241: How Healthy Competition Can Actually Be Good For Business

Hi there. You’re listening to the Leading Lady podcast. I’m your host, AliceAnne Loftus, and I’m a certified professional coach specializing in leadership and work-life balance. I work with clients to shift their limiting beliefs, insecurities, and self-doubt. This podcast will be filled with tools and strategies to help high-achieving women like you feel connected, empowered, and in the lead of your life, both personally and professionally. Let’s transform your life starting now. Lead yourself, the rest will follow.

Hi there, leading ladies, and welcome to today’s episode.

I’m gonna be sharing with you what I believe are the main benefits of healthy competition. I know I am not usually someone that talks about competition, and I know that I literally just released my second book about community over competition, but that doesn’t mean all competition is bad. That’s why in today’s episode, I want to share with you how healthy competition can actually be very beneficial in your business.

What Is Healthy Competition?

So first of all, what is healthy competition? Healthy competition is that there are going to be other businesses out there that do the same thing that you do and offer the same services that you offer. That is inevitable. We cannot avoid it. We can’t get mad every time somebody else is doing what we’re doing. That’s just not how the world works.

I mean, for every Target, there’s a Walmart. For every Dunkin’ Donuts, there’s a Starbucks. There’s always going to be somebody doing something similar, if not exactly what you’re doing. And that is just part of life. It’s healthy. I hope that there’s lots of people doing very similar things, because it gives consumers options and choices and just the ability to choose what they best align with.

So I wanna share with you what I believe are three main benefits of that healthy competition, that inevitable competition, and how to have a healthy mindset around competition.

1. Healthy Competition Encourages Innovation and Improvement

Number one, healthy competition encourages innovation and improvement. So when you can look at another business with a healthy mindset, it can push you to find new creative solutions and continuously improve your own offerings. If I was the only shoemaker in the world, I would never be able to see what other shoemakers are doing. Are they refining it? “Oh, look, they’ve added a heel that’s a quarter inch thicker,” or whatever.

It’s not about stealing ideas, but it’s about seeing things from different perspectives. Are other people doing things better, more efficient, unique to them? Are they putting their own spin on it? And the goal with that is to not copy them, but to be innovative and be thinking about what’s your unique spin that you can put on it. What differentiates you from what everyone else is doing?

I think it unlocks this creative part of your brain to keep looking at things and asking yourself, “Can I make this different from what other people are doing?” obviously, but also, “Can I take what I’m already doing and can I make it better?” And that’s what healthy competition does. It kind of forces us to be creative, stretch ourselves, and hold a standard of how we can always do better.

Fostering an Environment of Growth

It also fosters an environment of growth because of healthy competition. I’m so guilty of this. I always say the only competition I have is who I was yesterday. Yes, and I want to make sure I’m not falling behind in trends. I’m constantly looking up what new things are happening in the coaching industry, or what new things are happening even in the child care industry or in early childhood education, because if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

So when you’re motivated to exceed customer expectations, you’re going to enhance your skills. When you are motivated to improve yourself, your customers are going to experience those added benefits as well. So I believe healthy competition encourages innovation and improvement, and it also fosters an environment of growth.

2. Healthy Competition Drives Motivation and Focus

Second, I think that it drives motivation and focus. When you are in a healthy competition with others, it inspires you to set higher goals and work hard to achieve them. It’s just a natural part of being human, of being a high-achieving human, being a high-achieving woman. Being able to look at something and be inspired to be better and work harder, I believe, is healthy.

I also think that it helps keep us focused on our own objectives, and it helps us develop resilience, because we’re not always going to be the best. We’re not always going to hit the mark. But when we can stay focused on our objectives of who we want to be and how we want to show up and how we want to perform, that helps us recalibrate and get back up when we do miss the mark. And when we, I hate to use the word fail, but when we don’t do our best, it just allows us to kind of recalibrate so that we can get back up.

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3. Healthy Competition Provides Opportunities for Collaboration and Learning

And then finally, number three, it provides opportunities for collaboration and learning. I love healthy competition. I love seeing what other people are doing, and I love talking to them and learning from them and sharing what I know. When we observe our competitors, it reveals valuable insights into our industry trends and what our customers need. When we talk about that, when we talk about strategies that work, we’re helping to make the industry as a whole better.

I’ve participated in this directors and owners network group for early childhood providers. I’ve been part of this network, gosh, 20 years, as long as I’ve been in business. And we’re constantly sharing what we’re doing, what are the needs that families are experiencing now, what’s working, what’s not working. That is healthy.

We’re not coming at it from a place of, “Oh, I’m trying to take all your business. I’m going to steal your customers. If you’re charging X number of dollars a week, I’m going to charge $5 less than you so that I can take all your business.” No, it’s never come from that place of malice. But it has come from, “Okay, what are other people in my industry doing, and how can I align myself with that to make sure that I’m within the range of what the industry trends are, what families are typically needing?” If something’s not working for me, maybe I could try that. Or if something is working really well for me, can I share that with others to help make that easier in their business?

There’s Plenty for Everyone

So I love that collaboration and that learning from each other. But healthy competition also often leads to partnerships and mutual growth, because businesses can collaborate to expand our markets and to share our resources. I think that there’s plenty for everyone, and we have to not operate from a scarcity mindset.

We have to recognize that when our business is doing better, and we share that with another business to help their business do better, then our community as a whole can do better. And I think that it’s really important to recognize that and see our competition as collaborators as well.

Community Over Competition Still Has Room for Competition

And so, I know it sounds totally crazy. I’ve always said community over competition, connection over competition. That doesn’t mean that I’m trying to cancel out all competition or that I don’t believe it’s there. I do believe in competition. I do believe that it’s necessary. I do believe that it’s inevitable. I do believe that it’s just part of life, and that there are a lot of positive ways to apply that competitive edge to our businesses in healthy ways that can really benefit everyone involved.

Again, you don’t come at it from a place of mean-spiritedness or malice. But if you come at it as, “We are in the same industry, we’re doing similar, if not exactly the same things. How can we keep up with trends? How can we hold each other to a standard? How can we be innovative for ourselves, but also share ways to help each other be more efficient or more effective in our businesses?” Really, we all win. We all win.

Competition is healthy. It’s healthy. That’s why we have team sports. It’s not the only reason why we have team sports, but there is a drive that people have from seeking achievement, from seeking standards, and wanting to advance. And so I believe it’s healthy. I don’t think we talk about healthy competition enough.

And I know that this is a really short episode, but I wanted to just share that with all of this talk, especially as my second book just dropped, We Lead, which is all about connection and collaboration, healthy competition is definitely part of that.

So I would love to get your thoughts and your insights on fostering healthy competition in business. And I do read and respond to every email, so I’m hoping that you’ll give me kind of your take on it, and let’s have a discussion about it. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, how healthy competition has made you better in your business or personal life, and how we can really adopt this mindset of looking at competition in the positive ways that it really can help us in our business.

So until next time, take the lead.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Leading Lady podcast. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at www.leadinglady-coaching.com. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow the show on social media so you don’t miss any future episodes. And while you’re there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. This will allow me to be able to help other high-achieving women find inspiration, connection, and develop strategies to live and lead with purpose and intention. See you here next week.