As many of you are aware, I live in the Orlando, Florida area. It’s a location that caters to tourism. It is a location that’s filled with one-upmanship.
If The Mouse opens a new attraction, you can be sure that The Wizard will soon be doing the same—only on a bigger, grander scale….and vice versa. (For you “outsiders,” the terms The Mouse and The Wizard are Orlando-ese for Disney and Universal Studios.)
There is of course more one-upmanship in this town than just what happens between those two entities.
If a fast food restaurant on International Drive introduces a novelty like trash cans with lids that open automatically, it’s only a matter of time before its competitor introduces trash cans with lids that open automatically and have neon lights underneath them.
If a hotel starts leaving towels folded to look like swans on its guests’ pillows at night, another hotel will leave towels that are folded to look like elephants and other more exotic creatures.
One-upmanship can be good for business. The healthy competition can lead to innovation and a more diverse marketplace for consumers.
The idea of one-upmanship can be good for teams too—if it’s handled the right way.
When the healthy competition of one-upmanship propels teammates to work harder and contribute more, the boundaries of team success are pushed beyond what they normally would have been.
However, one-upmanship can also destroy a team if the healthy competition stops being healthy and becomes toxic.
It’s not so good if it leads to jealously or resentment.
Part of being a good teammate means walking the fine line between healthy competition and unhealthy competition within your team. And that is done by being happy for your teammates’ success and understanding that their achievement has nothing to do with your achievement.
The race is never with those around you, it’s always with yourself.
Don’t see your teammates as competitors, see them as something that drives you to be a better version of yourself. Let them be the force that compels you to engage in a little one-upmanship with yourself, so that you are trying to top today what you did yesterday.
Anytime a teammate tries to be a better version of himself or herself, his or her team benefits. It’s a way of sharing our self-improvement with our team.
As always, remember: Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
