Competition in workplaces is often seen as negative or counterproductive. Of course, unhealthy competition can trigger fear, stress and anxiety, but we believe that a little competition is necessary to inspire creativity and motivate a team to do better.
But what is “healthy”competition? Unlike a hostile competitive workplace, in a healthy competitive work environment, everyone has a chance to win. Healthy competition means that employees are genuinely motivated to reach their goals through natural competition.
What it means to introduce healthy competition in a workplace is that everyone is given equal opportunity to pursue a win and also celebrate each other’s wins.
How does healthy competition help a team grow?
1. Induces higher performance
In a healthy competition, employees are more eager to come to work, show enthusiasm towards setting goals and eventually achieving them. Moreover, incentives that come along with winning in a healthy competition become a reason for employees to push their boundaries and set higher goals that they probably wouldn’t otherwise.
2. Makes work less mundane and monotonous
Healthy competition makes workplaces less boring and helps employees come out of any ruts they might be stuck in. The competitive environment creates space for change and growth, eventually helping the organization move forward.
3. Spurs personal growth
Healthy competition inspires workers to give their best, and not just put in work that is good enough. When a teammate sees that their contemporaries are able to achieve certain feats, it motivates them to believe that they can do the same, and therefore stretch goals and achieve them.
4. Drives learning and innovation
When an office culture includes healthy competition, you don’t need to go out of your way to look for new ideas to grow the company. The very environment sparks creativity and a problem solving attitude. The drive to do better than the rest of the teammates will push employees to put on their thinking caps and come up with fantastic ideas.
4 ways to induce healthy competition in your teams
1. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition
Introduce and cultivate a culture where employees recognize and celebrate each other’s wins. Not only does this encourage those who put in the effort, but also creates a healthy work environment where employees are not just involved in their own work, but pay attention to and draw inspiration from other’s work.
2. Introduce an employee recognition and reward system
Rewards and recognition can go a long way keeping employees encouraged. They can become major contributors to increase productivity and engagement in employees. Rewards don’t always have to be very big or monetary. It’s all about making sure the employees’ big and small efforts and wins don’t go unnoticed.
3. Play fun team building activities
Introducing healthy competition in the workplace doesn’t always have to be done in a formal manner. Everybody loves playing games and even the most calm and introverted people wouldn’t mind a challenging game or two from time to time.
While work must be taken seriously, there is no reason why we shouldn’t have some fun in a workplace. Happy workplaces create happy employees, and happy employees are more productive.
Team building activities to induce healthy competition in remote teams
Team quiz competitions
Yes, online quizzes are usually thought of as a one-player game, but they can be fun to play with others as well. You can find quizzes on various themes and topics, pick one that resonates with your team and play away!
Play the classic, Pictionary
Online team games don’t have to be fancy or complicated. Something as classic as Pictionary can do the job. Most people know Pictionary from playing it with family or friends in their living rooms, but it’s also perfect for playing online with colleagues.
All you need to do is start a virtual meeting, share the Pictionary game link with the participants, and finally, start drawing and guessing. On HatQuest, you can create your own list of words to draw or pick from our curated lists.
