How to Create an Environment of Collaboration, Not Competition, within Your Organization

The following is adapted from The Leadership PIN Code.

A well-known exercise I learned at Harvard’s negotiation program demonstrates the tendency for people to go into competitive rather than collaborative mindsets while co-working with others. In this simple exercise, participants sit arm-to-arm (as they would in arm wrestling). 

The instructions are simple: both people have one minute to move their arms to and fro, and a point is awarded each time your arm brings the other’s down onto the table. Your personal goal is to get as many points as possible. The points gained by the other person do not affect your score.

When the clock starts, invariably people start to “wrestle,” trying to resist the attempts of the other person to score points. But nowhere in the instructions does it say that you have to get your points at the expense of the other person or that you have to get more points than they do. In fact, the winning teams agree up front to jointly move their arms in unison to and fro as fast as possible, thereby giving both the same high score. It’s a win-win situation. 

This one-minute exercise often surprises people because they believe they’re great at collaboration, but then they go straight to the biggest mistake most leaders make. The competitive mindset runs deep.

In order for an organization to have a truly collaborative environment—full of team members who work well together, trust each other, and come up with creative ideas—constant competition has to subside. Here’s what you can do to ensure that your organization is a thriving, collaborative place. 

Establish Trust

Collaborative team members and leaders focus on what they have in common with others early on. Starting the relationship in a positive, cooperative manner sets the tone for the experience over the life of the project. Although each party is a partner in the project, one tends to be the natural or appointed lead, while all parties work toward a common goal or win-win solution.

Effective leaders establish trust quickly through reciprocal exchange of personal interests. The shared information doesn’t have to be private, but it is often personal. They are open about themselves and interested in others as well. Their body language is inclusive and focused on commonalities.

Emotional openness and a foundation of trust creates an environment where people see each other as teammates rather than rivals. They understand, as with the Harvard exercise, that working together can produce better results than single-mindedly focusing on their own interests. 

Demonstrate Empathy

Collaborative teams use empathy, not sympathy, to try to understand the other’s perspective. As a leader, being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to establish their motivation and or see their point of view builds trust. In turn, that allows you to explore together opportunities for influence and mutual benefit. 

You expect doctors, for example, to have empathy; they don’t need to have a broken leg to understand that you’re in pain and need a certain treatment course. Psychologists empathize all the time. They may not have had the same losses or traumas as their clients, but they know enough about how the loss affects people that they can empathise and help patients find a positive way forward. Influential people demonstrate empathy through active listening.

Leaders spend a good part of their time closing the gap between two opposing opinions. In everyday communications, you might want someone to understand your perspective and see your point of view. Collaboration is about closing the gap between you and your position and the other person and his position. 

Consider the tipping points of your audience. Are there points that might lead to resistance or cause irritation? Your behavior can neutralize or escalate the situation. Thinking about how you’ll respond ahead of time goes a long way towards creating a win-win outcome.

Remain Curious

Under pressure, pushback, resistance or conflict, collaborative leaders stay in curious mode, searching for information to help them understand the other person’s perspective. They use this data to then offer a different perspective based on evidence and facts. That curiosity may actually lead to a shared understanding and agreement that was not obvious at the start. 

An engaged leader is curious in everyday interactions, asking the other party questions to establish their interest. Armed with answers, he can then start to challenge facts. Simply put, strong leaders seek data to elicit whether their assumptions and opinions are correct. That curiosity is compelling for other team members, who will adopt a similar mindset.

Collaborative environments are those where curiosity flourishes. They are places where people feel welcome to ask questions and where leaders seek others’ opinions instead of dogmatically issuing orders. Competition arises when some voices are privileged over others and where authority rests in a title rather than in the back-and-forth of a good conversation. 

Use Negotiation, Not Coercion

As leaders climb the ladder of authority and mandate, entitled leaders often assume their title and power alone will lead to them getting what they need when they need it. 

The biggest and most common leadership mistake is the idea that “It’s all about me and my agenda that you’re here to serve.” It may come at the cost of a collaborative mindset and be indicative of a competitive one, such as “In order for me to be successful, I have to gain something to win, and so you have to give up something to help me get my job done. I am your leader after all.”

If you can’t simply mandate someone to do what you need them to do, you have to influence and persuade them in such a way that they will go the extra mile to support your agenda. You will need to create the persuasive argument that makes them want to support your needs and priorities. Good leaders understand that negotiating is at the heart of maintaining positive, collaborative relationships and getting things done. 

Ditch the Competitive Mindset

One of the most common errors that leaders make is focusing on their own gains at the cost of another’s needs. Sometimes that’s the case in client negotiations, where leaders try to eke out the best deal and avoid compromise. Sometimes it’s the case in employee-boss relationships, where power takes the place of persuasion and empathy. 

Regardless of the context, no mindset is more pernicious to a collaborative environment. When people in your organization are constantly pitted against each other, it limits a company’s ability to innovate and flourish. 

In order to thrive, it’s important to ditch the all-too-common competitive mindset. It’s difficult, I know, because it runs deep. In the end, though, care, persuasion, and negotiation will get you (and your organization) much further than one-upmanship. 

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For more advice on collaboration, you can find The Leadership PIN Code on Amazon.

Dr. Nashater Deu Solheim brings a new toolkit to leadership development that is backed by decades of integrated experience in the areas of business and psychology. As a former forensic psychologist with clinical research in the neuropsychology of criminal minds, she developed a deep interest in effective learning strategies for lasting success. Now, as an expert negotiator who studied at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Dr. Solheim has combined her experience as an executive leader in international private companies and government ministries to present The Leadership PIN Code, the definitive guide for helping business leaders secure influence and impactful results.