What career choice is more "collaborative" then "competitive"?
I do love the content on "enlightened collaborator" mindset on TPM. I do believe that there are too much competition, many of them win-lose, in our life.
For example, almost all company not only encourage, but also enforce competition among peers. I must compete with my peers for projects, resources, and bonuses as the total amount is limited. I must also compete with the job applicants who deadly want to take over my place. Sometimes I must also compete with the supervisor.
Competition is exhausting and mind-hurting. To keep up with the competition, people frequently back-stab their friends. Of course, almost everyone, including the supervisors, pretend to embrace the "collaborator mindset"; that is, everyone seems super nice, super friendly, and super cooperative on surface. You will never know what do they truly do in dark. Even if collaborating on the same project, I sometimes still need to be super alerted and vigilant about potential back-stabbing behaviors from collaborators.
I can confidently confirm that most big companies go like this. So here is my question. What is the career, place, organization, or industry that collaboration actually triumph overall?
As a naïve example, back to my student age, some universities curve the grade, which makes the environment deadly competitive. Other school does not curve grade, making the overall environment far more "collaborative".
It's not naive, it's a matter of culture.
Jocko Willink says: "All organization problems are leadership problems"
If the leaders are narcisstic manipulators then they will influence people in this direction. A hospital I worked in there were 4 head physicians, sharing the leadership. They brought a new one to replace one of them and he was such a person. I spoke with a nurse who worked there 10 years ago. And she said that all the head physicians are now much more egotistic due to his influence. She could not recognize one of them who was a friend at some point and now does not even say hello or pretend not to see her.
If the leader is benevolent, then there is room for collaboration. My current rotation the leader is a "good father figure". He trusts us, listen to us, cares about us, uplift us. We are 2 resident physicians. I don't feel competition with my peer and trusts him. I want to learn and collaborate with him. I feel at ease. Such is the atmosphere the leader create.
There will always be competition because (high quality) resources are limited. However, toxic environments are hyper-competitive due to mindset problems. They don't know how to create abundance (enlarging the pie) and trust.
So competition is normal, as is collaboration. It's HOW you go about it that matters. If I'm in competition with my peer, how do I prove myself? By studying more of by badmouthing him.
That is the difference. Positive competition leads to emulation. There will always be pressure, it's normal. It's the shame, guilt and lies that do not have to be part of a work environment.
Work is about collaboration. Collaboration is about relationships. Relationships are comprised of individuals. So it all starts with the quality of the individuals at your work.
I think the industry does not matter. There are asshole doctors, nurses, teachers and there are are awesome stock traders, etc.
People are people. I thought public vs private would be different and there could be a slight advantage towards the public sector, but still. It's about how do you think about work? Are you there to give or to get? To contribute or go higher?
Most people are really selfish, so it's the baseline. (See my recent post)
The only solution is to become a higher quality person and find a high quality envrionment. About the career, do what you love, this will be your life.