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Keep Them on Their Toes | Wood Personnel Services

Keep ‘Em on Their Toes

If you want to run a successful Middle Tennessee business, you need a winning team – comprised of people who are goal-oriented, focused and yes, competitive.

What’s more, your culture must support their success. In addition to providing the training and resources your employees need, you must foster an environment in which healthy competition is valued.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Obviously, however, competitiveness can go too far. Left unchecked, friendly rivalries at work can devolve into backstabbing, undermining and self-serving behaviors – and destroy the culture you’ve built.

Strike the Right Balance

How can you keep your employees on their toes, without pushing competition too far? Strike the right balance with these tips from our Lebanon staffing agency:

Maintain a game mentality.

Whether employees are competing against the clock, a rival company or one another, keep competition lighthearted. Remind your team to treat the competitive aspects of work as a game – and that work relationships always trump things like numbers and quotas.

Put the team first.

In a competitive work culture, employees will naturally rank themselves against one another. To prevent divisiveness and other negative consequences, frequently revisit your company’s big picture. At the end of the day, all of your employees are on the same team, working toward a common goal. So be sure to set overarching group goals. Celebrate wins collectively. And ensure each employee knows how his contributions contribute to the organization’s long-term success.

Focus on continual improvement.

An appropriately competitive organization encourages employees to compete against themselves (not just one another!). Encourage individual team members to challenge themselves – and give them the resources (e.g., coaching, training, mentoring, professional development) to achieve more.

Hire people with the right attributes.

To foster a culture of healthy competition, build a team that’s both hungry and friendly. When hiring, ask behavioral interview questions to evidence these attributes:

  • Drive. Look for people who want to win – and expect success from themselves.
  • Empathy. Seek out individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence, including the capacity to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”

Build a winning team with Wood Personnel.

With decades of experience serving Middle Tennessee businesses, Wood can help you hire people with the skills and personal attributes to thrive in a culture of healthy competition. Whether you need productive temporary workers for your warehouse, or top professionals to hit your annual goals, our recruiters can efficiently source the great people you need.

Contact our Lebanon staffing agency or your local WPS office to learn more about the advantages we deliver.

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