Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five to eighty six. Let's talk about something
Speaker 2: every leader runs into sooner or later, workplace rivalry. I'm
Speaker 2: not talking about healthy competition that pushes people to sharpen
Speaker 2: their skills. I'm talking about the quiet tention, the scorekeeping,
Speaker 2: the side comments, the unspoken contests that slowly drain energy
Speaker 2: from a team. Rivalry shows up when people feel threatened, overlooked,
Speaker 2: or uncertain about where they stand. It shows up when
Speaker 2: leaders avoid hard conversations and let small frictions turn into
Speaker 2: personal battles. And if you do nothing, rivalry never burns
Speaker 2: itself out. It either explodes or it hardens into resentment.
Speaker 2: Here's another uncomfortable truth. Rivalry is rarely the real problem.
Speaker 2: Leadership avoidance is when leaders fail to set clear standards,
Speaker 2: clear roles, and clear expectations. People fill in the gaps
Speaker 2: with ego and insecurity. They start competing for attention instead
Speaker 2: of results. They compete for influence, instead of impact, and
Speaker 2: once that pattern takes hold, respect starts to erode. So
Speaker 2: how do you turn rivalry into respect without crushing ambition
Speaker 2: or creativity. First, you stop pretending rivalry is invisible. If
Speaker 2: you see tension between two high performers and ignore it,
Speaker 2: you're sending a message, and that message is that results
Speaker 2: matter more than behavior. And once that message is out there,
Speaker 2: you lose control of your culture. Respect starts with naming reality.
Speaker 2: That does not mean calling people out publicly. It means
Speaker 2: having direct, private conversations where you acknowledge what you're seeing
Speaker 2: and explain why it matters. You say things like I
Speaker 2: see competition turning personal and that puts the team at risk.
Speaker 2: Or I see energy being spent sideways instead of forward,
Speaker 2: and that's not acceptable. Here, clarity calms conflict, silence feeds it. Second,
Speaker 2: you redefine what winning actually looks like. Rivalry thrives when
Speaker 2: success is vague. When people don't know what good looks like,
Speaker 2: they create their own scoreboard. Usually that scoreboard measures visibility, credit,
Speaker 2: or proximity to leadership. Great leaders make the win obvious.
Speaker 2: They define success in terms of outcomes, standards, and shared goals.
Speaker 2: They tie recognition to contribution, not personality. They make it
Speaker 2: clear that collaboration is not optional, it is part of
Speaker 2: the job. And when people know how they are evaluated
Speaker 2: and why, they stop trying to outshine each other and
Speaker 2: start trying to outperform yesterday. Third, you force respect through structure,
Speaker 2: not speeches. Respect is not built by motivational talks. It
Speaker 2: is built by how work actually gets done. You pair
Speaker 2: rivals on projects that require interdependence. You rotate ownership so
Speaker 2: no one controls the spotlight permanently. You design processes that
Speaker 2: reward follow through in reliability, not theatrics. When people are
Speaker 2: required to rely on each other to succeed, respect has
Speaker 2: a chance to grow. When they only interact during moments
Speaker 2: of friction. Rivalry deepens. Structure shapes behavior, behavior shapes culture. Fourth,
Speaker 2: you hold the line on professionalism every single time. And
Speaker 2: here's where many leaders stumble. They excuse bad behavior from
Speaker 2: top performers because they're afraid to lose them. That fear
Speaker 2: is expensive. The moment you tolerate eye rolling, undermining comments,
Speaker 2: or passive aggressive moves, you tell the rest of the
Speaker 2: team that respect is optional. High performers watch this closely,
Speaker 2: so do average performers, and so do future leaders. Professionalism
Speaker 2: is not about being polite, It's about being reliable, direct,
Speaker 2: and accountable. When you enforce those standards consistently, rivalry loses oxygen.
Speaker 2: People can compete hard and still respect the rules. They
Speaker 2: can disagree without being disrespectful, but only if the leader
Speaker 2: makes that non negotiable. Fifth, you model respect when it's inconvenient.
Speaker 2: Your team watches how you talk about people who are
Speaker 2: not in the room. They watch how you handle disagreement.
Speaker 2: They watch how you give credit and how you assign blame.
Speaker 2: If you play favorites, people compete for favor If you
Speaker 2: vent upward or sideways, people mirror that. If you stay steady, fair,
Speaker 2: and consistent, respect becomes the norm. Leadership credibility is built
Speaker 2: in small moments, not big announcement. Now here's the part
Speaker 2: most leaders miss. Sometimes rivalry is a signal, not a flaw.
Speaker 2: It can mean you have talented people who care deeply
Speaker 2: about their work. It can mean ambition is alive. Your
Speaker 2: job is not to eliminate that energy. Your job is
Speaker 2: to aim it. When rivalry is guided by clear expectations,
Speaker 2: strong standards, and mutual accountability, it can turn into mutual respect.
Speaker 2: People push each other to be better without tearing each
Speaker 2: other down. They compete with the work, not with the person.
Speaker 2: That is where teams get dangerous in a good way.
Speaker 2: So if you are dealing with rivalry right now, do
Speaker 2: not panic and do not ignore it. Make sure that
Speaker 2: you just step into it with clarity. Define the win
Speaker 2: for everybody. Build structure that forces mutual collaboration. Make sure
Speaker 2: you enforce professionalism and model the respect you expect to see.
Speaker 2: Rivalry unmanaged will divide your team. Rivalry lead can sharpen
Speaker 2: it well. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more, Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com