well many professionals experienced some
degree of competition with their
colleagues most managers we surveyed
said some workplace competition is
beneficial but too much can have a
negative impact so here to show us how
to get ahead without having to handle
the problems and dealing with the issues
with an overly competitive co-worker
Kevin Trainor with Robert Half Finance &
Accounting good to have you back sir
appreciate it and it's kind of a fine
line there's some gray area because
nowadays you do have to be competitive
to get ahead but you also have to be
cordial with your cohort yeah
competition has its place in the
workplace for sure you know it can be a
good motivator it could be an
opportunity to level or raise the level
of your productivity within the group
and you'll create innovative ideas
within your group and your team and your
company but there's a fine line there to
manage as an owner or as a manager with
your team in order to get the right
results from from competition alright so
when does it go too far when is it too
competitive in your workplace I know
there's people at home that say there's
that one person that are just overkill
yeah you know when it gets to a point
where it's having the adverse effect you
know then what you intended so when
people are distrusting of their
co-workers or when they're you know
using the information to put themselves
ahead of somebody and taking credit for
their work those are problems that come
with competition and everybody trying to
get an edge on on the other individuals
that they're working with as opposed to
raising the group level mm-hmm so what
do you do first of all as a co-worker
and then second of all if you're a
manager as a co-worker you know
obviously you want to push yourself to
be competitive with your other coworkers
from a performance standpoint it's it's
beneficial to the company in the
organization but do it in a professional
and respectful way you know you're not
trying to make yourself look better you
know to the you know negative of your
co-workers you don't need to speak badly
about those others that you're working
with but from a manager perspective you
know I think that the competition there
needs to be with an angle in mind that
the entire team succeeds when each
individual is doing better how do you go
back when maybe you've got to the
it's really contentious and there's just
a lot of tension yeah you gotta own your
mistakes you know if you've overstepped
or you've created an environment where
competition is creating a bad workplace
start some dialogue have some
conversations with those people if you
did something or someone did someone
something to you that you know you think
went a little bit over the line I think
just approach that individual or bring
your manager in to mediate that
conversation so that you can say hey
this was too far next time let's keep it
on a level playing field when does it go
to HR if I do have an H oh yeah yeah I
think if it can't be resolved
person-to-person or if it's something
that you know is getting too personal
you know within the workplace it may be
good to bring your HR representative
into those conversations just to make
sure everybody's protected and and you
know getting the right things out of
that that conversation so what are some
ways to have the conversation without
making anybody feel like they're
railroaded like they're outcasts like
they're a major problem yeah I think you
know obviously respecting that there's
two sides to every story there you know
someone made it maybe didn't realize
that what they were doing was having as
negative an impact on you as an
individual as if as a contributor within
the company so just bringing their
attention to it you know here's what my
intentions were and how this ended up
impacting me and you know hopefully you
guys can see eye to eye on you know
whatever whatever the best way to move
forward might be do you ever use the S
word maybe if you're the offending
employee by the S word I mean sorry
sorry of course yeah apologize if you
went too far own it you know recognize
that you made a mistake and hopefully
that'll help you know if you're doing
that and changing your actions going
forward people will be more willing to
work with you and you can rebuild some
of those relationships that maybe got
the imaged in whatever the action was
there you go good advice as always Kevin
Trainor thank you so much Robert Half
Nicky