Passion for winning vs. cooperation

- For a lot of companies, having some degree of competitive spirit or passion for winning in the marketplace is critical for success. Of course, most companies also value cooperation and teamwork. And for a lot of people it's hard to be good at both. For example, consider a couple of marketing directors who both worked at the same company, Raj and Lisa. They do similar jobs, but work on different brands. Now, Lisa is a classic Type A personality go-getter. Now, she's very competitive, both inside and outside the company. Now, she loves getting her market share reports every month and celebrating when she's beating the other brands on the market. And she takes it really personally when she loses a couple of market share points. Now, Raj calls himself more of a people person. He's more motivated by seeing his people do well than by looking at his market share report. He loves seeing his team working together and sharing ideas. And when Lisa and Raj had an opportunity to work together on a co-marketing project involving both their brands, their different styles could not have been more apparent. Now, Lisa looked at the whole event as a competition between her team and Raj's team. And more specifically, between her and Raj personally. You know, she made sure her team always looked more prepared in meetings, got most of the airtime talking and that they had the best ideas. She worked longer hours than Raj and made sure her team did, too. And when she had ideas that wouldn't have worked for her brand, but might have for Raj's brand, she just kept them to herself. She figured no sense in helping the competition, right? And she basically took over every time the two teams met. But she drove the group to work hard and made sure they kept their eye on the biggest competitors in the market. You know, every day she asked, "What are we doing smarter "than those other brands?" Well, in the end they finished the project ahead of schedule, and their execution was absolutely top-notch. Now, a few of the team members hated each other and Lisa by the end, but the results were amazing. Raj, on the other hand, focused more on the teamwork. He made sure Lisa's team always felt heard in meetings, just like he did with his own team. He shared even his best ideas with them and made sure his team did also. He always noticed when someone from either team was struggling with something and needed extra coaching or guidance, and he gave it to them. He took time to celebrate even the smallest successes. So much so that it wasn't always clear if he even noticed the failures along the way. Well, the feedback at the end of the project made it clear Raj was the favorite among the staff on both teams. But it was also clear that they rarely got any sense of urgency or competitive spirit from him. You know, as long as everyone was working well together, he didn't seem too concerned about the outcome. So, imagine at the end of the year there's a position open for vice president, and both Raj and Lisa are up for it. You're the president. Which one do you promote, if either, and why? And which one do you give some coaching for not living up to company values? Answer the questions in the Q and A tab and in the exercise files before you move on to the next case.