What do you recommend to employees who want to get ahead?Ĭompetitive fire will never ignite, or be expressed, when our orientation is just to get through the day. These people are going to generate new ideas, or find new customers. Others can only perform their best when they are focused on the rewards of winning, this activates different neural systems, makes them disinhibited, which frees them to compete their hardest. It’s also true that some people are inherently more defensive and conservative – their best strategy is often to avoid risk, and minimize mistakes they perform best on work that is detail oriented or, in a sales environment, they might be best on customer retention – because they hate losing something they already have. There’s a genetic factor to this, but also a habitual comfort zone is developed over time. Some people need stress to perform their best, and need pressure and a high state of arousal some people need to avoid stress to perform their best. How do people start to identify their own competitive style? But modern corporate teams are remotely taking advantage of this estimates are that 90 percent of knowledge workers are on multiple teams – they are on a product team, but also Teams enhance motivation when someone really feels committed to the team, and their identity is wrapped up in the team’s identity. This is called collaborative inhibition teams need fewer people, with clearer and more focused individual responsibility. This is why 62 percent of software projects are delivered late, and 49 percent over budget. Just adding two more people to that teams almost doubles its complexity – now there are 28 connections to keep track of. Teams spend too much time coordinating their work in a team of six, there are 15 connections to manage. A diffuse market with a vague number of competitors allows people to conserve effort, there’s never the worry they’re losing.Īt most companies, work teams are too big.

Like Pepsi and Coke: it becomes a point of pride, the collective identity is at stake – employees just work harder. Having clear rival companies as opponents is very beneficial the clearer target and comparison tends to concentrate and intensify employee effort.

What helps a company maximize the effort and motivation of its employees? What are some common mistakes? Knowing the science behind these can help anyone understand how they compete best and give them the competitive edge they’re looking for. Part of it is biological, much of it is mental, and some of it is a response to the immediate conditions of the competition you’re in.

NurtureShock by Po Bronson