There is nothing wrong with being competitive.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to win.  It’s how you go about it that makes competition healthy or not.

Healthy competition focuses on improving yourself and as Bill Walsh said, “Letting the score take care of itself.” Unhealthy competition focuses only on defeating others, and looks for methods to accomplish just that.

Healthy competition provides for positive outcomes beyond the short term success of winning any one game or medal in sports; and any one client or contract in business.

Here are the three different ways that healthy competition improves your chances for long term success:

Healthy competition improves your individual performance.

The physical evidence of healthy competition is the medal, trophy, certificate, or bonus.  While most people won’t turn away these outward rewards for their efforts, the true competitor is competing with themselves for their personal satisfaction.

“Competition in its best form is a test of self.  It has nothing to do with medals.  The winner is the person who gets the most out of themselves.” – Al Oerter, Olympic gold medal champion discus thrower.

When you compete against yourself, your reward comes at the end of each day that you did the best you could, and improved your performance.

“The principle is competing against yourself.  It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” – Steve Young, San Francisco 49ers quarterback

Healthy competition improves your team and your industry.

Coke and Pepsi, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, McDonalds and Burger King, Michigan and Ohio State, Microsoft and Apple.  What do these pairs have in common?  They are all great rivals who spur each other to improve.

Each one follows the creative output from the other and seeks to match and surpass their success.  Whether it is an innovative product or a new play, each team and industry is better off for surpassing what is thought of as success today.

Bill Gates acknowledged this healthy competition when he said, “Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competition and it keeps us on our toes.”

Healthy competition forces your team to focus on continuous improvement of basic common activities. This has been true since the invention of the automobile.

 “Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.” – Henry Ford

Healthy competition improves your relationships.

Great competitors share a sense of respect for other great competitors; an admiration for their abilities that brings a common bond of friendship.

Here is an example of a healthy competition between two long time friends:

Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, faced each other for the eighth time in the 2013 NCAA college basketball tournament, this time in the Sweet 16.  They first met in 1994 when Duke beat Michigan State in the second round.

Each of these winning head coaches respects the abilities of the other and their team.  In the 2013 press conference Izzo said, “There’s no question that if you look at the NCAA Tournament and what’s been done. Nobody’s Duke because Duke is Duke.”  And what does Krzyzewski think about Izzo? “He’s a coach’s coach. He’s a guy’s guy. With all the success, he’s a humble guy…There’s not a thing I don’t like about Tom, and he’s become a good friend over the years.”

Their mutual respect and friendship in no way lessons their healthy competition. Izzo discussed their upcoming game and said, “He appreciates that we’re going to compete, and they’re going to compete…It’s going to be war.”

Jesse Owens, the famous track and field Gold Medal winner summed this up well when he said,

“Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition.  Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.”