourself:
Well, if still, you’re reading this means nothing works till now. Well if they have taken an oath to make your life a mess by doing things unethically like, spreading rumours, copying your work & submit before you, copying your presentation & take the credit.
If this all is happening with you then you need to speak up & need to take a firm stand for yourself.
File a complaint against an unwanted rival about what they are doing & soon someone from the HR management team will investigate the matter, keeping your integrity.
10. Talk to your Boss:
You should be a little bit careful before committing this step because this step needs much more precision. But maybe this is the only solution which could fix the unhealthy environment which you are in currently.
Approach your boss to have an open conversation & don’t sound like you’re trying to create a conflict in this healthy working environment and maintaining integrity.
Just ask them straight that if someone is trying to create an unwanted competition & whose actions are negatively affecting the working environment & bringing the team morale down.
What step should be taken against it? And after that, your manager will surely ask-“Who are you pointing to?”
Make sure when you go to talk with your manager, go fully prepared with some evidence of who is trying to sabotage the healthy working environment.
If you don’t go with any kind of evidence & you just express yourself, then you’re the one whose boss will point to create problems in the organization.
11. Switch to another team:
Now you have tried it all, but the problem is still there. Then the mature & the best decision to take are to leave your present team & shift to the other team.
You need to consider mental peace, it is everything.
If you are not at peace, you won’t be able to perform productively, always thinking about how to get out of this mess, what should I do next?
The best option is to leave your current team & switch to another team.
Conclusion
Those who envy you or feel jealousy show that they are very insecure.
No matter how unethical steps they take to get ahead of you, you should never lose your temper & you should focus on your work because that’s what you’re here for.
If you don’t feel right or you feel it’s taking away your mental peace then you should immediately switch your team.
Also, you can read our blog on Best 10 Tips for Working at a Client’s Site