Everyone loves a good competition, and hates a bad one. Better to have not played at all than to have participated in an unfair contest.

But what makes for good competition? Clear goals, an agreed upon field of play, reasonable rules that are documented and fairly enforced, and evenly matched contestants. Good competitions have structural integrity.

How many times have you been part of a work team that lacked structural integrity? There are no clear goals, no common understanding of what is in or out of bounds, no documented rules, or, worse, rules that change in the middle of the game, and no or unfair enforcement of the rules.

Good competitions also have collaboration—working together toward common goals. In team sports, we see collaboration in the magic that happens when the team’s goals are valued over individual accomplishments. This can only happen when players trusts each other’s intentions and skills, and are willing to give their all for their teammates. Good collaborations have behavioral integrity.

How many times have you been part of a work team that is supposed to be collaborative but lacks behavioral integrity? Members may not believe in the goals, or trust each other’s intentions. Required skills of some members may be lacking, so the “stars” are often expected to “carry” the others.

Great leaders, like great coaches, create environments and build teams that have both structural and behavioral integrity. They are responsible for the framework, ensure that required skill sets exist to enable trust, do not change the goals or rules in the middle of the engagement and do not generally enter the field of play.

Excellent leaders may set up some healthy internal competition but not at the expense of collaboration. They don’t undermine the team by pitting people against each other but often frame competition within the team against an external measure of time, performance or quality. At work, it is less, “Can we do better than them?” and more, “Can we do better than we did last time?”

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a supervisor or manager to be an excellent leader. Leadership occurs on all levels. Team members can set up the structural and behavioral integrity required to be a high functioning, collaborative teams..

For more insights about how to be an excellent leader at any level, see my book, Management Culture at mgmtculture.com or on Amazon.