Why Bash the Competition?
Friday, September 24th, 2010One of the many things I have yet to understand about the different personalities/perceptions people have is why some feel the need to continuously bash the competition. What good comes from doing this? Who does it serve? They’re under some apparent impression that if they speak poorly about their competitors, it makes them appear confident. Ironically, it conveys the exact opposite message.
Take political advertisements for example; “I’m _____ _____ and I approved this message.”-Great. Good for you! Although I’m not too sure I’d be putting my name out there for the entire world to see/hear how I just slandered the #$%^ out of my competitor (who is still in business, mind you.) Competition is healthy and required. Without competition, there’s no motivation for improvement.
Let’s move to a more professional environment like the corporate worldJ. How often is it we hear from others or waste a lot of our own precious time (something we, in America, claim to never have enough of) gossiping, assuming, accusing, speculating or fabricating a story to be much more of “what we’d like it to be” (because the real facts are just plain boring) about what the competition did, didn’t do, is going to do but doesn’t even know it yet themselves?
Then there’s reality TV……Last evening, I watched the season finale of Master Chef (Gordon Ramsey’s series) and decided this topic would be a blog many would relate to. I didn’t say everyone would “like” it. The objective of the show is to find and be the first Master Chef. The winner receives a $250k check, a Master Chef book deal and presumably, no longer needs to be concerned with returning to their previous employer.
Throughout each episode someone would be eliminated at the end, depending upon how the judges rated their cooking abilities based off of presentation, taste and creativity. As the weeks progressed and the number of competitors dwindled, the show spent more time doing the quick minute interviews with those still remaining. I quickly noticed a pattern forming with a few contestants. It was as if their focus shifted from concentrating on creating the best tasting, most eloquent looking entrée, to being more concerned about how the guy/girl next to them can’t do this, does too much of that, cooks too fast. Of course, none of this mattered anyway and only further validated that they would be the first Master Chef. NEWS FLASH–there would only be 1 winner and ironically, the winner was someone who focused less on her competitors and more on her own strengths and skill-sets.
Speaking highly of your competition communicates a genuine confidence about you….. and confidence breeds confidence.
