Too Much Competition Between Your Employees Could Kill Your Business. Here's How to Stop It

Leaders want to foster a healthy competitive spirit on their team. However, it's important for that competitiveness not to get turned inward.

For many years, I led a culture orientation for new employees at our company. In addition to providing an overview of our company's vision, mission and core values, I also addressed how we live and act on those principles within our organization. At the end, I always asked the new employees to share how they feel about their first few weeks at Acceleration Partners (AP) and to tell me how our company differs from other places they have worked.

Once, a new employee remarked that everyone at AP was surprisingly helpful. He said our team's willingness to share knowledge reflected a mentality that was quite different from what he was used to at his previous place of employment. If you knew something there, he said, you kept it to yourself "as a competitive advantage."

I found that stunning. What this employee was describing was an organization actually fighting itself from within—essentially experiencing "friendly fire."

How does that happen? My view is that it all comes down to leadership.