The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

409: Being competitive the right way (Strategy Skills classics)

Dec 27, 2023

The podcast discusses the competitive nature of associates and business analysts in the workplace. It emphasizes finding a balance between working hard and not being excessively competitive. It highlights the inefficiency of obsessing over long hours and competition, and suggests focusing on diligent and caring work. The negative impact of working long hours is explored, encouraging a focus on quality work within regular working hours.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Navigating Competition and Work Ethic in the Workplace

02:29 • 2min

The Pitfalls of Competitive Work Culture

04:49 • 4min

Working Long Hours vs. Producing Great Work

09:05 • 5min

For this episode, let's revisit the 42nd podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study.

What I noticed on this, and other studies is that the associates and business analysts are very competitive, in a way that is damaging to clients, to the firm and to their own careers.

I am fine with consultants being competitive but I think they go about it the wrong way. You can be competitive and work long hours but you should not seem to be competitive when you are working long hours.

I am not saying don't work long hours. Yet, don't make it sound like you are competitive and that is why you are working long hours. Cause and effect matters. If you work hard to be competitive, people see you as someone who is working hard only because you want to get promoted and only because you want to stand out from everyone else.

These consultants tend to be so obsessed with telling people how committed they are that they are moving away from the objective of getting the right work done.

No one likes someone who is competitive for the sake of being competitive. Because this is just wasted energy. If you are being competitive for the sake of being competitive, versus focusing on the client and working hard to solve a problem resulting in the by-product of you being competitive, you are basically just wasting valuable time that you could use much more productively.

If people just think you are competing with them they don't want to help you, they don't want to work with you.

Yet, if they see you as someone who is like them but for whatever reason needs to work harder because the client needs it they tend to like you more. They tend to relate to you better. And that dynamic becomes good for your career.

In this podcast, we discuss in detail how to go about being competitive on consulting projects while projecting the proper image and maintaining the right mindset to deliver the best value for the client and the firm.

Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study.

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