Your Strengths Have a Dark Side

A competitive spirit is a quality shared by extraordinary leaders. This spirit pushes these leaders to get things done and motivates them to drive individual and team performance. Great leaders like to compete and showcase what they can do. 

Like all great strengths; however, a weakness lurks in the shadows. When a competitive spirit expresses itself as a desire to put down the competition, it goes from a strength to a dysfunction. 

The dark side of a competitive spirit is social jealousy. We need to remember to suppress it. This infliction can run deep. It convinces some leaders that they are somehow diminished by the achievement of others, even on their own team. 

A desire to win doesn’t require us to cheer against others, or feel less satisfaction when we see them cross the finish line ahead of us. Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else. Great leaders are always good people.