Black Friday is widely regarded as the most competitive day for American retailers, and for consumers standing in line to take advantage of rock-bottom prices, the general consensus is that all of this competition is great for their wallets. In the same way, your business can benefit from a healthy dose of friendly competition.

Except, instead of directing all of your competitive energy towards your Connecticut competition, it might be worth your while to encourage your staff to compete with each other. In a similar fashion to teachers awarding gold starts to students so that they will desire to compete with each other, so too will fostering healthy competition in the workplace inspire your staff to try their very best at their job by working to outdo each other. All the while, you’re benefiting from the competition with increased sales--something much more meaningful than gold stars.

However, encouraging competition amongst your staff is a delicate task; too much competition leads to backstabbing and disharmony, while too little of the competitive spirit leads to minimal production and drive. Here are some tips on how to foster healthy competition in your business for the sake of seeing healthy profit margins.

Lead the Charge!
One way to ensure that your team will accept the challenge to compete with each other is if you the business owner lay down the gauntlet. Your workers are much more apt to invest themselves in a competition if they see that their boss is personally invested in it too.

Or Not!
If firing up your team with passionate Braveheart speeches isn’t your thing, then healthy competition can be fostered for your employees, by your employees. You can give your team a voice by asking them about what kind of rewards motivate them (extra vacation time, bonuses, paid meals), and then offer them the rewards they crave through competition as a way to boost performance.

A Competitive Company Culture is the Goal
Whether you’re taking the lead and implementing competitions that meet your goals, or you're simply stoking the competitive spark in your team by giving them what they ask for, the goal is for competition to become ingrained in your company culture. Once your staff has tasted of the glory of victory, they will want more of it. If the competitive spirit thrives within the walls of your office, then you will have developed an organization of competitors, and all of this competitive spirit will surely spill over and smash your external competition.

Before you know it, your company will see Black Friday-like success and you’ll have customers lined up on holidays just to get a taste of what you’re selling. Okay, perhaps this isn’t the kind of competitive success that you’re going for (unless you’re in retail), after all, who wants to skip a holiday meal with their family?

Whatever success looks like for your business, it can be enhanced with proper implementation of some healthy competition amongst your staff. What are some more ways that competition can be encouraged in the workplace? Be the first to let us know in the comments!