In this poster you’ll see three sprinters.  One of the three is winning the race – breaking through the tape while the middle one is looking over his shoulder to see how far ahead of the competitor he might be.  He’s making a classic mistake.

Every time a runner turns his/her head to gauge the competition, s/he loses speed and focus.  Leaders have learned this oftentimes through tough experiences.

In golf Tiger Woods speaks of it in this way.  He is always competing against the course rather than against other golfers.  He can finish a course and feel great even when losing as long as he was able to score his best score against that course.

When a leader begins to look around himself/herself, s/he can either become discouraged because s/he’s not as far along as another leader or become self-complacent because s/he’s ahead of the other leaders s/he sees.  Neither is a position for maintaining strength and focus as a leader.

See the poster Don’t Be A Pack Rat for a humorous metaphor from nature elaborating on this phenomena.

Categories: Competitive Style, Goal Orientation

Tags: competetive