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Seconds are all we have in order to gain someone's attention!
That being the case, it is hard to provide value to people if they don't know what the value is right away.
If you are a recent graduate, new to the workforce, or just generally curious about us “new employees”; continue reading. I will talk about how to improve your transition into your career by knowing the difference between cooperation and competition.
While people are competitive by nature, two aspects of a healthy work life balance between cooperation and competition are important to consider. Competition is a big driver for individuals especially for new hires. The downfall to this concept being a driver behind some employees is that their confidence typically depends on their immediate success in their given field. Based on this factor, young employees can start to lose satisfaction in their career and only depend on the feeling they receive when they immediately reach their goal. If this path is followed; motivational issues will continue to rise and the aspect of “crushing” their goals won't be a driver. If we continue to depend on the aspect of immediate satisfaction individuals will most likely resort to taking shortcuts in order to achieve their desired results.
Cooperation on the other hand helps build confidence and teaches individuals how to communicate and how having a sense of camaraderie can help advance an individual in terms of success. I enjoy having a team aspect as apart of a career because you are surrounded by individuals who have a common goal. Cooperation is something that can be learned at all levels no matter where you are in your career. I think that ability to adapt early is key because the concept of letting competition drive you will not help young professionals advance in their career.
Competition and cooperation are not mutually exclusive alternatives that business professionals need to choose between. It is most likely that someone who is only cooperative is not able to cope with a competitive work environment.
On the other side of the coin a professional who is focused only on competitiveness and does whatever it takes to win, cannot fully concentrate on their performance and will be too obsessed by the idea of winning in order to reach their full potential.
The term cooperative competitiveness is used to describe a training environment where both cooperation and competition are focused on. The best way to make this work is to maintain a balance between the two by focusing on mastering cooperation during the early stages of your career then slowly integrating competition in order to build skills and focus on the quality of work rather than winning. Once that individual develops a necessary range of skills, self-competence, and an understanding of the workplace, then competition can be introduced. Importantly, at a higher professional level one or the other should take primary focus during different work periods.
Competition and cooperation are two very different concepts. These concepts can be used alone and show some success in the career they are working towards. In my opinion, the best way to utilize these option will be to use them both. By using them both we as new business professionals will be able to achieve more and reach our team goals.
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