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Collaborating or Competing With Your Coworkers

Working in a team exposes you to both collaborative and competitive circumstances. When working on complex projects, you frequently need to cooperate or solicit assistance from your colleagues to perform more quickly and efficiently. However, in order to advance your career while working for a company, it is equally significant to differentiate yourself from your coworkers. As a result, collaborating and competing with your coworkers are both crucial. Which one to prioritize more, though, is a constant conundrum. Therefore, Randall Peterson, founding director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School, draws a real contrast between collaborating and competing with your peers in this audio episode on the HBR IdeaCast channel broadcast on the Google Podcasts platform.

In his explanation of how people have struggled to transition from a time where competition was extreme to one where collaboration is now approaching the extreme, Randall stresses the need of striking a balance between the two. In his opinion, relationships can be tricky, and sometimes, no matter how cooperative you have been with certain people, they might end up taking advantage and leaving you with no chance to even be able to compete with them. He makes the suggestion that it is very important to always be thoughtful of how you maintain relationships. Since engaging in direct competition weakens your interpersonal relationship with them and you never know when you might need their assistance, he contends that the concept of head-to-head competition has lost favor and become less effective. On the other hand, since relationships are complex, it is also true that working closely with coworkers is not always advantageous. At one point in the podcast episode, he also makes the suggestion that working alone might occasionally be more productive than collaborating and competing with your coworkers. Even if such a situation could appear advantageous, it is crucial to recognize the value of developing healthy connections when working in organizational culture. He contends that it is virtually impossible for any company to exist either via collaboration or just through constant rivalry. In light of this, he advises that you should establish a balance between collaborating and competing with your coworkers, depending on the demands of the circumstance. He ends the conversation by pointing out that the manager is vital since it is up to him to choose whether or not the competition that employees are subjected to is healthy. He also counsels managers to watch how they act with their colleagues.

It is crucial to carefully evaluate each situation before reacting. You may encounter circumstances where you must decide between collaborating and competing with your coworkers in a workplace where individuals of diverse cultures and ideas coexist. Randall Peterson, the founding director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School, offers his opinions and draws a sincere comparison that will assist you in making a wise decision.

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