In today’s New Zealand, children are taught that competing is important and not the result.
Even the education system is trying to eliminate “failure”. It is a wonder how our children will compete when they reach adulthood and have to compete in the real world.
I have experienced a different mindset though as I coach a boys sports team both at national and international level. My experience is that those who don’t have a competitive spirit will not be selected for the team and will not achieve their highest ambitions. The guys who make the team are goal focused and want to know what the score is all the time. This “score” is knowledge about their abilities and that of the team.
Personally, I believe that competition is unavoidable and that we have come a long way since Adam and Eve because of competition. Where we used to compete for food we now compete on the sports field and in our businesses. We are striving to perform at ever higher levels to improve our situation. If we try to avoid competition we become complacent and mediocre. This picture, in my opinion, is somewhat true in New Zealand.
Now you say, “hold on Tibor”, my business is doing ok!
Well is it? Do you measure you business performance? Do you use indicators that measure revenue levels, profit, cash flow, return on investment and your marketing endeavours? These measurements will indicate whether the business is performing or not.
Like the boys in my sports team they are intersted in their overall growth but they are also very interested in the performance of the team as a whole. It is here that I ask the question: “why do business owners not share the performance of their business with their staff?” The answer many times is that it is “private information”.
I would like to contend that if you share the performance of the business with staff they will ultimately perform better. They will understand what it takes for a business to generate income and ultimately profits from which to pay their salaries and invest in future growth.
Ah!, I hear you say that this “information can be used against me”. Although there is a small possibility of that, I feel that if you wish to attract and retain good staff you need every opportunity to motivate and involve them in the business. You could find that you may ignite some competition between staff members to perform better than their peers. This should ultimately lead to a more profitable and productive business.
So go on, share the performance results of your business and see it grow.
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