Fear is an emotion
Fear is an apprehension
Fear is a challenge
To our status quo

Fear can be tamed
Fear can be used
Fear can be the fuel
To soar and to let go

Fear can feed
Fear can pay heed
Fear can kick us
To help us grow

Fear is a necessary evil
“Fear is just another tool
of a Man-made Devil” **
So long as we all know

** This quote is written by Napolean Hill

I’ve always had an inner conflict going on about the merits and demerits of ‘Competition’. Is there a thing called ‘Healthy Competition’? This conflict arose because deep inside I was never comfortable with competition.

Maybe because, Competition is fuelled by comparison. Comparison comes from a place of ‘insecurity’.

What if he or she is better than me? Will he/she grab the opportunity that could have otherwise be mine? Will people like him/her more than me? Will my value diminish? Will I be forgotten?

To stay afloat in all these scenarios, we end up competing. And in a competition, typically one wins and the other loses. In other words, you will always have a ‘Victim’ in this scenario.

Whereas the better way is instilling a sense of “Quest for Excellence”.

Quest for excellence in a subject or task or activity can be used as a fuel for personal excellence as well. This will do well for identifying interests and/or channelling the energy into the right area of interests. Quest for excellence comes from the place of confidence.

It feeds quality rather than quantity. There is no insecurity here.

And in this quest, there are no losers. You win individually as well as a Team.

In other words, here you will have only ‘Victors’ in this scenario.

Typically, in an organization there is competition to find the best team or the best performer.

Despite there being different departments and/or teams, each one will force fake the criteria to claim the winner’s position. Is that criteria relevant for the organization or for the members themselves? No one is sure and even if it is, for how long? And while you will end up having one winner, you will have so many others who are disheartened. More so of the ‘process of selecting a winner’ than to that of ‘losing’ itself.

Now that’s a double whammy. The losing person(s) / team(s) may lose interest or feel demotivated. Result is exact opposite of what was originally intended in the first place.

Instead what if we look at all the different departments and teams with varied tasks and set them on a quest for excellence? They don’t need to compete on the same parameters. They may choose one area within their domain and set a benchmark for themselves and strive to achieve it. A panel can decide if the threshold is sufficiently high enough. And then one either achieves it or not. But there would be efforts. And the ones who succeed, win and you raise the bar higher for the next time. You may end up winning on many fronts and not have a situation where all are competing on uni-dimensional criteria.

It’s a ‘Win-Win’ situation for all, the individuals, the teams and the organization. We will have only “Victors” and no “Victims”.